Chicago White Sox Draft Arkansas ace Hagen Smith with MLB Draft’s 5th Overall pick

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas ace pitcher Hagen Smith did not have to wait long on Sunday night to hear his name called in the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft at the Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.

Smith, the nation’s top consensus college pitcher this past season, was taken by the Chicago White Sox with the 5th overall pick.

The slot value for that pick is $7,763,700 million, which would be the signing bonus for Smith, who was 24-6 with a 3.60 in his three-year career for the Razorbacks.

Smith (9-2, 2.04 ERA) set an Arkansas single season strikeout record with 161 while also taking over the school’s career mark with 360.

The 6-3, 225-pound left handed had 17 of those strikeouts in six innings and on 78 pitches in the Razorbacks’ 5-4 win over Oregon State in the Kubota College Baseball Series at the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Smith’s 17.25 strikeouts per nine innings broke the Division record of 16.79 set in 2003 by Houston’s Ryan Wagner back.
Smith was invited to attend the draft, but chose to take in the tenth with his family in his hometown of Bullard, Texas.

He tied a Texas high school record with seven no-hitters his season season.

Thea Cleveland Guardians took Australian native and Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana with the first pick of the draft.

He was followed in the draft by pitcher Wake Forest pitcher Chase Burns (Cincinnati), Georgia slugger Charlie Condon (Colorado), Wake Forest first baseman Nick Kurtz (Oakland).

Photo by John D. James