The Edmonton Riverhawks are celebrating after a historic moment at the 2024 MLB Draft held last week.
Ivan Brethowr, who played for the Riverhawks during the 2022 season, was drafted by the Chicago Cubs with the 212th pick in the seventh round of the MLB Draft. This makes him the first former Riverhawks player drafted into the major leagues.
With the 212th pick in the 7th round of the #MLBDraft , the @Cubs select former Riverhawks outfielder Ivan Brethowr!
This selection marks the first time that a former Riverhawks player has been drafted to the @MLB 🙌
Congrats, Ivan! pic.twitter.com/oCSRjliSlw
— Edmonton Riverhawks (@EdmRiverhawks) July 15, 2024
The 21-year-old outfielder appeared in 33 games with the Riverhawks during his lone season in the Alberta capital. During that span, he was among the team’s best players, hitting five home runs and 21 RBIs.
After that season, the North Carolina native returned to the United States to play with UC Santa Barbara in the NCAA. So far this season, he has 15 home runs and 39 RBIs in 50 games with Santa Barbara.
This is just the latest piece of good news to hit the Riverhawks in what has been a very exciting campaign for the club. The team has seen record attendance at home games in Edmonton’s River Valley this season and leads the entire West Coast League (WCL) in average fan attendance. This includes an over 9,000 people sellout for their Canada Day matchup.
On top of that, reports have surfaced about other higher-tier leagues having an interest in bringing professional baseball into Edmonton. This excludes the MLB, for obvious reasons, but speculation around the return of Triple-A baseball in Alberta’s capital city has kickstarted with the news.
Brethowr may hail from the other side of the continent, but he will have plenty of Riverhawks fans cheering him on during his journey to the big leagues.