Roch Cholowsky, UCLA’s selfless superstar, could be top pick in MLB draft

The request came in like so many others, a sick kid wanting to connect with a star college athlete.

Hearing about the situation, Roch Cholowsky took off like he was trying to beat out an infield single. The UCLA shortstop went to see the teenage boy battling a rare and aggressive cancer before his coach had even asked whether he could find the time.

In characteristic fashion for someone who tends to take things to the extreme, Cholowsky didn’t just show up to visit Johnny Brande – he brought the entire team.

Thirty players crammed into that hospital room on the night before the Bruins commenced their postseason run to the 2025 College World Series.

This was no photo op. Cholowsky returned with another group of teammates the following fall, continually corresponded with the kid via direct messages and wrote J.B. on his cleats after Brande passed away in December.

“I could start crying again,” Erin Brande, Johnny’s mother, told the California Post, “because what he meant and what he did for Johnny made the difference for our son.”

Putting others first has become a theme for the player widely expected to go before anyone else in the Major League Baseball draft on Saturday.

Cholowsky honored a late travel-ball friend by writing his number in the infield dirt when he took his position and again near home plate before at-bats. He gave every UCLA teammate cleats as part of his deal with Nike. He even watered the outfield grass at his home field, a soon-to-be millionaire pitching in to keep Jackie Robinson Stadium pristine.

One of his first acts after UCLA’s season-ending loss last month was to console the devastated bat boy, locking the teary kid in a warm embrace.

“That,” said Jack Savage, son of Bruins coach John Savage, “should tell you everything you need to know about Roch.”

Cholowsky’s allegiance to everything blue and gold had started when he prioritized UCLA over pro baseball out of high school and then doubled down by staying when he could have left to cash in elsewhere after a year or two.

The selfless superstar’s reward will come when the Chicago White Sox – one of the handful of teams he had been speaking with coming out of high school – are widely expected to make Cholowsky the first pick in the draft.

Bruin Believer

Combining a strong arm with a smooth, powerful swing, superior instincts and enough speed to steal 30 bases at the major league level, Cholowsky features a rare profile. One pro scout compared the 6-foot-2, 202-pounder to Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story, a two-time All-Star.

“He’s got all the tools,” the scout told the Post, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to publicly disclose his opinion on college players.

Cholowsky finished his college career having taken UCLA from a losing season as a freshman back to the College World Series as a sophomore, winning a legion of admirers along the way. 

“What’s telling for me,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, himself a former Bruin, “is that he stuck around at UCLA and didn’t chase the short money and the NIL.”

His final college season featured a pulsating blend of highs and lows.

Having gone the entire season as the nation’s top-ranked team – winning the Big Ten Tournament with a series of improbable walk-offs – the Bruins failed to advance out of the NCAA Tournament Regional they hosted.

It was a bummer of an ending to a season to remember.

After hitting .320 while leading the Bruins with 21 homers and a 1.088 OPS, Cholowsky was selected the Big Ten Player of the Year for a second consecutive time, joining Luke Appert and Barry Larkin as the only players in conference history to go back to back.

While Larkin went on to a Hall of Fame career as a shortstop with the Cincinnati Reds, Appert batted .266 over six minor league seasons and never reached the major leagues. Appert’s career trajectory is a reminder that there’s no guarantees in baseball.

Why, Roch’s own father, Daniel Cholowsky – a Hall of Fame infielder at Cal and a supplemental first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1991 – also never played in the big leagues, going on to work as a baseball scout.

The scout who spoke with the Post said a similar fate for Roch was unlikely.

“Look, he goes 1-1,” the scout said, referring to the first pick of the first round, “he’s going to play in the big leagues, almost certainly. But living up to the billing of being 1-1 is not easy.”

Competitive Streak

Cholowsky, who politely declined to be interviewed for this story, has fit a unique mold since birth.

His mother, Tika, intended to name him Daniel John, after his father. But Daniel didn’t want his son to be a Jr. So the parents agreed on Daniel Roch Cholowsky, the middle name mirroring that of Tika’s father, Jacques Roch Belanger.

After the elder Daniel started introducing his son as Roch, the name stuck. (It also led to plenty of pun possibilities – Roch star! Roch fever! School of Roch! – for an eventual megastar.)

The father struck a nurturing tone when it came to baseball, never pressuring his son or questioning his decisions.

“My husband would always wait until Roch was ready to come to him and say, ‘Hey, dad, what do you think about what I did?’ or ‘How can I do this?’ and they would sit on the couch and they would talk about it,” Tika said, “so I feel like Dan allows Roch to be his own person when it came to playing.”

Rotating through a smorgasbord of sports – football, basketball, volleyball, golf and even badminton in addition to baseball – taught Cholowsky the value of teamwork and collectively executing a plan.

That’s not to say he became some unselfish softie. A fierce competitive streak was evident during a January intrasquad game involving the Bruins.

Annoyed by the other team’s repeated timeouts, Cholowsky voiced his displeasure at high volume from his post at shortstop.

“He won’t stop harping about it,” said the scout, who was in attendance, “and a kid ends up striking out and as he’s running back to the dugout, [Cholowsky] hollers, pretty much to everybody that can hear, ‘It doesn’t matter anyway! He struck out!’ ”

There figures to be plenty of hubbub among the throng of friends and family who will gather for a draft viewing party in Cholowsky’s hometown of Chandler, Ariz. The celebration will extend beyond his selection given that a slew of teammates also figure to be top picks.

Expect Cholowsky to revel in their successes as much as his own, his bighearted side emerging once more.

“Just the unselfishness that I see day in and day out is what really separates him,” John Savage said. “When you talk about the winning ways and winning foundation of a player, he’s a poster child for that.”

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