A day they dreamed about way before they teamed up for a gold medal in Canada, before they ever faced each other on the field, is about to come.
Best friends Matthew Liberatore and Nolan Gorman could hear their names among the first 10 players selected in Monday’s Major League Baseball Draft.
But they’re playing it cool, blocking out the mock drafts that have them in the top 10.
They elected not to go to New York where some of the nation’s top amateur baseball players will be on hand for the MLB Draft show.
They’re staying with their families, keeping the circle small, and privately taking it in.
“It’s not been settled yet,” said Gorman, a third baseman at Phoenix Sandra Day O’Connor, who helped lead the Eagles to their first 6A state championship in May. “The draft is so crazy.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Liberatore — a 6-foot-5, left-hander who struck out 104 batters in 60 1/3 innings with an ERA of 0.93 this season — and Gorman — who had 10 home runs, hit over .400 and walked 46 times — talk to each other about the draft.
But where they might land isn’t the focus.
Jim Callis of MLB.com projects Liberatore going third overall to the Philadelphia Phillies and Gorman seventh to the San Diego Padres.
Bleacher Report has Liberatore going to the Padres at No. 7 and Gorman to the Atlanta Braves at 8.
“My expectations are never too high and never too low,” Liberatore said “School is an option. I haven’t ruled anything out yet. I’m not expecting anything.”
Both Liberatore and Gorman have signed with the University of Arizona.
Gorman said he also isn’t ruling out school.
But the pay slots that value from $8.1 million for the No. 1 pick to $2.3 for the No. 30 pick will make it almost impossible for them to to be heading to Tucson this summer.