CALDWELL, Idaho – College of Idaho right-handed pitcher
Riley O'Brien became the highest Major League Baseball draft pick in program history, as the Tampa Bay Rays selected the senior in the eighth-round on Day 2 of the First-Year Player Draft.
The Shoreline, Wash., native was selected with the 229th overall pick after a stellar senior season in which he helped the Coyotes to the NAIA West Grouping Tournament title and a trip to the NAIA National Championships.
It marks the 12th C of I player to be selected in the MLB Draft – with O'Brien supplanting Donnie Bellum as the highest draft pick in program history. Bellum was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth-round (251st overall pick) of the 1994 draft.
O'Brien transferred to C of I after two seasons at Everett Community College. In 2016, the righty posted a 6-3 record and a 3.23 ERA, primarily as a starter, fanning 60 men.
A year later, O'Brien started out of the Coyote pen and was outstanding – allowing just two earned runs over 11 relief appearances (26 innings) from late February to early April – striking out 36 men. He was inserted into the C of I starting rotation during the postseason, striking out 10 in a semifinal win over British Columbia and tossing eight innings of one-run ball in a victory over Mayville State at the NAIA Championships.
For the season, O'Brien was 3-4 with a 2.15 ERA, walking just 23 and striking out 81 in 67 innings of work.
Once signed, O'Brien is expected to be assigned to one of the Rays Class-A affiliates – the Rookie Level Princeton Rays (Appalachian League), the Short-Season Hudson Valley Renegades (New York-Penn League), the Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (Midwest League) or the Advanced-A Charlotte Stone Crabs (Florida State League).
College of Idaho MLB First-Year Player Draft Picks
1972 Joe Patterson 27th Round Chicago (NL)
1988 Craig Lewis 15th Round Pittsburgh
1990 John Brasse 29th Round Los Angeles (NL)
1992 Jason Butcher 13th Round Los Angeles (NL)
Brian Ewing 32nd Round Minnesota
1994 Don Bellum 9th Round St. Louis
1996 Kurt Alderman 15th Round Montreal
Tim Onofrei 28th Round St. Louis
1997 Jason Simontacchi 21st Round Kansas City
2001 Jason Stefani 33rd Round Los Angeles (NL)
2012 Izaac Garsez 30th Round Chicago (NL)
2017
Riley O'Brien 8th Round Tampa Bay
