The next great shortstop: Grand Canyon product Jacob Wilson secures All-Star Game starting nod
PHOENIX – Shortstop has long been heralded as one of the premier positions to play in baseball – not just for the talent and reliability needed, but also for the spotlight and expectation of leadership that comes with it. Past stars like Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken Jr. transcended the game at the position with their consistency and charisma, while new ones like Francisco Lindor and Bobby Witt Jr. continue to approach the craft with electricity and swagger.
Now, Jacob Wilson is the latest name to emerge in that lineage. The Grand Canyon alumnus and Athletics shortstop is turning heads with his incredible performance this season – and he’s still just a rookie.
Those efforts have paid off. In a crowded field of talented American League shortstops, Wilson’s hot start translated to the role of starting shortstop for the All-Star Game in July, MLB announced Wednesday. He will be the first fan-elected rookie to start an MLB All-Star Game.
“It’s a great thing for Jacob number one,” Grand Canyon’s baseball coach Gregg Wallis said, “but it’s great for our program too because it shows that in the baseball world, you can have success stories like that without necessarily having to go play in the SEC to do it.”
Jessica Kleinschmidt, a multimedia reporter for the Athletics, said, “He’s the kind of player I’d want to have eight or nine of on my team. He knows the game so well, and the bat-to-ball skills pretty much speak for themselves … he’s going to be a superstar.”
Wilson, 23, has a .339 batting average and has already recorded 108 hits as of July 3, which firmly puts him at second in the league in those stats only behind Aaron Judge. He’s only struck out 26 times in 343 plate appearances, and has also shown flashes of occasional power with nine home runs, 40 RBIs and 16 doubles.
When MLB’s first update on the All-Star fan vote was released, Wilson led the pack at shortstop in the American League with over 560,000 votes, narrowly ahead of Witt Jr. by about 50,000 votes. A week later, Wilson was up to over a million votes, distancing himself from Witt Jr.
This allowed Wilson to make it to Phase 2 of the All-Star voting process, when fans voted between the top two vote-getters at each position during a three-day window to determine who will start in the All-Star game. Once again choosing between Wilson and Witt Jr., fans gave the Athletics rookie the nod in a 52% to 48% result to start in the All-Star Game – becoming the first rookie shortstop to win the fan vote, and second rookie shortstop to start since Ron Hansen of the Baltimore Orioles did in 1960.
The support Wilson received from fans across the nation made him the first All-Star starter for the A’s since Josh Donaldson in 2014 and first All-Star in Grand Canyon baseball’s program history, period. The honor would be huge for an A’s organization marred in controversy following their relocation from Oakland, and a GCU program that’s rapidly building their reputation as a school for athletics.
“Before baseball, it was all about the relocation,” Kleinschmidt said. “Now we can concentrate on baseball, and it’s great for the front office … it shows that we can trust them.”
Wilson is on track to add even more hardware to his mantle in addition to being an All-Star. Not only is he on Judge’s heels for the batting title, but Wilson is also a favorite to win the American League Rookie of the Year, with his odds currently at -180 to win the award on FanDuel Sportsbook. He would be the first A’s shortstop to win it since Bobby Crosby, now a coach with the club, did in 2004.
Of course, becoming a franchise cornerstone would mean significantly more to the A’s given their current state, as they broke ground on a new stadium in Las Vegas June 23 ahead of their proposed move to the city in 2028.
“Without a doubt (he can be the face of the franchise for the A’s),” Kleinschmidt said. “There’s a lot of responsibility, but I think he’s ready for it because of his upbringing, how hard-working of a player he is and how even when he has a great day, he’s still talking about his teammates.”
Just two years ago Wilson was in college, playing for GCU. The son of former 12-year big-leaguer Jack Wilson, Jacob committed to play at GCU out of Thousand Oaks High School in California. His dad joined him on the team as an assistant coach, and in three quick years, he was a top prospect going into the 2023 MLB Draft.
“Jacob just did everything at a different level from the moment he stepped on campus,” Wallis said. “His instincts for the game were phenomenal. The way he fielded a ground ball, the quality of contact he would make, the way he could put the ball where he wanted – you knew that he was going to be successful.”
In Wilson’s final season with the Lopes, he hit a whopping .411 and only struck out five times. He chose to forego his senior season to enter the draft, and was selected with the sixth overall pick by the the A’s. That breakout junior season only confirmed what Wallis and the rest of the GCU staff saw from Wilson about a year earlier.
“When it really started to catch our attention that Jacob had a chance to be a first-rounder was his sophomore summer,” Wallis said. “He was selected to Team USA, and the reports we were getting back from the coaches and scouts there were saying that Jacob might be the best player on the team, and he was out there with all the top position players in the country.”
Wilson rose from the minor leagues to the major leagues just as quickly as he rose through the ranks as a draft prospect in college. On July 19, 2024, only 376 days after he was drafted, Wilson made his MLB debut.
That day featured a wide range of emotions for Wilson, as he singled on the second pitch he saw for his first career hit – but then strained his hamstring minutes later rounding third on the way home, causing him to leave the game and miss most of the remaining season.
“The adversity he faced with that injury, and the adversity that’s to come, I’m not worried about him burying himself or drowning in any of that,” Kleinschmidt said. “It does help that he was raised around the game and knows how to adapt to some of those situations.”
Kleinschmidt’s words ring loud, especially when you consider the comparison to Tony Gwynn, a Hall-of-Famer aptly nicknamed “Mr. Padre” because he spent his entire 20-year career with San Diego.
Like Wilson, Gwynn was known for his ability to hit for a high batting average, without striking out. He led the MLB in hits seven times and batting average eight times, including a 1994 season in which he hit .394 – the closest we’ve seen anyone come to .400 since Ted Williams.
MLB data analyst Ryan Spaeder has been comparing Wilson’s hitting pace to Gwynn throughout the season, with his latest update showing just how historical Wilson’s early career has been:
“It’s taught me a lot and helped shape my hitting philosophy,” Wallis said of Wilson’s hit-tool. “His body control is just next-level. He’s maximizing everything he has in the way he’s able to move in the batter’s box, and he has elite hand-eye coordination and such a great feel for consistently repeating his swing.”
When speaking to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Wilson said, “I just take strikeouts so personally. It’s the one thing in this game that makes me more mad than anything. So I’ll go up there and I’ll swing at a pitch that’s maybe a couple inches off and take a base hit to right. So I think batting average definitely is a stat that should be seen and should matter for most hitters.”
Of course, being a high-level shortstop in the MLB requires more than just putting up great individual numbers. Throughout this current season, Wilson has stepped up as a leader in the Athletics clubhouse despite his young age – with both his actions and words.
“He’s a leader in the fact that if you’re hitting .350-plus, people are going to want to know ‘how are you doing that’,” Kleinschmidt said. “But I even noticed how much he’s improved in his interviews and how quick he is to answer questions, I can tell he’s just grown from that despite his age.”
That leadership in the A’s clubhouse is still present in GCU’s, as Wallis told a story about how Wilson helped their current team from afar:
“Probably the coolest thing is I reached out to him because we were facing a tough pitcher with a unique style,” Wallis said. “I wasn’t expecting a quick response, but he got right back to me and walked through what his approach (against that pitcher) would be. And then I took that to our team, and we ended up having a great night against a pitcher that was dominating everyone else.”
Even while juggling the demands of a breakout rookie season, Kleinschmidt’s description of Wilson as an unselfish teammate and Wallis’s story about how he still finds time to pour into the program that helped launch his career is a sign of both humility and maturity that underscore his makeup as a professional shortstop.
His willingness to stay connected, combined with his relentless work ethic and baseball IQ, has only further convinced those around him that his best days are still ahead. For all the buzz Wilson is attracting, it is clear that he is more than capable of reaching a higher gear.
“Nothing with Jacob would surprise me,” Wallis said. “Over the course of a season, his consistency is going to win out. This year is just the start for him.”