Cal Players Hoping to Be Taken in Major League Baseball Draft

Will a Cal player be taken in this year's Major League Baseball draft?

Catcher Alex Birge and pitchers Alex Turkington and David Shaw are the most likely Golden Bears players to be selected in this year MLB draft, which takes place Sunday and Monday, July 13 & 14. Players can be drafted either after their final year of high school or after their third year of college.

Since the MLB draft began in 1965, at least one Cal player has been taken in every draft but three – 1968, 2007 and 2020. And the 2020 draft was an anomaly because it included only five rounds as college and high school baseball had been shut down by the pandemic.

Five Golden Bears have been taken in the first round over the past nine MLB drafts, and that includes last year when Cal catcher Caleb Lomavita was selected with the 39th pick of the first round.

No Cal player is expected to go in the first round on Sunday, when the first three rounds will be held. The more likely day for Cal hopefuls is Monday, when rounds four through 20 will be selected.

Birge, Turkington and Shaw are Cal’s best hopes.

Birge was Cal’s everyday catcher in 2025, and he hit .231 with a team-leading 12 home runs and 24 RBIs. He had an attractive .415 on-base percentage and his .997 OPS was second-best among Cal regulars. He has power and good eye at the plate as indicated by his team-high 40 walks. He hit two homers in the Bears’ first-round victory over Miami in the ACC tournament. At Wichita State in 2024, Birge started 23 games and hit .159 with no homers.

Turkington started 11 games for Cal in 2025 and finished with a 4-5 record, a 5.27 ERA and 1.32 WHIP. He threw Cal’s only two complete games of the season, and he recorded a team-high 62 strikeouts against just 19 walks. Turkington’s last start of the season came on April 25 and he did not appear in the Bears’ final 14 games. As a sophomore in 2024, Turkington pitched 30 2/3 innings and finished with a 2-1 record and a 3.52 ERA.

Shaw pitched mostly out of bullpen and finished 2025 with a 1-4 record, a 7.02 ERA and a 1.74 WHIP. He appeared in 20 games, with 14 of those coming in relief, and he struck out 51 batters in 50 innings pitched but also walked 32 batters. As a junior at the University of Texas in 2024, the left-handed Shaw went 1-1 with a 7.79 ERA, and he struck out 23 batters in 17 1/3 innings.

Three other Cal players have a shot at being drafted: pitcher Tucker Bougie (0-1, 8.44 ERA), pitcher Ryan Spalliero (1-0, 5.40 ERA), and outfielder Jack Johnson (.083 batting average, 1 home run).

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