Christian Moore and Chris Cortez have a hatchet that needs to be buried in a hurry after being selected by the Los Angeles Angels during the MLB Draft on Sunday night. The former SEC baseball players have fresh beef that dates back less than a month.
And now they’re on the same team!
Moore was a top-100 prospect in the high school baseball Class of 2021 and committed to Tennessee. He hit .305 as a freshman, .304 as a sophomore and .375 as a senior. The Vols’ starting second baseman also set the program’s single-season record for home runs with 34 in 2024.
Cortez was the 84th-ranked prospect in the 2024 MLB Draft after three years at Texas A&M. The 6-foot-1 fireballer parks his fastball between 96-98 mph and catches hitters off guard with a nasty sinker/slider combination that looks like it’s straight out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. He burst onto the scene this past season with a 2.78 ERA over 64.2 innings pitched.
Tennessee beat Texas A&M in the College World Series final at the end of June. Things got testy between Cortez and Moore during Game 2. The former walked the latter on four straight pitches out of the zone. The latter had some choice words for the former!
Chris Cortez and Christian Moore went from enemies to teammates overnight. Quite literally!
Moore was drafted No. 8 overall by the Angels. Cortez was also drafted by Los Angeles with the No. 45 overall pick in the second round. They will both begin their careers together on the Minor League level, presumably in High-A or Double-A. Maybe even lower. It depends on how quickly the MLB club wants to move them through the system. There is a chance that Moore could start higher than Cortez.
Either way, the two former SEC adversaries will soon cross paths as professional teammates and must quickly squash the beef!