Red Sox select shortstop Cameron Cannon with first pick (43rd overall) in 2019 June Draft

BOSTON, MA—The Boston Red Sox selected shortstop Cameron Cannon out of the University of Arizona with their first pick (2nd round, 43rd overall) in the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft Monday night. The club also selected shortstop Matthew Lugo out of the Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy in Puerto Rico in the second round (69th overall).

Red Sox Vice President of Amateur Scouting Mike Rikard made the announcement.

Cannon, 21, was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 96 prospect available in this year’s draft. Previously selected by the Diamondbacks in the 21st round of the 2016 June Draft, the right-handed hitter batted .347 (184-for-531) with 16 home runs, 113 RBI, and a 1.004 OPS in three years with the Wildcats. As a junior in 2019, he posted a .478 on-base percentage and led Arizona with a .397 batting average that ranked second in the Pac-12, while his 29 doubles led all of Division I and fell one shy of the Wildcats’ single-season record. An All-Pac-12 selection as a junior, he recorded more walks than strikeouts in each of the last two years with Arizona.

A native of Glendale, AZ, Cannon graduated in 2016 from Mountain Ridge High School. In the summer of 2018, he played for Falmouth in the Cape Cod Baseball League and was selected to the All-Star Game. His brother, Tanner Murphy, was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 22nd round of the 2010 June Draft.

Lugo, 18, was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 74 prospect available in this year’s draft. A nephew of former major league All-Star Carlos Beltran, the right-handed hitter had committed to play baseball at the University of Miami (FL).