High school slugger Ethan Holliday is headed to the Rockies.
The club selected the left-handed hitter with the fourth overall pick of the Major League Baseball draft on Sunday. He’s the son of former Rockies slugger Matt Holliday, who was the cornerstone of Colorado’s only World Series team in 2007.
Ethan, 18, is the younger brother of Jackson, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2022 draft who climbed the minor-league ladder quickly and is now the starting second baseman for the Orioles.
There was widespread speculation that the Washington Nationals might take Holliday with the No. 1 overall pick. But the Nationals, who recently shook up their front office, surprised many draftniks by selecting Eli Willits, a 17-year-old shortstop from Fort Cobb-Broxton High School in Broxton, Okla.
The Rockies, who were expected to snag Ethan if the Nationals did not, had to wait for two more picks before they got their young man. The next two selections were collegiate pitchers. The Angels took UC Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner, and LSU lefty Kade Anderson went to the Mariners.
As a senior at Oklahoma’s Stillwater High School, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Ethan hit .611 with a 2.038 OPS, 19 home runs and 64 RBIs. He was a shortstop at Stillwater but might project as a third baseman in professional baseball.
Matt was a seven-time All-Star slugger over a 15-year MLB career, making the All-Star team three times with the Rockies and four times with the Cardinals. Ethan will muscle up more as he gets older, though he might not fill out to 240 pounds like his father, who belted 316 career home runs.
“Ethan is already hitting the ball in the 110-112 (mph) range at 17 years old,” Matt told The Post last September. “He might have more raw power than me.”
The Holliday family is baseball royalty in Oklahoma. Matt’s father, Tom, was a coach for the Oklahoma State baseball team for 26 years, including head coach from 1997-2003, a position now held by Matt’s brother, Josh.
This story will be updated.
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