Redshirt sophomore LHP Ryan Prager was selected by the Los Angeles Angels with the 81st pick in the third round of the 2024 MLB Draft on Monday. He becomes the third Texas A&M baseball player selected after OF Braden Montgomery and RHP Chris Cortez were picked on Sunday. Prager will join Cortez with the Angels in Southern California.
Prager rebounded from a Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for the 2023 season with a highly successful 2024 campaign. He was the Aggies’ Friday starter for the entire year and was named a second team All-American by D1Baseball, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings. Baseball America tabbed him as a third team All-American.
The Dallas product put together a 9-1 record and a 2.95 ERA over 19 appearances as A&M lost just four games in which he pitched. In 97 ⅔ innings, he struck out 124 batters, the ninth-most in a single season in team history, with 83 hits and just 20 walks.
Prager pitched a gem in the 2024 College World Series in a win over Kentucky, notching 6 ⅔ scoreless frames while allowing just two hits and a walk with four strikeouts. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning for the second-longest no-hit outing since Charles Schwab Field opened in 2011.
The Aggies opened the College World Series finals with a victory against Tennessee as Prager opened with four innings. He allowed two runs from a potent offense with eight hits and six punchouts with no walks.
Prager started 16 games as a true freshman in 2022 but experienced growing pains with a 1-4 record and a 5.16 ERA. He allowed 61 hits and 25 walks in 59 ⅓ frames while punching out 53 batters. Prager started A&M’s season-ending loss to Oklahoma in the College World Series, allowing three earned runs and one unearned run in 4 ⅓ innings.
