Hunter Dietz goes in first round as Yankees pick Razorbacks pitcher

Left-handed pitcher Hunter Dietz heard his name called early on Saturday when the New York Yankees selected him with the No. 35 overall pick in the MLB Draft.

The pick made it back-to-back years that a Razorback arm has gone in the first round.

Dietz only got one full healthy season on campus after dealing with injuries during his career.

That single year turned out to be enough to convince a Major League club to grab him early.

He finished with a 7-4 record and a 3.57 ERA across 85.2 innings this spring.

He racked up a team-best 131 strikeouts, which ties for fourth-most in a single season in program history. Dietz also led the Hogs in wins, quality starts, innings pitched and double-digit strikeout games.

He topped the SEC with 47 strikeouts looking and held hitters to a .221 batting average.

Those numbers earned him a spot on the All-SEC First Team along with All-American honors from several outlets, including a second-team nod from D1Baseball.

Dietz becomes the ninth Arkansas pitcher drafted in the top three rounds since 2021.

Arkansas keeps churning out arms

Dietz wasn’t the only Hog hearing his name Saturday. Carson Wiggins went to the Mets one pick earlier at No. 27.

Their selections follow a run that started last year, when Gage Wood went No. 26 and Zach Root went No. 40 as part of a historic 2025 class that saw four Arkansas players taken in the first round.

The pipeline stretches back further than just the last two years.

Hagen Smith went fifth overall in the 2024 draft, while Jaxon Wiggins and Hunter Hollan came off the board in the second and third rounds that same year.

Peyton Pallette heard his name at No. 62 in 2022 and Kevin Kopps went at No. 99 back in 2021.

Dietz’s slot value for his selection sits at $2,826,700, another sign of how much teams value what the Razorbacks have built on the mound over the last several seasons.

The program under pitching coach Matt Hobbs continues to send a steady stream of arms into pro ball year after year.

Arkansas fans will keep watching the rest of the draft to see if more Hogs hear their names before it wraps up.

The Razorbacks’ track record on the mound shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Key takeaways

• Hunter Dietz went No. 35 overall to the Yankees marking back-to-back years with a Razorback first-round pitcher
• Dietz posted a 7-4 record 3.57 ERA and a team-leading 131 strikeouts in his only full healthy season
• Arkansas has now sent nine pitchers in the top three rounds of the draft since 2021 under pitching coach Matt Hobbs