Del Angel earns New Mexico Player of the Year, faces MLB draft decision

Anthony Del Angel’s breakout spring at V. Sue Cleveland High School ended with one question hanging over Rio Rancho: take his shot at the MLB draft in July or honor his verbal commitment to the University of Oklahoma.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound junior utility player and shortstop was named MaxPreps New Mexico Player of the Year, adding another statewide honor to a season that already brought him the 2024-25 Gatorade New Mexico Baseball Player of the Year award on June 3, 2025. Del Angel also was named District 1-5A Player of the Year after helping lead the Storm to the quarterfinals of the Class 5A state tournament.

His numbers explain why the spotlight has sharpened around Cleveland’s baseball program. Del Angel hit .534 with 28 RBI, 17 extra-base hits and seven home runs, and he went 13-for-13 on stolen-base attempts. Perfect Game ranks him No. 13 nationally in the Class of 2026, a profile that puts him among the country’s most closely watched prep players and makes his next move relevant well beyond Sandoval County.

For Cleveland, Del Angel’s season reflects a pipeline that has become one of the strongest in the state. He has played shortstop and utility roles for the Storm, kept a B average in the classroom and carried himself as both a high-end athlete and a steady student. The Gatorade honor also noted his local volunteer work for a childhood cancer fundraiser and through church service, details that shaped the picture of a player whose influence reached beyond the diamond.

The decision ahead is unusually stark. Del Angel has already made a verbal commitment to play baseball on scholarship at Oklahoma beginning in the fall of 2026, but the MLB draft looms in July. One path would send him straight into pro baseball and the uncertainty of the minor leagues. The other would take him to Norman, where he could develop against college competition while keeping the door open to a future draft leap.

However it breaks, the choice will say as much about Cleveland High’s recent rise as it does about Del Angel’s ceiling. In a spring when he was one of the most prominent players in Rio Rancho and across New Mexico, the honors piled up fast. The next decision may prove even bigger.