Loretto senior Ryan Weathers was selected seventh overall by the San Diego Padres in Monday’s Major League Baseball draft.
Weathers, the son of former MLB pitcher David Weathers, was named The Tennessean’s 2018 Baseball Player of the Year during the Tennessean Sports Awards on Sunday.
David Weathers, who pitched 18 years in MLB, was picked in the third round 30 years ago out of Motlow State Community College.
Ryan, a Vanderbilt signee, went 11-0 with a 0.09 ERA, with 148 strikeouts and 10 walks in 76 innings pitched this past season for the Mustangs.
He gave up 24 hits all season and surrendered just one earned run for the second straight season.
Weathers must determine if he will turn professional or go to Vanderbilt, where he signed in November. However, it would be difficult to not sign due to the monetary value of being a first-round pick.
MLB estimates the seventh pick is worth $5,226,500. Each pick in the 10 rounds has a slotted value.
Ryan is the first Tennessee high school baseball player selected in the first round since Tullahoma’s Justus Sheffield was picked 31st overall by the Cleveland Indians in 2014.
Weathers, a 6-foot-2 left-handed pitcher, was named the Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year last week, becoming the second Nashville-area athlete to be named Gatorade’s national player of the year. Sheffield received the award in 2014.
Weathers, a two-sport high school star, helped lead Loretto to a Class A boys basketball state title earlier this year. The Mustangs reached the Class A baseball state championship game this season, falling to Columbia Academy in 12 innings.
Weathers pitched nine innings of shut-out ball before being relieved in the title game.
Source: Tennessean
