Four Stanford baseball players heard their names called on day two of the 2026 MLB Draft on July 12, giving head coach David Esquer's program its biggest draft haul in three years.

Junior right-hander Aidan Keenan went first, selected by the New York Mets in the seventh round with the 210th overall pick. Sophomore first baseman Rintaro Sasaki followed in the eighth round, going 235th to the Miami Marlins. Transfer outfielder Eric Jeon landed with the Seattle Mariners at 310th overall in the 10th round, and senior Cort MacDonald rounded out the class when the Colorado Rockies took him 554th overall in the 19th round.

The four selections bring Esquer's career total at Stanford to 36 draftees since he took over the program in 2018, according to a Stanford Athletics release. The last time the Cardinal placed more players was 2023, when nine were selected, headlined by Tommy Troy going 12th overall to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Sasaki's selection carries the most intrigue. The 21-year-old is Japan's all-time high school home run leader and trained as a youth player under Toru Ohtani, father of Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. He hit .262 with 16 home runs, 47 RBIs, and a team-best 45 walks in 54 starts as a sophomore. But Sasaki faces a fork in the road: Fukuoka SoftBank of Nippon Professional Baseball holds exclusive negotiating rights after selecting him in the first round of the 2025 NPB Draft last October. He must choose between signing with Miami or returning to Japan to start his pro career. The deadline for all 2026 draftees to sign is 5 p.m. ET on Monday, July 27.

Keenan's stock rose despite an injury-shortened junior season. He made just seven appearances (six starts), posting a 5.82 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 21⅔ innings, but impressed scouts at the 2026 MLB Combine enough for the Mets to spend a seventh-round pick.

Jeon, a native of Fullerton, California, transferred from Columbia and made an immediate impact in his lone Stanford season, batting .323 with nine home runs and a .425 on-base percentage across 46 games. MacDonald, a senior from Arlington, Texas, hit .340 with 13 doubles and 22 RBIs in 44 games.

The four selections came after a 28-26 season, Stanford's first as an ACC member, that ended without a postseason bid.

The incoming class may replenish what the draft took. Archer Horn, a shortstop from St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco, was ranked No. 54 on MLB.com's final draft board but went unselected. Sporting News attributed his slide to his Stanford commitment. If Horn enrolls, he joins a program that has produced four first-round picks under Esquer, including Malcolm Moore (30th overall to Texas in 2024).