The kid always believed he would get here.
When he was little, Roch Cholowsky wrote letters saying he would play in Yankee Stadium someday.
Before he bypassed a chance to go high in the MLB draft out of high school, the precocious shortstop spoke with a local TV station, telling the reporter that his goal was to be the top pick but that he needed to refine his game by going to UCLA.
“I saved it,” Tika Cholowsky, Roch’s mother, recently told the California Post, “and I was looking through some stuff and I saw that and I just went, ‘Wow.’ ”
Wow indeed.
Fulfilling his own prophecy, Roch Cholowsky on Saturday became the top pick.
The White Sox — among the handful of teams that were talking to Cholowsky coming out of high school — made Cholowsky the first No. 1 pick from UCLA since Gerrit Cole in 2011.
It wasn’t much of a surprise. Cholowsky was widely expected to be the top pick even before a junior season in which he reaffirmed his status as the most promising player in the college game.
Cholowsky broke into tears as soon as the pick was announced, his mother pulling him close and giving a kiss on the cheek.
“It was a lot of emotions this morning,” Cholowsky said during an interview with NBC. “I found out a couple of hours ago and didn’t tell anybody until I got here – everyone found out with the pick, so I’m just excited to have everyone here and I’m ready to get to work.”
Cholowsky was selected as the Big Ten’s Player of the Year for a second consecutive season — joining Barry Larkin and Luke Appert as the only conference players to go back-to-back.
Big Ten coaches were not casting any sympathy votes.
Once again, Cholowsky had earned his standing as the conference’s most dominant player. He hit .320 with 60 runs batted in and a team-leading 21 home runs while getting plunked by pitches a program-record 25 times, reflecting his fearsome status.
One pro scout who saw Cholowsky told The Post that “he’s got all the tools” and compared him to Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story, a two-time All-Star.
“His best tool for that position is going to be the arm, and then the glove and then the range,” the scout said of Cholowsky, “but he can play shortstop and he’s got power — it’s a great profile overall.”
It’s one that also includes a family history of success in the game.
Cholowsky’s father, Daniel, was a Hall of Fame infielder at Cal before being selected as a supplemental first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1991. Daniel never played in the big leagues before becoming a longtime pro scout and a nurturing influence on his son.
“Never, ever did I see him — not once — get on Roch from the time he was little until even now after a game,” Tika said. “I’ve seen parents get on their kids and say, ‘Why didn’t you do this?’ right after a game.
“Never once did I see my husband do that.”
Reaffirming his decision to delay his pro career, Cholowsky said he’s a much better player now than when arrived at UCLA.
“I just think I’ve learned a lot more about the game and I’ve polished a lot of parts of my game, you know?” he said. “I was solid in high school, I knew there was a lot to work on and I thought that going to college really helped me … turn myself into exactly who I wanted to be and there’s a lot of work left to be done.”
Jackson Flora, a right-handed pitcher from UC Santa Barbara who went 12-0 with a 1.06 earned-run average, went No. 4 overall to the San Francisco Giants.
