It’s decision time for South Walton’s Coleman Borthwick, what you’d call the opposite of a Catch-22.
On Saturday, July 11, the 6-foot-6, 260-pound right-handed pitcher was selected by the San Diego Padres with the 21st pick in the first round of the 2026 MLB Draft.
That sets up the million-dollar question: will he choose to be the big man on Auburn’s campus or start his professional baseball career with a minor league affiliate of the Padres?
It’s a beautiful problem to have. At Auburn, he’d earn seven figures in NIL money and join a program with a top-10 2026 recruiting class and coming off a 42-22 campaign where it advanced to the Super Regionals. With the Padres, he’s slotted for a projected signing bonus of $4.22 million and is on the fast track to the majors for a perennial National League West contender.
He’s earned the honors after inarguably the best season of any high school senior in the country.
At the plate, he hit .460 with nine homers, 34 RBIs, 30 runs and a 1.498 OPS. On the mound, he was even more valuable, posting an 11-0 record with a 0.21 ERA, .082 batting average against and 12.9 Ks per seven innings with a devastating slider and fastball that nearly reached triple digits.
All of this made him the face of a Seahawk program that went 30-4 and cashed in on its third straight finals appearance with its first state title. In the end, the Seahawks ranked No. 1 in Florida and No. 4 nationally as Borthwick earned Gatorade and MaxPreps Player of the Year for Florida, Prep Baseball two-way POY and multiple All-American honors to follow up his Team and Tournament MVP awards for the for the gold-medalist U-18 Americans.
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: South Walton’s Coleman Borthwick drafted by Padres with 21st pick
