Oregon third baseman Drew Smith<\/a> is headed to the Bay Area after being selected by the San Francisco Giants<\/a> in the 15th round of the 2026 MLB Draft.<\/p>\n Smith slashed 338\/.421\/.618 and led the Ducks<\/a> with 16 home runs in his senior season. Throughout his Oregon career, Smith bounced around the diamond, playing different spots in the infield and even the outfield before finding a home at the hot corner.<\/p>\n In his final season in Eugene, Smith earned a first-team All-Big Ten selection as the slugger in the middle of the lineup, leading the team with 64 RBIs. He was also known to lay down a bunt for a hit when he needed to, despite hitting in the core of the lineup.<\/p>\n Third base will be a hole the Ducks need to fill this offseason<\/a>\u00a0with Smith graduating. He was named to all-tournament teams in three separate regionals in his career at three different positions.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Although he is a late-round pick, Smith has potential as a power hitter and a strong defender at an important position. If he rises quickly enough through the Giants system, he could return to his college town and play for the Eugene Emeralds, which serve as the High-A affiliate for the organization.<\/p>\n Smith joins a growing list of Ducks to be drafted this weekend. His teammates in the infield, Ryan Cooney<\/a> and Maddox Molony<\/a>, found new homes with the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers, respectively. Pitchers are also flying off the board, with Cal Scolari<\/a>, Devin Bell<\/a> and Miles Gosztola<\/a> all being selected as well.<\/p>\n Contact\/Follow\u00a0@Ducks_Wire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 12, 2026, 2:27 p.m. PT The Oregon Ducks are keeping one of their veteran stars on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[243,101,103,102,104,106,105,148573,148574,14987,5976,5727,507,65397,1350,159248,5979,379,41347,75028,1349,13588,377,246],"class_list":["post-396203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-accessfree","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sourceducks-wire","tag-sstssportscollegeducksbaseball","tag-sstsnbaseball","tag-tagbaseball","tag-tagbig-10-hub","tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","tag-tagcgr-sports","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagdrew-smith","tag-tagmlb","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagoregon","tag-tagoregon-ducks-football","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsan-francisco-giants","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/89956203007-el-4146.jpg\")