Blue Jays draft U.S. high school shortstop JoJo Parker 8th overall

The Toronto Blue Jays selected shortstop JoJo Parker eighth overall in the first round of Major League Baseball's draft on Sunday.

The six-foot-two Parker, 18, attended Purvis High School in Mississippi. He became the highest-ever pick out of Purvis.

He batted .489 with 13 home runs and 35 runs batted in this past season.

The 200-pound athlete also stole 30 bases to lead the Tornadoes (29-8) to the Class 4A state championship game.

Parker, also a right-handed pitcher on the high school level, boasted an 8-2 record with a 2.77 earned-run average and 89 strikeouts in 55.2 innings.

He is currently signed to play college baseball with Mississippi State University next season.

<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlueJays</a> director of amateur scouting Marc Tramuta says that 14 of their scouting staff watched JoJo Parker in-person through this process.<br><br>They reached the consensus Parker was “one of the best, if not the best, hit-power combos with plate discipline in the draft.”

In the third round, the Jays selected Jake Cook of Madison, Miss., with the 81st pick.

The 22-year-old left-hander was recruited as a two-way player by Southern Mississippi. He focused on pitching and reached 96 miles per hour with his fastball, but his inability to throw strikes led to him redshirting in 2023 and working just two innings last year.

Converted to a centre-fielder this spring, he batted .350 with a seven per cent strikeout rate and displayed some of the best speed and outfield range in college baseball.

He can get from home to first in less than 3.8 seconds and turned in the best 30-yard dash (3.51 seconds) of all players who participated in athletic testing at the draft combine.

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