TAMPA, Fla. - A few takeaways from the first night of the MLB Draft:

Jackson Holliday’s father, former major league outfielder Matt Holliday, knew about the selection 30 seconds ahead of the announcement because he received a call from Scott Boras.

I didn’t make the immediate connection. Boras used to represent Matt, and he negotiated his client’s seven-year, $120 million deal with the Cardinals back in 2010.

Of course, Boras would rep Jackson.

From the moment that the Orioles drafted Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman one/one rather than prep shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. in 2019, they were destined to have their careers tracked side by side. It won’t be the same with Holliday and Druw Jones, who went second to the Diamondbacks, because they weren’t universally seen as the top two prospects in the class. But there will still be comparisons as they embark on their professional careers.

The Orioles had five players on their board through the final weeks leading to tonight’s MLB Draft. They stuck to it, deliberated with scouts and front office personnel in a series of meetings, had a Zoom call with manager Brandon Hyde to bring him into the loop and settled on Oklahoma prep shortstop Jackson Holliday.

Holliday committed to Oklahoma State, but he’s ready to turn professional. Like his father, former major league outfielder and seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday.

The left-handed hitting Jackson, who’s 18 and listed at 6-feet-1 and 175 pounds, set a national record with 89 hits in 41 games at Stillwater High School, passing J.T. Realmuto, while batting .685 with 29 doubles, six triples, 17 home runs, 79 RBIs, 74 runs scored, a .749 on-base percentage and a 1.392 slugging percentage.

He has a knack for putting the barrel on the ball, as noted just about everywhere.

It's no wonder that Holliday was named Oklahoma's prep player of the year.

For the third time in club history tonight the Orioles had the overall No. 1 selection in the MLB Draft. And after taking Ben McDonald in 1989 and Adley Rutschman 30 years later, the O’s went into the high school ranks tonight to select shortstop Jackson Holliday from Stillwater (Okla.) High School.

He is the first high school player the O’s selected with their top pick since pitcher Grayson Rodriguez in 2018, and first high school position player they spent their top pick on since Manny Machado was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2010 draft.

As it turns out, Holliday, 18, found out he would be an Oriole about the same time the rest of us did.

“I kind of found out as they were saying it,” he told O’s reporters on a team Zoom call. “That was kind of cool. My dad didn’t really tell me. He was on the phone and then he’s like ‘All right, just going to find out.’ That was very, very neat and something I’ll never forget. I didn’t know it was a possibility, to be honest, going into the high school season. I just wanted to help my team and hopefully put myself into a good position heading into today.”

Holliday said his dad, former big leaguer Matt Holliday, was on the phone with his representative, Scott Boras.

We are now less than two weeks away from the First-Year Player Draft, where for the third time in draft history the Orioles will have the No. 1 overall pick. They selected pitcher Ben McDonald out of LSU No. 1 in 1989 and catcher Adley Rutschman No. 1 out of Oregon State in 2019.

Now for the second time in four drafts, they again pick 1/1.

Here are the latest top five player draft rankings, which includes four high school players at the top, by MLBPipeline.com:

* No. 1 – Georgia high school outfielder Druw Jones. He is the son of five-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner Andruw Jones. The 18-year-old Jones gets 70 tool grades for running and fielding, and he could grow into plus power, too.

* No. 2 – Oklahoma high school shortstop Jackson Holliday. Yes, another son of a famous father, his dad is a seven-time All-Star outfielder. The younger Holliday has an impressive advanced hitting approach, and added size and strength this year.