Five UNLV Baseball Players Selected in 2026 MLB Draft

LAS VEGAS — The final draft class of Stan Stolte’s UNLV tenure included five players, four pitchers and consecutive selections in the 14th round.

Right-hander Carson Lane was the first Rebel selected Sunday when the Cleveland Guardians took him with the No. 423 overall pick. The Boston Red Sox followed by drafting right-hander Jase Evangelista one selection later at No. 424.

Three more UNLV players came off the board before the draft ended. The Chicago Cubs selected right-hander Ryan Marton in the 17th round at No. 517, Cleveland returned to the Rebels’ pitching staff for left-hander Parker Dillhoff in the 18th round at No. 543 and the Los Angeles Angels took outfielder Jack Salmon in the 19th round at No. 559.

The five-player class was one of the largest of Stolte’s tenure and arrived less than two months after he retired following 16 seasons with the program, including 10 as head coach. UNLV has since hired former Rebel and longtime College of Southern Nevada coach Nick Garritano as his replacement.

Garritano will inherit a program replacing five drafted players, but Sunday also gave the new staff something useful to point toward as it begins recruiting and rebuilding the roster. Four UNLV pitchers were selected despite a difficult statistical season for the staff, with professional organizations betting on strikeout ability and projection rather than finished college numbers.

Lane developed into one of UNLV’s primary starters during his junior season. The 6-foot-3 right-hander made 14 appearances, including 13 starts, and went 3-4 with an 8.23 ERA while striking out 70 batters in 62⅓ innings.

He did not have to wait long for another teammate to join him.

Evangelista transferred from Washington before the season and moved into a late-inning role for the Rebels. He went 4-1 with a team-high four saves and a 6.17 ERA, striking out 64 batters in 46⅔ innings over 19 relief appearances.

The Red Sox selected him immediately after Cleveland took Lane, giving UNLV back-to-back draft picks and putting two members of the same staff into professional baseball within minutes of each other.

Marton’s route to the draft was shorter and less direct. The Canadian right-hander transferred from Midland College and spent one season at UNLV, appearing in 13 games with four starts. He went 2-3 with a 6.16 ERA, recorded two saves and struck out 22 batters in 19 innings before the Cubs selected him in the 17th round.

Cleveland went back to UNLV in the next round for Dillhoff.

The Louisiana transfer led the Rebels with 94 strikeouts and threw a team-high 69⅓ innings over 15 starts. He went 4-5 with a 7.53 ERA, joined Lane as the second UNLV pitcher drafted by the Guardians and became the fourth member of the staff selected overall.

Salmon was the only position player in the group.

The senior outfielder transferred from Hawai‘i and started 45 games in left field during his lone season in Las Vegas. He batted .344 with 53 hits, 10 doubles, one triple, three home runs and 32 RBIs while posting a team-best .485 on-base percentage and a .966 OPS.

His selection gave UNLV five picks after a 30-25 season and added the Rebels’ on-base percentage leader to the four pitchers already taken.

The number was significant, though not unprecedented under Stolte. Six UNLV players were drafted in 2018, with a seventh signing as a free agent. That group included three pitchers and three position players and was the largest draft class of Stolte’s first two seasons as head coach.

Under Stolte, UNLV consistently sent pitchers into professional baseball. He mentored 39 all-conference pitchers during his time with the program, and nine of the 11 Rebel pitchers drafted before 2024 had played for him. That track record continued in his final class, with Lane, Evangelista, Marton and Dillhoff all selected over a five-round span. The numbers were not always clean in 2026, but scouts still saw enough in the arms, strikeout ability and projection to invest draft picks.

Sunday continued that run with four more pitchers selected.

Dillhoff, Lane and Evangelista combined for 228 strikeouts in 178⅓ innings, while Marton added 22 more. The draft interest came even though UNLV finished with a 7.97 team ERA, making the four selections a clearer reflection of individual tools and professional upside than overall staff results.

Those departures leave Garritano with an obvious challenge as he begins his first season. UNLV must replace its top two pitchers in innings, its top two strikeout arms, its saves leader and another pitcher who worked as both a starter and reliever, along with the hitter who reached base more often than anyone else on the roster.

The draft also gives him a recent result to sell.

UNLV’s next roster will look different, and the staff responsible for building it has changed. Five more Rebels were drafted Sunday. Garritano’s first task will be finding the players who can replace them.