Liam McGill, CC '20,Drafted By Atlanta Braves

Upper West Side NY

18 July, 2021

11:23 AM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY MILES SCHACHNER JULY 14, 2021 The Atlanta Braves picked Liam McGill, CC '20, a four-year catcher for the Lions who played at Bryant University in 2021 as a graduate transfer student, as the 277th pick in the ninth round of the MLB Amateur Draft. As a ninth-round selection, McGill is the highest draft pick from Columbia since 2004 and the fourth-highest selection in Lion history. The catcher was a prolific hitter from the moment he donned Columbia blue. McGill batted .338/.461/.466 in his first-year season, earning recognition as a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American; he is only the seventh Lion to receive such an honor. He continued his superlative play throughout his sophomore and junior seasons, earning Second Team All-Ivy League honors both years while playing in 89 games and serving as one of the team's most important offensive engines. The Rhode Island native was also an integral part of the Light Blue's 2018 Ivy League championship-winning team. He led the squad in at-bats (200) and OPS (.897) and ranked second in home runs, with six. After a stellar first-year campaign, helping his team win a title was McGill's priority. "Individually, yes, I want to succeed––but at the end of the day, I want to win a championship," he told Spectator in 2018. "That's probably my main goal and I think that's everyone's goal." Though McGill excelled at Columbia—his career line finished at .316/.411/.462—he reached another level of dominance at Bryant. Following a 2020 season that was disrupted by the pandemic, McGill emerged in 2021 from the long break as one of the nation's best hitters. Over the course of his 37 games at Bryant, McGill slashed an outstanding .471/.541/.746, leading the country in batting average and on-base percentage. Adding nine homers and 50 RBIs, his play won him the Northeast Conference Player of the Year award as well as the conference's Triple Crown. This year, Bryant was not just a freshman All-American. He earned All-American honors from four different outlets: the American Baseball Coaches Association selected him to its second team, while Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America, and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association tabbed him for its third team. McGill was the first catcher the Braves drafted this year, and his ninth-round slot value—the amount of guaranteed bonus money a team can offer a player within the first ten picks—comes in at $151,300. If he signs with Atlanta, McGill will contribute to a Braves minor-league system that was ranked No. 15 going into 2021 and already has a top-ranked catching prospect: Shea Langeliers, the organization's first-round draft pick in 2019. McGill joined four other Ivy League players selected in the first three days of this year's draft, including two players from the University of Pennsylvania and one player from Yale University and Dartmouth College. McGill is the 11th player to be drafted under head coach Brett Boretti. Senior staff writer Miles Schachner can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @milesschachner. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.