Three former Camels on MLB rosters

Campbell is a private school in Buies Creek, North Carolina, with an undergraduate enrollment a little above 5,000, and on Opening Day in 2026 it had three former players on Major League Baseball rosters at once. Cedric Mullins opened in center field for the Tampa Bay Rays, Zach Neto opened at shortstop for the Los Angeles Angels, and Ryan Thompson opened in the bullpen for the Arizona Diamondbacks. (gocamels.com) That is not one alumnus hanging on at the edge of a roster. Campbell said nine more alumni opened 2026 on affiliated minor league rosters, and Allan Winans kept pitching professionally in Japan after big-league time with the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees. (gocamels.com) The three names got there by very different routes. Mullins was drafted in the 13th round in 2015, Thompson was drafted in the 23rd round in 2014, and Neto became the highest draft pick in program history when the Angels took him 13th overall in the first round in 2022. (baseball-reference.com 1) (baseball-reference.com 2) (gocamels.com) Neto is the clearest sign of how much the program’s ceiling changed. In his 2022 season at Campbell, he hit.407 with a.514 on-base percentage, a.769 slugging percentage, 15 home runs, 23 doubles, and 19 steals, and the Angels moved him from the draft to the majors by April 15, 2023. (gocamels.com) (baseball-reference.com) By March 26, 2026, Neto was not just on the Angels’ roster but locked in as their starting shortstop on Opening Day. Major League Baseball’s roster report listed him on the 26-man club, and his player record shows he was already in his fourth big-league season at age 25. (mlb.com) (baseball-reference.com) Mullins shows the older version of the same pipeline: find a player, develop him, and let pro ball do the rest. His Baseball-Reference page lists him as a Campbell product drafted by Baltimore in 2015, and his Major League Baseball player page says he split 2025 between the Orioles and Mets before landing with Tampa Bay for 2026. (baseball-reference.com) (mlb.com) By Opening Day this year, Mullins had gone from mid-round college pick to everyday center fielder for a new club. Major League Baseball’s Rays roster coverage carried him into the season opener, and FanGraphs’ Opening Day tracker listed him as a lineup regular in center field. (mlb.com) (fangraphs.com) Thompson is the bullpen version of the same story, and his Campbell résumé still looks absurd a decade later. In 2013 he posted a 0.88 earned run average, which Campbell says was the lowest in school and Big South Conference history, and Baseball-Reference lists him as a 23rd-round pick who reached the majors with Arizona in 2026. (gocamels.com) (baseball-reference.com) Arizona’s Opening Day bullpen had eight relievers, and Thompson was one of them. Major League Baseball’s Diamondbacks roster story named him in that group, while local coverage noted the whole bullpen opened the season with no left-handed reliever at all. (mlb.com) (azpbs.org) Campbell’s baseball rise did not come out of nowhere. The program reached the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament in 2018 and 2019, won the 2019 Big South Conference tournament title, and moved into the Coastal Athletic Association in 2024 after years of stacking conference championships across sports. (ncaa.com) (bigsouthsports.com) (gocamels.com) So the real story is not just that three former Camels were visible on one morning in late March 2026. It is that Campbell now has one alumnus who became a first-round shortstop, one who turned into a veteran everyday center fielder, and one who carved out a long relief role, which is what a real talent pipeline looks like when it starts showing up on Opening Day cards instead of media guides. (gocamels.com 1) (gocamels.com 2) (baseball-reference.com 1) (baseball-reference.com 2)