The 2023 MLB Draft is less than a month away, which means now is a great time to learn about the latest crop of talented amateur players about to enter the pro ranks. One of the easiest ways to familiarize yourself with some of these players would be to tune in to the D-I Men’s College World Series, which begins this Friday in Omaha and features a healthy number of players on these rankings competing for a national championship. Next week, the third annual MLB Draft Combine will commence at Chase Field in Arizona, with many of the top college and high school players participating in interviews and workouts for all 30 MLB teams.
So, who should you expect to hear their names early on Draft night in Seattle on July 9? Here’s a look at my top 30 prospects for the 2023 MLB Draft:
1. OF Dylan Crews — Louisiana State University
In another timeline, Crews signs with some lucky team as a celebrated high-school hitter in 2020 and rockets through the minors as one of the game’s best prospects, perhaps even reaching the majors in 2023 like one of his peers on the showcase circuit, Jordan Walker. Instead, Crews withdrew his name from the 2020 MLB Draft and followed his dream to play at powerhouse LSU, where he quickly became one of the most feared and respected hitters the D-I level has ever seen. At an even 6-feet and 200 pounds, Crews doesn’t jump off the screen on physicality alone. But just watch him for one game and you’ll quickly understand why fans, coaches, and MLB evaluators are smitten with his ability and future potential.
Maybe the best word to describe Crews in the box is “aptitude.” He combines an expert-level understanding of his own strengths and how he’s being attacked with the cool confidence of someone who knows he’s the best player on the field.
I watched Crews in person at an early-season tournament and I was blown away by how his offensive ability manifested over the course of a weekend. After flying out and striking out his first two plate appearance on Friday, Crews proceeded to collect nine hits in his next 11 at-bats over three games. While none of them left the yard, it was an unbelievable laser show of balls sprayed all around the diamond seemingly at will. I can’t remember ever watching one player hit a ball hard nearly every time up over the course of an entire weekend. It was wild to watch.
That was February. It is now June, and Crews boasts a preposterous slash line of .434/.576/.735 in 304 plate appearances with 17 home runs and 67 RBI in 63 contests. He has reached base in every game, and will take that streak to Omaha with the College World Series-bound Tigers, which is exactly what he dreamed of doing when he committed to the Tigers as a high schooler.
If there’s one thing to nitpick, it’s that Crews hits the ball on the ground a considerable amount for someone with his power, but that feels like something he’ll have the ability to improve upon in pro ball when given the time and space to meticulously craft his best possible swing to maximize his elite approach. Crews has a decent chance to stick in center field, but even if he slides over to right, no one has any doubt that the bat will play. Overall, you’d be hard pressed to find a more well-rounded player who offers both a safe floor and superstar-level upside. The Pirates shouldn’t overthink this. He’s 1.1.
2. RHP Paul Skenes — Louisiana State University
The first thing that stands out when you watch Skenes is simple: he’s enormous. At 6-foot-6, 247 pounds, Skenes exemplifies mound presence to an extreme degree. Before his delivery even commences, you can already sense that Skenes personifies what it means to be a power pitcher.
Then he throws a pitch, and you quickly realize this isn’t just any power pitcher. This is maybe the hardest-throwing starting pitcher college baseball has ever seen. And he’s making it look easy.
It’s borderline impossible to believe that just a year ago, this behemoth of baseball talent was at the Air Force Academy as a two-way player — and not just any two-way player; Skenes suited up as a catcher! When Skenes arrived on campus via the transfer portal last summer, headlines hailed the Tigers’ acquisition of such tantalizing two-way talent, one who had hit .367/.453/.669 with 24 HR in 100 games at Air Force. By the end of the fall, though, it was clear he wouldn’t be picking up a bat at all come spring. We’ve seen our fair share of two-way sensations at the D-I level in recent years, but Skenes’ skills on the mound were too overwhelming to ignore or distract from. It was time for Skenes to focus on being the best pitcher in America.
And that he was. Under the tutelage of renowned LSU pitching coach Wes Johnson, Skenes has authored one of the most dominant starting pitching seasons in D-I history. He enters Omaha with an astonishing 1.77 ERA across 17 starts, having punched out 188 (!!!) batters to just 18 free passes. With a fastball that sits comfortably at 99 for the entirety of outings and a slider from hell that is a nightmare to deal with, Skenes has multiple ways to embarrass and stifle opposing hitters. Oh and by the way: the change-up ain’t bad, either.
From his sturdy build to his clean delivery to his overpowering arsenal to his work ethic and top-of-the-line makeup off the field, you couldn’t ask for much more from an amateur pitcher. Can Skenes actually dominate to this extent in pro ball right away? We’ll see. Plus, no matter how perfect the package appears, all pitchers come with greater injury risk than position players. Still, unless Crews unexpectedly drops beyond the top pick and gives them a tough decision to mark, I’m not expecting Skenes to fall past the Nationals’ pick at No. 2.
3. OF Wyatt Langford — University of Florida
Zero games started, four at-bats. That’s how much playing time Langford got as a freshman in 2021 at Florida, stuck behind several other talented outfielders on a traditionally loaded Gators roster. But as his historic sophomore year unfolded in 2022 — a year in which he posted a 1.166 OPS with 26 homers — it became increasingly hard to fathom that a player of Langford’s caliber was ever buried on the depth chart. With a far shorter track record of elite performance than Crews, it’s difficult to argue for Langford as the superior prospect but the pure production over strictly the last two seasons has been undeniably comparable, with Langford arguably finishing stronger this spring than Crews.
Langford doesn’t have the same command of the strike zone as Crews (to be fair, who does?), but he arguably has just as much — if not more — raw power and his swing is geared more for airborne contact. On defense, he’s a plus runner who has spent some time in center field but seems more likely to end up in a corner than Crews does. I’m still grappling with this level of prospect asserting himself to this degree in such a short amount of time, but it doesn’t take long watching this dude play to understand why teams consider him a lock for the top five, and a potentially fantastic consolation prize for those picking at the top who aren’t getting a shot at Crews. The real fun part? Both will be competing in Omaha for a national champions
4. OF Max Clark — Franklin Community High School (Franklin, IN)
As a left-handed-hitting no-doubt center fielder with a balanced offensive profile to boot, Clark’s game resembles that of Cubs top prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong, a first-round pick back in 2020. Clark is more good than outstanding with the glove the way PCA has been for years, but he also offers more present strength and offensive impact now than Crow-Armstrong did as an amateur. The other major difference? Crow-Armstrong was the product of a Harvard-Westlake program in Los Angeles that has several notable alumni currently in the big leagues, while Clark hails from the Indianapolis suburb of Franklin — not exactly a hotbed of future baseball superstars.
This is a small but significant part of what has made Clark’s development into one of the best high school players in America so remarkable. He first grabbed the attention of scouts while facing older competition as an eighth grader for the Indiana Bulls, a travel team that consists of many of the best players in the region. Without facing elite competition in the spring, Clark had to make the most of his summers excelling against the best players from around the country. That’s exactly what he did, especially last year in the most important summer of all, raking at nearly every high-profile event before capping it off with a standout showing for the 18U national team:
It’s possible Clark is just scratching the surface of his offensive potential, but his floor as a strong defensive center fielder with plus speed on the bases who will make consistent hard contact from the left side is maybe the best reason why he could be the first high school player off the board in July.
5. OF Walker Jenkins — South Brunswick (Southport, NC)
Jenkins and Clark have been jockeying for the top spot among prep bats for much of the last year, with Jenkins’ big spring vaulting him ahead of Clark in the eyes of many evaluators. Jenkins has been considered one of the premier bats in his class dating back to his freshman year, so it’s no surprise to see him squarely in the conversation for a top-five, maybe even top-three selection next month.
Though teams were already plenty familiar with his game, Jenkins missed some opportunities to cement his status atop the class last summer when a hamate injury kept him from competing in a few of the top showcase events, opening the door for a player like Clark to join him atop the prep rankings. He’s made up for that lost time this spring with some memorable showings in front of a lot of high-level evaluators, reminding the industry that his pure offensive ceiling is not just higher than Clark’s, but than any other prep hitter in the class. Whether he goes ahead of Clark or not, the two will surely be compared for years to come, even if their games are considerably different. I can go back and forth on which one I prefer, but one thing’s for sure: I’d be pretty amped to draft either player.
[What we learned in MLB this week: The A’s still belong to Oakland]
6. INF Tommy Troy — Stanford University
On a Stanford roster loaded with former high-profile recruits and big-time college performers, Troy stands out as the Cardinal’s most promising pro prospect. He’s played mostly second and third base for Stanford but spent the bulk of his time at shortstop, where he shined as one of the best players in the Cape Cod League last summer. Shortstop is likely the position a team drafting him in the top 10 would see him as long-term. The defensive versatility and comfort at multiple spots on the dirt is nice, but it is Troy’s offensive game that earns him a spot in my personal top 10.
More specifically, I appreciate the degree to which Troy has improved in each of his three seasons, with his OPS steadily climbing from .826 as a freshman to .955 as a sophomore to 1.194 as a junior while slashing his strikeout rate from 25.8% to 19.4% to 14.7% along the way. It doesn’t hurt that Stanford has made three straight runs to the College World Series, consistently raising the stakes and growing the stage on which Troy has repeatedly performed especially well — each year, his best ball has come in May and June. He’s the total package, and trending in the right direction. Now’s a good time to buy Tommy Troy stock.
7. RHP Chase Dollander — University of Tennessee
Before Skenes became Superman in Baton Rouge, it was Dollander who had scouts wondering about the last time they saw a college pitcher with such an electric arsenal and silky-smooth delivery to match. The right-hander burst on the national scene last year as a sophomore at Tennessee after transferring from Georgia Southern, striking out a ridiculous 108 batters compared to just 13 free passes allowed with a 2.39 ERA. Though the strikeouts kept piling up this spring as a junior, the command regressed considerably, resulting in more walks and more troublingly, more hard contact allowed.
It was odd to watch at times considering the overwhelming raw stuff — a high-90’s, high-spin four-seamer with impressive impact at the top of the zone, a sharp high-80’s slider and a change-up with serious fade — was largely intact all year. Still, the ingredients are every bit as present for a team with strong pitching development to maximize Dollander into a bona fide dude atop a big-league rotation.
8. RHP Rhett Lowder — Wake Forest University
What a treat it has been to watch Lowder methodically carve up opposing lineups every week for the best team in college baseball — and how fortunate we are that we’ll see it at least one more time in the College World Series. The back-to-back ACC Pitcher of the Year, Lowder arrives in Omaha a flawless 15-0 on the season in 17 starts with a 1.92 ERA and a sensational 131:21 K:BB ratio. Though he doesn’t throw as hard as Skenes or Dollander, you certainly wouldn’t call Lowder a soft-tosser by any means. His mid-90’s heater has plenty of arm-side life geared more for inducing weak contact than generating whiffs. When he needs a strikeout, he’ll go to his sharp slider or his trademark changeup that is arguably the best of any at the D-I level. Lowder always appears in complete control of the game, brilliantly commanding and executing his pitches over the course of a start, and utilizing his arsenal to yield whatever result the situation calls for. He might come off like the safer option relative to the other Day 1-caliber college arms, but if Lowder is a mid-rotation starter in short order like many scouts expect him to be, any team should be thrilled to have him.
9. SS Arjun Nimmala — Strawberry Crest (Dover, FL)
With some of the best bat speed in the class, an ultra-projectable frame and an excellent chance to stick at shortstop, Nimmala checked a ton of boxes and established himself as a favorite among scouts by the end of last summer. Additionally, the fact that he doesn’t turn 18 until October will score him significant bonus points for organizations that place significant emphasis on age and value players who are able to compete (and excel) against older competition as amateurs. Nimmala has done exactly that in recent years, making it easy to get excited about what’s possible for the young infielder as he grows into his body and continues to sharpen his skills in pro ball.
10. C Kyle Teel — University of Virginia
He might not be a generational talent like Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman was considered atop the 2019 Draft, but Teel is far and away the most enticing college catcher in this year’s class and deserves to be drafted accordingly. Well-regarded as a high school catcher at Mahwah High School in New Jersey, Teel withdrew from the 2020 Draft to honor his commitment to UVA, a decision that turned out to be rather prudent: projected as a second- or third-round pick out of high school, Teel will now likely go somewhere in the top half of the first round.
Known best for uncommon athleticism for his position, Teel leveled up his offensive game this spring with markedly more power to go along with an already mature approach. Teel batted third as a freshman during UVA’s run to Omaha in 2021, but he was playing right field then with upperclassmen assuming catching duties. He’ll be catching this time around, and look for him to impact the game on both sides of the ball — whether it be cutting down baserunners with his rocket arm or powering the UVA offense — as the Cavaliers make another run at a national title.
11. SS Jacob Gonzalez — University of Mississippi
While the Rebels had a ridiculously volatile last three years — they finished dead last in the SEC this season after winning the national championship in 2022 — Gonzalez has been steadily stellar the entire time. His setup in the box is undeniably unusual — it’s a notably open stance, though his hands stay way behind his head before uncorking an otherwise sweet-looking swing — but it’s extremely difficult to argue with the production: a career .319/.427/.561 line in 186 games with more walks than strikeouts while playing a strong shortstop in the best conference in college baseball. What more could you ask for? He checks nearly every box you could want on paper, but his unorthodox look at the plate may give some teams pause about his offensive game translating to the next level.
12. RHP Hurston Waldrep — University of Florida
Waldrep transferred to Florida after a breakout sophomore season at Southern Miss, a move that’s proven massively impactful for both player and team with Waldrep delivering two epic postseason performances to help the powerhouse Gators return to Omaha for the first time since 2018. As demonstrated in his eight scoreless innings vs. South Carolina, Waldrep is at his best when he’s attacking relentlessly with his two ridiculous secondary pitches, a split-change and a slider;
This may sound strange for a pitcher who can also reach 99 with his fastball, but Waldrep’s heater has played down this spring due to below-average command and occasional overuse in counts that called for one of his dastardly secondaries. Still, the plus velo provides a nice foundation on which any interested MLB team would happily build a frontline arsenal around considering the strong secondaries already in place. The delivery isn’t the prettiest but Waldrep has been plenty durable thus far, and after a shaky first few months in Gainesville, he’s clearly peaking at the right time. One more dominant outing in Omaha could secure a spot in the middle of the first round.
13. SS Matt Shaw — University of Maryland
Maryland has fielded some strong teams in years past, but its recent run of dominance in the Big Ten — the Terps haven’t lost a conference series since April of 2021 — can at least in part be tied to Shaw’s arrival on campus as a promising recruit from the Massachusetts high school ranks. Coming off a 22-homer sophomore spring, his draft stock soared last summer when he won MVP of the prestigious Cape Cod League. He carried that momentum into this spring when he hit .341 with 24 homers, walked more than he struck out, and stole 18 bags in 19 tries. He might not stick at shortstop long-term as a pro, but even at second base he should meaningfully impact the game on both sides of the ball. I’m a huge fan of this kid.
14. 3B Brock Wilken — Wake Forest University
Speaking of Cape Cod League MVPs, Wilken earned the honor in 2021, the summer before Shaw — and he did it as a rising sophomore, unlike the bulk of the league competing as rising juniors or older. The hulking Wilken is a prototypical slugging corner prospect, with some of the most raw juice in this entire draft class. Wake Forest has a notoriously homer-friendly ballpark, but most of Wilken’s blasts have the distance to leave any yard, and 33 of his school-record 70 career dingers have come away from Winston-Salem anyway. The power has never been in question, but the approach was something of a concern entering this spring after his strikeouts spiked significantly as a sophomore. Credit to Wilken, he course-corrected dramatically as a junior, slashing his K-rate from 24.2% to 17.1% and raising his walk-rate from 11.6% to 21.9%. The prodigious power, refined approach, and solid defense at third base with an easy plus arm should make him a slam-dunk first rounder.
15. RHP Noble Meyer — Jesuit (Beaverton, OR)
Hats off to the Catholic prep school outside of Portland for somehow producing the best high-school pitcher in the Draft for the second time in four years, with Mick Abel going 15th overall to the Phillies in 2020 and now Meyer slated to go roughly in the same range in 2023. Meyer was downright dominant last summer and separated himself even further from his fellow high-school hurlers with continued excellence this spring. It’d be a stretch to call it “funky” by any means, but Meyer does throw from a lower slot than traditionally associated with frontline arms. That said, the stuff — a high-90’s heater, hellaciously high-spin-rate slider and wicked change-up — are exactly what you’d want to see from the best prep arm in America. The risks of drafting and developing pitchers who throw this hard this young are well-documented, but talent of Meyer’s caliber can be well worth the gamble.
16. C Blake Mitchell — Sinton (Sinton, TX)
In each of the past 14 drafts, there’s been at least one first-round pick from the Texas high school ranks. Mitchell, an all-around talent from just outside Corpus Christi, will likely keep that streak going next month. High-school catchers are a traditionally terrifying demographic on which to use high draft picks, but Mitchell offers some level of certainty for interested teams as one of the better pure bats among his prep peers. It doesn’t hurt that his rocket arm and solid receiving skills help him project as a strong defender at the game’s demanding position, but it gives teams comfort to know his left-handed bat should still play if he were to move out from behind the plate to first base or corner outfield — and it’s possible he hits so well that such a move will make the most sense.
The fact that he’s been up to 97 mph on the mound with a solid breaking ball and no teams are seriously considering him as a pitcher should tell you a lot about how highly they view him as a position player. That said, his skills on the mound do reinforce his overall athleticism and offer an intriguing safety net should his bat unexpectedly falter at the next level.
17. SS Colin Houck — Parkview (Lilburn, GA)
MLB Draft history is littered with physically gifted high-school athletes who excel at quarterback in the fall and shortstop in the spring. Houck, who threw for over 2,100 yards as a senior at powerhouse Parkview, is this year’s prime example of such a player, though he’s been consistent regarding his intentions of sticking on the diamond despite his success on the gridiron. As with any multi-sport athlete, it’s easy for teams to dream on Houck’s potential once baseball is his only focus, but it would be underselling Houck to label him as “raw” or “unrefined” the way some football or basketball players transitioning to baseball full-time are often labeled. He already demonstrated an impressive feel to hit last summer against top competition, and has carried that momentum over into this spring. That QB athleticism predictably translates well in his defensive skills on the left side of the infield, though it remains to be seen if shortstop is a better fit for him long-term than third base.
18. OF Enrique Bradfield Jr. — Vanderbilt University
There’s simply been no one like Bradfield Jr. in college baseball during his three years in Nashville, and that’s exactly what makes him one of the draft’s most polarizing prospects. Everyone knew about Bradfield Jr.’s spectacular speed when he arrived on campus, but it was unclear to what degree it would impact the game on a regular basis. Three years, 130 stolen bases and a feature-length film’s worth of jaw-dropping plays in center field later, we’ve got our answer: he’s one of the best defensive outfielders and prolific base-stealers we’ve ever seen at the college level.
But now what? We can all rightfully freak out over his college highlights, but what’s next for a player like this? Proponents can reasonably point to Bradfield’s near-elite control of the strike zone as evidence he’ll reach base enough in pro ball to show off his speed; his strong contact skills are paired with an excellent eye that yielded more walks than strikeouts in each of his three seasons. Detractors insist that Bradfield Jr.’s severe lack of power will limit his ability to meaningfully impact the game on offense, even if he can draw walks. Yet perhaps the biggest development over the course of his career was entirely out of Bradfield’s control but may work significantly in his favor. The new MLB rules that have helped re-introduce the stolen base as a more important part of the game couldn’t have come at a better time for Bradfield Jr., and may help secure him a spot in the middle of the first round that otherwise may have been in question after a relatively underwhelming junior spring. Wherever he goes, I can’t wait to see how it plays out. There’s only one EBJ.
19. SS Jacob Wilson — Grand Canyon University
The son of former slick-fielding Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson, the younger Wilson has captivated fans and MLB teams alike with his otherworldly bat-to-ball skills and all-around play as the face of one of college baseball’s best mid-major programs. He somehow shrunk his microscopic 2.5% strikeout rate as a sophomore to 2.3% this spring, striking out just five times in 217 plate appearances across 48 games (and zero times in his final 24 games) while hitting .411/.461/.635 along the way. The SLG% is certainly a bit misleading and largely the product of the favorable offensive environment he played in — the batted ball data suggests Wilson has well-below-average raw power, which raises the question of just how much offensive impact to expect in pro ball.
The fact that he can play a good shortstop lowers the bar to clear than if he needed to move to third or second base, but this is still a crucial component of projecting Wilson moving forward. Nick Madrigal is a cautionary tale of a highly drafted contact maven with severely limited juice strugglingly mightily to produce offensively in the Majors. However, it’s also a reminder of Wilson’s likely floor as a useful big leaguer in some capacity, which is not something you can say about every first round pick. If a team can help him add some thump to his game, he could be pretty special. Otherwise, Wilson reads more safe than star at this stage.
20. 3B Brayden Taylor — Texas Christian University
Though not nearly as physically imposing as Morales or Wilken at the hot corner, Taylor offers an awfully balanced offensive profile and one that has been on full display down the stretch this season for the Horned Frogs. After hitting just .268 through May 2 leaving some to wonder if he could slip out of the first round entirely — an inconceivable notion at the start of the year — Taylor has launched nine homers over his last 19 games and raised his average to .314. The elite approach and pitch selection has always been intact, but the rediscovery of his power stroke is what has him surging back up Draft boards in recent weeks. We’ll see if he can continue to raise his stock with TCU in Omaha.
21. 3B Aidan Miller — J.W. Mitchell (New Port Richey, FL)
Had Miller not broken his hamate bone and missed the bulk of his senior spring, it’s possible we’d be talking about Miller as a potential top-10 pick. Instead, he may have to settle for being selected somewhere in the teens by a team enamored with his offensive potential. At the same time, it might be a mistake to knock Miller down any draft board too significantly considering the degree to which he proved his worth last year as one of the stars of the showcase circuit against the best competition — something he’d done for multiple summers as one of the top players in his class since he was a freshman. Model-driven teams may be scared off by Miller’s older age relative to his peers (he just turned 19 last week and is roughly 16 months older than fellow Tampa-area prospect Nimmala), but potential plus hit, plus power combos among prepsters are rare — and the track record here is substantial regardless of the time he missed this spring.
22. INF Kevin McGonigle — Monsignor Bonner (Drexel Hill, PA)
McGonigle’s scouting report reads similarly to that of another promising prep bat from the other side of the Keystone State in Cole Young, who went 21st overall to the Mariners in last year’s Draft out of a Pittsburgh-area high school. McGonigle, a Philadelphia native, comes with a little more pop and a lower chance to stick at shortstop than Young, but most importantly, each possesses a sweet left-handed swing that yielded consistent results against top competition on the showcase circuit. The rest of the profile doesn’t jump off the page the way some other high-ceiling high school players’ tools do, but the hit tool will always be king when evaluating young position players and McGonigle boasts one of the stronger ones in the class. Any team bullish on his ability to stick at shortstop and/or add more power will happily scoop him up in Round 1.
23. OF Chase Davis — University of Arizona
Davis was well-known on the travel ball circuit as a promising young hitter from the Sacramento area who could’ve reasonably gone in the second or third round of the 2020 draft, but many evaluators believed he’d be best-served developing further in the collegiate ranks. With a swing and swag nearly identical to that of former Rockies star Carlos Gonzalez, Davis has made the most of his time at Arizona and really come into his own as a hitter. After only getting 30 at-bats as a freshman, Davis put himself back on the prospect radar with 18 homers as a sophomore before really breaking out this spring with a 1.231 OPS and perhaps most impressively, a drastic cut down in strikeouts from 22.8% in 2022 to 14.4% in 2023. His average speed should make him more of a decent corner outfielder than a threat on the bases — Davis only swiped four bags as a Wildcat, and zero this season — but any interested team will be buying the bat here regardless of the secondary skills.
24. 1B/OF Nolan Schanuel — Florida Atlantic University
As a prep player at Park Vista Community High School in Boynton Beach — a school that boasts Trea Turner as an alum — Schanuel was well-regarded among a loaded Florida high school class in 2020 that also featured Crews, Langford, Bradfield Jr., Wilken and Morales. However, Schanuel took a different path than his peers in honoring his commitment to Florida Atlantic, ultimately making him one of just two mid-major college bats on this list alongside Wilson at Grand Canyon. Conference USA might not be the ACC or SEC, but the stupendous numbers Schanuel has produced in college — the dude hit .385/.516/.698 with 46 HR and more than double the amount of walks (138) to strikeouts (57) in 172 games — are so overwhelming that evaluators are confident that the left-handed slugger’s bat is for real. Whether he’s a first baseman or corner outfielder, his offensive potential should land him somewhere in the back half of the first round.
25. 1B/RHP Bryce Eldridge — James Madison (Vienna, VA)
It wasn’t that long ago that teams would’ve been quick to assume a two-way talent as gargantuan as Eldridge — listed at 6-foot—7, 223 pounds — would more likely find success in pro ball on the mound than at the plate. But with more XL-size hitters (even beyond Aaron Judge) like James Wood and Spencer Jones flourishing in pro ball, teams aren’t as eager to write off a taller hitter’s ability to make it work at the next level if they can demonstrate worthwhile upside in the box. Eldridge has also made it easier for scouts this spring to lean in that direction as his progress on the mound has stalled while his bat has exploded in an ultra-exciting way. While it’s no surprise that Eldridge’s massive frame helps produce substantial raw power from the left side, the question is whether the overall offensive profile is one worthy of a first-round commitment if Eldridge is strictly a first baseman.
26. 3B Yohandy Morales — University of Miami
Morales couldn’t have finished his spring season much stronger. He hit seven homers over his final seven games to bring his season total to 20 and OPS to 1.187, capping off an impressive three-year run manning the hot corner every day for the Hurricanes. He’s packed on roughly 30 pounds of muscle since his days as a highly touted prospect at nearby Braddock High School and that’s helped maximize the electric power potential scouts saw in him as a prep player. The red flags here are below-average pitch recognition and a decent amount of swing-and-miss, but the impact when he makes contact is undeniable. There’s still decent risk here just as there was in high school, but catch this dude on the right day and it’s hard not to fall in love with his upside.
27. SS Brice Matthews — University of Nebraska
It took a few years for Matthews’ elite athleticism to translate to star-level production, but it all came together this spring, as he hit a ridiculous .359/.481/.723 for the Cornhuskers and became the first player in program history with 20 homers and 20 steals in a single season. Sometimes players as naturally gifted as Matthews can succeed strictly on their physical prowess, but Matthews also brings a remarkably advanced approach at the plate that further enhances his overall offensive potential. He cut his strikeout rate from 28% over his first two years to 20% as a junior while walking considerably more and consistently identifying the right pitches to damage. For a player who projects to play up the middle — even if he has to slide over to second base — that’s a tremendously alluring foundation of skills on which to build a future big-league profile. Sign me up.
28. C/1B Ralphy Velazquez — Huntington Beach (Huntington Beach, CA)
As a lefty hitting catcher with significant offensive upside, Velazquez shares many of the same traits as 12th-ranked Blake Mitchell but comes with more questions about his ability to stick behind the plate. He’s certainly got the arm for it, but the lateral quickness and receiving is a work in progress, and may prompt interested teams to send him out as a first baseman from the get-go. The good news is that all the kid has done over the last nine months is mash. His performance on the summer showcase circuit was somewhat uneven, but he’s made up for it in a big way with monster showings at several tournaments this spring, as well as against high quality high-school competition in Southern California. There’s even more pressure on his bat to be real than Mitchell’s considering the possible defensive limitations, but I’m a big believer in Velazquez the hitter and think he belongs in the first round.
29. RHP Charlee Soto — Reborn Christian Academy (Kissimmee, FL)
In a draft severely light on proven (or healthy) college starting pitching, I have a feeling Soto will benefit significantly come draft day as a ridiculously talented young arm whose only real red flags are the risks associated with his demographic as a high-school pitcher. He’s not quite as polished as Meyer atop the high-school pitching class, but you could argue the upside is similar if not even greater. An imposing 6-foot-5, 210 pounds, Soto might not stand out as much as he would’ve ten years ago for his raw velocity at such a young age, but he certainly is an outlier in his advanced feel for a nasty split-change that pairs beautifully off his high-90’s heater. So common is it to read a young pitcher’s scouting report conclude with the throwaway line about how he is working on developing a reliable cambio, but no such concern exists with Soto, who is also capable of ripping off some gnarly sliders as well. There are quite a few high-ceiling prep arms to be had from late in the first round through the second round, but Soto looks to me like the clear best of the bunch.
30. OF Dillon Head — Homewood-Flossmoor (Chicago, IL)
If Bradfield Jr. is your kind of player, you’re in luck: the left-handed hitting Head checks in with similarly blazing speed that makes him a menace on the basepaths and a vacuum in center field, giving him a legitimate chance to go in the first round, which is not something Bradfield Jr. could’ve said even as one of the more famous prep players in the 2020 draft. With a more physical frame and a proven ability to drive the ball for extra-bases, Head has scouts more bullish on his bat translating to pro ball out of high school than they were with Bradfield Jr., but there’s still a considerable amount of risk here. As a northern prep bat, he had relatively limited opportunities to prove it against the best competition outside of the summer showcase circuit, but he showed well in those chances and has all the looks of a prototypical table-setter. It’s possible he takes the Bradfield route by following his commitment to Clemson and becoming one of college baseball’s most electric players, but I could also see some team popping him in the top 40 picks or so.
Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He has covered baseball for his entire adult life, most notably for MLB.com, DAZN and The Ringer. He’s a Mariners fan living in the Eastern Time Zone, which means he loves a good 10 p.m. first pitch. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.
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