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2022 MLB Draft: Pirates take Termarr Johnson with No. 4 overall pick

Sun, Jul 17, 2022
MLB News (AP)

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Georgia prep infielder Termarr Johnson with the fourth overall pick in Major League Baseball's 2022 amateur draft on Sunday night. Johnson was picked after fellow high schoolers Jackson Holliday and Druw Jones went 1-2, and the Texas Rangers got former Vanderbilt star Kumar Rocker with the third pick.

Johnson'was ranked as the No. 4 prospect in the class in June by AP Sports. Here's what we wrote at the time:

Johnson was the top player on AP Sports' board entering the spring, and a few evaluators argued he should've remained there. He still has a hit tool that one veteran scout graded as an 80 -- meaning, in layman's terms, as good as it gets -- and surprising power. The downfall for Johnson is (and was always going to be) his defensive value. He's likely just a second baseman, and there's always reluctance in taking high school second basemen for obvious reasons; they have less margin of error than shortstops or other up-the-middle players as it pertains to moving down the defensive spectrum. Oh well. Johnson is going to hit, and hit a lot, and he's going to do it while displaying one of the best feels for the game in the class. He was uncommitted to a college in the spring, but has since thrown on an Arizona State cap. It seems highly unlikely that he ever suits up for the Sun Devils.'

"You're getting the best player in the draft," Johnson, from Mays High School, said on MLB Network when he asked if he had a message for Pirates fans shortly after he was picked.