Indiana University pitcher and Columbus East graduate Cole Gilley winds up to throw a pitch against Michigan at Ray Fisher Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. on May 16, 2025.
Submitted photo
Cole Gilley had a feeling he might hear his name called when the Major League Baseball Draft resumed Monday.
The former Columbus East standout had been hearing that he could be picked in the seventh-through-10th rounds of the 20-round draft. So when the Philadelphia Phillies took him in the 10th round, he wasn’t all that surprised.
“I had talked to them before, and to me, it didn’t really matter who,” Gilley said. “I just wanted a chance to play. My advisor sent me a text and said what about the Phillies. He called me about eight picks before and said they were 99 percent certain they were going to take me. I didn’t want to get too excited because it might fall through. So I just decided to sit back and enjoy the moment.”
Cole Gilley
Gilley said teams initially reached out to his advisor, Justin Hancock, who was his pitching coach Gilley’s final three years at Indiana State. A Phillies scout then had hour-and-a-half to two-hour conversation with Gilley.
“I had one long conversation with them that went really well,” Gilley said. “They talked more with my advisor. Those phone calls reminded me a lot of a college recruiting phone call.”
Monday morning, the Washington Nationals and Chicago White Sox talked to Gilley, but it was the Phillies who ended up taking him.
“I had a lot of conversations after the season with some teams,” Gilley said. “You just never know with these type of things. You don’t want to say anything or do anything until you see it actually go through.”
Gilley, who missed the 2022 season at ISU after undergoing Tommy John Surgery, spent his fifth and final season of college baseball this spring at Indiana University. He went 10-3 and was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association Second Team All-Midwest Region.
The draft began Sunday night with Rounds 1-3. Rounds 4-20 were scheduled for Monday.
Gilley watched the draft on MLB.com from his family’s home.
“We put it on a laptop and plugged an HTMI cord into the side of the computer and the TV do we could see it on the big screen,” Gilley said.
Chances are, once Gilley signs his contract, he will be sent to the Phillies’ Rookie League affiliate in Clearwater, Florida, in the Florida Complex League. The Phillies’ Single-A squad also is in Clearwater.
“The draft is still going on, so the conversation I had is they were going to reach back out either later (Monday) evening or (Tuesday) morning and figure out everything else.”
