Omaha, Neb. — Creighton Baseball’s Alan Roden and Dylan Tebrake were selected on the second day of the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft on Monday, July 18th. Roden was taken with the 98th overall pick by the Toronto Blue Jays, while teammate Dylan Tebrake was picked by the New York Mets in the eighth round with the 239th overall selection.
The Co-BIG EAST Player of the Year in 2022, Roden closed the season on a 33-game reached base streak. He led Creighton with a .387 average, 75 hits and 25 doubles. Roden was the second most difficult player to strikeout in the NCAA, going down on strikes just eight times in 2022 (in 194 plate appearances). He finished second on the team with 46 RBI, nine stolen bases and 48 runs scored in 2022. In three seasons (2020 shortened by the Covid-19 Pandemic), Roden appeared in 91 games, starting 89. He posted a .383 career average with 131 hits and 88 runs scored, connecting for 42 doubles, 14 home runs and 94 RBI. Alan was the 2021 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and an All-BIG EAST First Team selection.
Roden is the highest player drafted in the Ed Servais era (2004-present), surpassing the previous high set by Will Robertson in the 2019 MLB Draft. Robertson was also selected by the Toronto Blue Jays, taken with the 117th overall pick in the fourth round. The last time a Creighton player was selected as high as the third round was in 1999 when the Chicago Cubs selected Ryan Gripp. The last time a Creighton player was selected earlier than the third round was in 1993 when the St. Louis Cardinals selected Alan Benes in the first round. The last time a Bluejay was taken in the first 100 selections was in 1994 when Rick Heiserman went 73rd to the Cleveland Indians.
The back-to-back BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year in 2021 and 2022, Tebrake closed the 2022 season with an 2.71 ERA over 93.0 innings. The Bluejay ace went 8-2 with a pair of complete games, posting 115 strikeouts and walking just 33. Tebrake made 17 starts, limiting opponents to a .211 average. A two-time All-BIG EAST First Team selection, Tebrake went 21-5 during four seasons at Creighton. The right-hander collected 230 strikeouts in 222.0 innings during his career, posting an impressive 2.80 ERA. Over his last two seasons Tebrake went 16-2 with 190 strikeouts in 165.2 innings.