{"id":800604,"date":"2026-07-14T04:49:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800604\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T04:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:49:20","slug":"wheatley-resident-becomes-first-cbl-player-drafted-into-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800604\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheatley resident becomes first CBL player drafted into MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Wheatley resident has been drafted into the MLB. <\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours after hearing his name called in the Major League Baseball Draft, Evan Morrison was still trying to process what had happened.<\/p>\n

The Wheatley resident and Chatham-Kent Barnstormers shortstop became the first player ever drafted from the Canadian Baseball League on Sunday when the Texas Rangers selected him in the 10th round, 297th overall.<\/p>\n

After years of chasing the same goal, Morrison said reality was only beginning to sink in.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was very interesting because I woke up and the adrenaline had started to wear off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m starting to realize that it\u2019s real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Evan Morrison, Wheatley, drafted into MLB Evan Morrison. (Source: Sachin Bhatia) <\/p>\n

For the 23-year-old, reaching professional baseball is the culmination of a dream that\u2019s been with him since childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been my goal since I was 10 years old. And I\u2019ve been playing baseball at a very high level for, now, eight years,\u201d said Morrison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the dream scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

The call itself came during the Canadian Baseball League all-star game at Fergie Jenkins Field in Chatham, Ont.<\/p>\n

Morrison knew there was a chance he could be drafted Sunday, so he stayed close to his phone while sitting in the dugout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting in the dugout with my phone, and I feel it starting to buzz,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked down and it says Arlington, Texas. And I was like, well, this is probably the Rangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Evan Morrison, Wheatley, drafted into MLB Evan Morrison. (Source: Sachin Bhatia) <\/p>\n

He stepped away to answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir GM was like, \u2018Hey, Evan, how\u2019s it going? Do you want to be a Texas Ranger?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Absolutely.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, Morrison celebrated with family, teammates and coaches before the selection became official.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like everything you dream of.\u201d<\/p>\n

An unconventional road to professional baseball<\/p>\n

Morrison\u2019s journey wasn\u2019t a straight line.<\/p>\n

The Grand Valley State standout, who earned All-American honours this past season, said there were times he wasn\u2019t sure his baseball career would lead to the professional ranks.<\/p>\n

Still, he never stopped believing in himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been very confident in my ability, even if others haven\u2019t been as confident,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten a lot better in the last couple years. But I always had confidence in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He credits that confidence with helping him navigate what he describes as an unconventional path through college baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich has made it very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, that journey is taking him to the Rangers\u2019 spring training complex in Arizona, where he\u2019ll report in the coming days to begin the next chapter of his career.<\/p>\n

\"\"Evan Morrison, Wheatley, drafted into MLB Evan Morrison. (Source: Sachin Bhatia) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Wheatley resident has been drafted into the MLB. Less than 24 hours after hearing his name called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-800604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-apple-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}