Former Idaho high school star pitcher taken 10th overall in MLB Draft
The Colorado Rockies selected former Rocky Mountain High School standout Gabriel Hughes with the 10th overall pick in the MLB Draft on Sunday night, making him the second-highest pick in state history.
The 6-4, 220-pound right-handed pitcher burst on the national scene in the spring during a dominant sophomore season at Gonzaga, showcasing a fastball of 94-97 mph and a devastating slider.
In his first season as a full-time pitcher, Hughes made four All-American teams and went 8-3 with a 3.21 ERA. He finished ninth in Division I with 138 strikeouts in 98 innings while walking just 37.
“The size, the athleticism, his age, the four-pitch mix — he’s just a well-rounded young man on and off the field,” Marc Gustafson, the Rockies’ senior director of scouting operations, told the team’s website. “But most importantly, on the field, he is a strike-thrower with a mindset to attack hitters. And he took the ball every weekend, every Friday night. We know that the durability is there, and that pitch mix is certainly very exciting.”
The Rockies’ selection came as a bit of surprise as most mock drafts pegged Hughes as a mid- to late first-round pick. But his age, 20, and overpowering stuff vaulted him up the draft.
The 10th overall pick comes with a slot value of $4.98 million, meaning the Rockies could give him a signing bonus of up to $4.98 million without incurring any penalties.
“He kind of looks like the prototypical starter,” Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com said on the MLB Network broadcast. “This year, he went out and was a Friday night starter for a pretty good Gonzaga staff. He’s got the makings of three pitches. He got a little tired at the end, and I think that caused his numbers to back up a little bit. But I do think that this is a rare case where you have a college arm, one, who is healthy, and, two, with some ceiling.”
Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo added Hughes’ ability to stay healthy proved valuable in a draft full of college pitchers with injury histories. He was the second college pitcher, and third pitcher overall, selected Sunday.
“The big thing for me is he really improved his strike throwing this year,” Collazo said on the MLB Network broadcast. “That was impressive. The fastball command got a little bit better. And I think more important than anything was just the fact that he was healthy and posting regularly. There are not a ton of pitchers that we’re going to talk about that have done that.
“He’s also young for the class, so that’s another factor. He checks a lot of boxes.”
The selection makes Hughes the fourth player from Idaho selected in the first round. He follows Caldwell High’s Mike Garman (third overall, 1967), Lewis-Clark State’s Beau Mills (13th overall, 2007) and Madison High’s Clayton Mortensen (36th overall, 2007).
Hughes graduated in 2019 from Renaissance High, which does not have an athletic program, so he played baseball at Rocky Mountain. He was twice named the Idaho Gatorade player of the year as the state’s best player across all classifications. And he helped lead the Grizzlies to a state title as a sophomore and two district championships.
Hughes spent his first two seasons at Gonzaga as a two-way player, pitching and playing first base. But a season-ending hand injury during an at-bat last year convinced him to focus solely on pitching.
The Rockies’ selection means Hughes may not have to travel far for a minor-league assignment. Colorado’s High-A affiliate is in Spokane, home to Gonzaga. The Rockies previously sent players to the Boise Hawks before the Hawks lost their status as an affiliated club in January 2021.
Hughes could not be reached for comment Sunday.
