Arizona has another first-round pick in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft as catcher and first baseman Austin Wells was selected by the New York Yankees with the 28th overall pick on Wednesday. The MLB Draft is a bit different this year as the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to shorten its draft to just five rounds.
Still, Wells showed enough in his 71 games with the Wildcats to garner a first-round pick from the team that drafted him out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas.
The draft-eligible sophomore hit .357 with 99 hits, 85 runs scored, 21 doubles, seven triples, seven home runs and 74 RBIs in his two seasons at UA. The Wildcats only played 15 games in the 2020 season, but Wells jumped out to a hot start and it earned him the Pac-12 Player of the Week award earlier this spring.
Wells is the first UA player to be selected in the first round since Kevin Newman was picked at No. 19 overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2015. He is only the third first-round pick for the program since 2008.
The Las Vegas native, whose parents were both student-athletes at Arizona, made an impact from the time he arrived on campus in Tucson and it eventually led to Wells being named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2019.
Along the way he earned plenty of praise from his teammates and coaches including head coach Jay Johnson who even made some comparisons between Wells and one of his former players Kris Bryant, who has won National League Rookie of the Year and MVP awards during his career.
"Austin is a special player, has all the tools to be an impact Major League player, and has an intense desire to help his team win," Johnson said in a statement provided by the program. "His ability is matched with an elite work ethic and capability to prepare that rivals any player in the country."
Wells was originally selected by the Yankees in the 35th round of the 2018 MLB Draft. He turns 21 next month and that allowed him to enter this year's draft as a sophomore since MLB rules allow prospects who will be 21 years old within 45 days of the draft to declare a year early.
"We are very happy to get Austin Wells today," Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees' vice president of domestic amateur scouting, said in a statement released by the franchise. "We thought he was one of the top hit and power combinations in the Draft. We love his desire and makeup, along with his athleticism. We have known him for years and seen him progress quite a bit behind the plate to allow us to believe he can be an impact guy."
Arizona has now had 27 players selected in the MLB Draft under Johnson and at least one player drafted in each of the last 23 years.
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