In the leadup to Sunday’s MLB Draft, many pundits will note the Holliday family’s deep baseball ties. Matt Holliday played 15 years in the major leagues and made seven All-Star games. His oldest son, Jackson, was drafted first overall three years ago and is now the second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles.
Now, Ethan Holliday is next in line for a baseball dynasty forged under the endless skies of Oklahoma. He is a gifted 6-foot-4 shortstop with tremendous raw power from the left side. He has a chance to go to the Washington Nationals first overall, and if he doesn’t go there, draft experts predict he will go fourth to the Colorado Rockies, the same organization that drafted his father.
Some may mention that the line doesn’t actually start with Matt, Jackson, and Ethan. Tom Holliday — Matt’s father and Jackson’s and Ethan’s grandfather — was a longtime Division I baseball coach, including a seven-year run as the coach at Oklahoma State. His brother, Dave, is a veteran scout for the Philadelphia Phillies. Matt’s brother, Josh, is now the coach at OSU.
There are other families out there who have made baseball their business. The Alous, the Boones, the Griffeys. Thirteen pairs of brothers have been drafted as first-round picks. B.J. Upton went second in 2002, and Justin Upton went first in 2005.
But if Ethan were to go No. 1, it would be the first time in baseball history two brothers have both been 1-1 picks. Only Peyton and Eli Manning have done that in any major American sport.
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Ethan Holliday could go No. 1 in the MLB Draft. It would be a pick 4 generations in the making