Mizzou baseball makes history in MLB Draft with two players selected before Round 2

Kameron Misner is taking his talents to South Beach.

The Missouri outfielder was taken by the Miami Marlins with the No. 35 overall pick in Monday’s MLB Draft — the first pick of the Competitive Balance Round A following the first round. Misner is Missouri’s second position player taken before the start of round two.

And just three picks after the Marlins took Misner, the New York Yankees took MU pitcher T.J. Sikkema.

The selections made program history for Missouri: The Tigers had never before had two teammates taken so high in the same draft.

Misner was a projected top-30 pick, but analysts said his stock dropped a bit after he hit just .222 in Southeastern Conference play. Generally considered a five-tool player, Misner stole 20 bases this season and hit .286 with 10 home runs.

“It’s very very difficult to know how everyone evaluates players and how they want to add to their current system,” said DJ Svilhik, the Marlins’ director of amateur scouting. “Players like Misner, you never know when they’re going to go. We look at Kam’s abilities and his tools and his athleticism and we saw a guy with second-half-of-the-first-round talent. We weren’t surprised that he was there. These things happen a lot. We were really excited to get him.”

MLB Network analysts said that Misner’s 6-foot-4, 213-pound frame was one of the best builds of any prospect in the draft. The Poplar Bluff, Missouri native missed most of his sophomore season because of fractured bone in his right foot. The injury also cost him a summer playing in the vaunted Cape Cod League.

Despite playing first base for Missouri, Misner could be used in the outfield as a professional, according to MU coach Steve Bieser.

“He was an outfielder before I converted him,” Bieser told The Star. “He’s always been a center field-type guy. He’s very athletic. He’ll be a very good professional. He’s done a great job, but his best baseball is still out there in front of him.”

In Miami, Misner heads to a club in the middle of a massive rebuild led by Yankees legend and Marlins CEO Derek Jeter. Misner also joins former Missouri pitcher Brett Graves in the organization. Graves is currently pitching in Jacksonville, Miami’s Double-A affiliate.

Sikkema had a tremendous year for MU, ranking fourth in the nation with a 1.32 earned-run average and a 7-4 record. A 6-foot left-hander, Sikkema was chosen to Collegiate Baseball’s All-America third team.

He held hitters to a .174 batting average through the season and finished sixth on MU’s career strikeouts list with 258. In the Yankees, he joins one of the most storied organizations in sports. The pinstripes’ selection came from the team trading pitcher Sonny Gray to the Cincinnati Reds in the 2018 season.

This story was originally published June 3, 2019 at 10:24 PM.