AJ Rice committed to Auburn, is MLB prospect
AJ Rice, a Murphy native now living in Jasper, has committed to Auburn University and is a ranked Major League Baseball prospect.
Murphy native AJ Rice has already had a strong baseball career and he just graduated high school.
Rice has committed to Auburn University to pitch for the Tigers, but he is also a ranked Major League Baseball prospect. He sits just outside the top 100 in the prospect ranking as he is currently ranked No. 121, as of press time.
He attended the MLB Draft Combine in Arizona at the end of June to showcase his stuff on the mound alongside some of the other top baseball prospects in the country.
Rice said his experience at the combine was really great and he’s grateful he got to go.
At the combine, he got to showcase what he could do on the mound, but also got to talk with the scouting staff at different MLB clubs.
He said that at the combine, they don’t just look at how well you throw a baseball, but they also look at the mental side of the game and how players approach it.
“It was a good learning experience and hopefully I can learn from it and it’ll help me out in the future,” Rice said.
He was one of only 12 players who played high school ball in Georgia at the combine, as well as only one of 140 total high school players out of the 335 prospects invited to the combine.
If selected in the 2026 MLB Draft, Rice said there isn’t one team he would want to go to over another. Rice said that, “I want to go somewhere where I can develop and become a better player.”
The 2026 MLB Draft is on Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia, Pa.
Rice said that if he’s drafted, he won’t turn down a good opportunity to go to the MLB.
“I love Auburn. It’s a great place. I love the coaches, like I said, and that’s why I picked it. But if I can get a good opportunity, I’m not going to pass it up, but on the other hand I do have a good place to fall back on with Auburn,” Rice said.
“Whatever works out, works out and I’ll take the best opportunity I can and run with it…Either way, I’m super happy and grateful for whatever is next and I think it’ll be a great situation either way.”
Rice started playing baseball at a young age, playing t-ball and Little League at Konehete Veterans Park in Murphy.
He played for Murphy Middle School his eighth grade year before moving to Jasper, Ga., and playing for Pickens High School all four years of high school.
His high school career culminated by winning the Georgia 3A state championship his senior year, which was the first baseball title for Pickens.
In the fall of 2024 during Rice’s junior year, he committed to Auburn University to continue his baseball career.
One of the reasons that Rice chose Auburn was for their ability to develop pitchers. He also said that they are great at getting players to the MLB.
“They do a great job with pitchers, really developing them and getting them ready for the next level. They have a track record of doing it well and why go against it and that’s the goal anyways, so that was one of the leading factors in deciding,” Rice said.
64 former Auburn Tigers have made it to the big leagues, including 13 since 2020.
Rice said that they did a great job at Pickens of preparing players to play after high school and said that his experience playing high school ball was important.
“Adam Williams, our head coach, does a great job of prepping guys for the next level and showing guys what it takes to win and be successful,” Rice said.
“I think he does a great job of holding the team and the guys to a certain standard that you have to be at to play at the next level.”
Rice said that playing at the standard helped him be a better baseball player and better person.
Now that Rice has graduated from Pickens in the Class of 2026, he will not await the results of the MLB Draft on Saturday and Sunday.
The first round of the draft can be watched on ESPN and MLB Network, with the rest of the draft streaming on MLB.com.