By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Rowan County officially has a first-round draft pick.

And a soon-to-be millionaire at age 21.

About two hours into Sunday night’s MLB draft in Texas, the Baltimore Orioles chose former Salisbury High star Vance Honeycutt, who accomplished great things in three seasons on baseball fields as a UNC Tar Heel.

The center fielder, who bats and throws right-handed, was the 22nd player chosen.

Only time will tell if 21 teams made a mistake — or if the Orioles did. The Orioles, a strong, young team with a powerful core already in place at the big-league level, evaluated Honeycutt as a player worth taking a chance on. It’s possible he’ll become an important piece of a world championship team.

Honeycutt certainly looks the part of a star at a lean and strong, 6-foot-3, 205 pounds.

There’s a ton to like about Honeycutt, the son of former North Rowan and UNC athletes Bobby and Leah Ann Miller Honeycutt. He’s an unassuming but confident guy who was a stellar multi-sport athlete at Salisbury High. He was Co-Offensive Player of the Year for Rowan County football as the quarterback who led a state championship team. He was a Rowan County Baseball Player of the Year as Salisbury’s shortstop despite his two prime seasons coinciding with the COVID era. He lost almost all of his junior baseball season and half of his senior season.

But he played with the South Charlotte Panthers showcase team and got plenty of exposure. The San Francisco Giants made him a substantial offer when they drafted him in 2021, but he’s part of a Carolina family and wanted to experience college life.

Honeycutt was expected to do well at UNC by his second year, but he far outdistanced every prediction and just kept raising the bar. He was a genuine superstar in the ACC as a freshman, belting homers and making impossible catches in center field. He led the Tar Heels with 25 homers, 29 steals and 66 runs scored.

By the end of his freshman season, Honeycutt was regarded as the potential top pick in 2024. That’s when he would be eligible to be drafted again.

Honeycutt’s sophomore season was good, just not as great as his freshman season. Pitchers made adjustments, and the ACC is a stout league. He had back issues that cut his season short and and kept him idle for a full summer that he would have spent in the Cape Cod Baseball League playing for scouts against elite competition. His stock dropped some.

If you follow college baseball at all, you know Honeycutt put together a tremendous comeback as a junior for the Tar Heels, earning first team All-ACC and consensus All-America acclaim. He broke the program career record (in three seasons).

His junior stats were terrific — a .318 batting average with 29 homers, 70 RBIs, 28 stolen bases and a mind-boggling 88 runs scored. When the going got toughest, on the road to the College World Series and after the Tar Heels got there for the first time since 2018, he frequently carried the offense, coming through in clutch situations time after time and accounting for 38 percent of UNC’s runs.

Honeycutt was one of the fastest players in the college game as well as one of the most explosive hitters. He has super bat speed and he has the raw power to go with that bat speed.

He was as good as any center fielder in the country defensively and has two ACC Defensive Player of the Year awards to prove it.

There was no comparable power-speed combo guy playing for any of the major programs this season. With 65 career homers and 76 career steals, he was arguably the most talented player available in the draft.

So why did a high-character player with that sort of potential last until the 22nd pick?

The one red flag sticking out in all of that deep sea of Honeycutt positives are the strikeouts.

Honeycutt struck out on 27.5 percent of his plate appearances as a junior. He struck out 83 times while walking 36 times. The concern for the 21 teams that didn’t draft him was that his strikeouts will be too much to overcome to become a MLB regular, much less a star.

But the Orioles, who almost always draft college players in the first round and almost always draft position players in first round — Honeycutt is the fourth outfielder they’ve drafted in the first round since 2020 — are confident Honeycutt can limit the strikeouts, take the walks and do major damage when he makes contact.

Honeycutt has the tool set to be an all-star hitter and runner and his defense will play at any level. There are no worries there.

Honeycutt is the 17th UNC player to be drafted in the first round.

Seventy-nine players were picked on Sunday. The draft continues on Monday with rounds 3-10 and concludes on Tuesday with rounds 11-20. MLB.com will stream the final 17 rounds.