Arizona Baseball: Jared Oliva and JJ Matijevic sign Contracts

Following the 2017 MLB Draft, Arizona Baseball players Jared Oliva and JJ Matijevic officially sign their Major League contracts.

A week after having been drafted, now former Arizona Baseball players Jared Oliva and JJ Matijevic officially sign the big league contracts. This certainly doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as both players were drafted early on.

Oliva and Matijevic were essentially the ‘Walking Doubles’ for the Arizona Baseball team, being a big part of the teams’ offense, as well as success. The two combined for 55 doubles, JJ of course led the conference with 30 of his own, also tying the school record for most doubles in a season.

https://twitter.com/ArizonaBaseball/status/875415247728906240

Matijevic and Oliva were drafted as the 75th and 208th pick overall respectively. However, if you were also unaware, JC Cloney, Cameron Ming, Louis Boyd and Rio Gomez were also selected in the 2017 MLB Draft.

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Their signing status is unknown at this point, and it is possible that Cameron Ming could turn down his contract to come back to school for his senior season. Cloney, Boyd and Gomez were seniors.

Arizona has a long, storied baseball program, that has seen a great deal of success over the past few decades. Adopting the mantra ‘MLB Training Ground’, it appears that is certainly true.

The Wildcats have seen many great pros come through this school, including guys like; Trevor Hoffman, JT Snow and Kenny Lofton (albeit him not playing much baseball at Arizona) among others.

Since taking over the team after the 2015 season, head coach Jay Johnson has seemingly continued on the tradition. Last year, two Wildcats were taken. This past draft? Six!

It’s a great sign for the program as it continues to do well!

Regardless of what happens this offseason, its as Johnson has said, they will regroup for 2018. Plus, if his coaching ability is any indication of the teams’ success next year, we should be just fine.

Here is what he had said following the loss to Sam Houston State that ended Arizona’s season.

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At Zona Zealots, we would like to congratulate all the guys that got drafted last week. We will miss these Wildcats, and wish them the best as they move forward with their careers! Bear Down, Arizona!