The MLB Draft begins in under 60-days. Last year at this time, the Washington Nationals had the No. 1 pick in the draft and took Eli Willits. Today on MLB Pipeline, Willits is the No. 4 prospect in all of baseball. The buzz was reaching a fever pitch at this time a year ago. On July 11, the Nats are picking at No. 11, and the Nats destiny might be decided by the team’s picking in front of them. In 2021, the Nats also had the No. 11 pick and chose Brady House in that draft. There was a time when House was the top name in that prep class. This is considered a good draft class, and the Nats should have a choice of some very good players at 11.
Most of amateur baseball will have wrapped up their regular seasons already or going into this weekend. Looking at the dominant SEC college schedule, their regular season concludes with the final series this weekend. Their conference postseason follows with the SEC Tournament held May 19-24 at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex in Hoover, Alabama. The NCAA Tournament play begins shortly in the final week of May with the College World Series in mid-June.
And in Florida, the high school postseason concludes this weekend with the crowning of its champs at each level up to 7A where head coach Todd Fitz-Gerald‘s Stoneman Douglas public high school goes for their record 6th championship in a row. Every team will have scouts this weekend in Ft. Myers to see the best high schoolers in Florida, and especially to see Gio Rojas, a lefty from Stoneman Douglas. That school in the past 20 years has been a conveyor belt of stars including former Nats draftee, Jesus Luzardo, as well as Nats’ minor league top prospect, Devin Fitz-Gerald.
The mock drafts seem to align the Nats with a different name each week. Just remember that Max Scherzer was the 11th pick of the draft 20 years ago. There have been plenty of stars picked at No. 11. Andrew McCutchen, George Springer, and Garrett Crochet were the 11th picks in their draft classes.
The latest name mocked by Baseball America to the Nats is Drew Burress, from Georgia Tech. By the way, in this mock, Rojas is going 6th overall as the second pitcher taken with Jackson Flora way up to No. 5, and Cameron Flukey who was the runaway name a month ago was dropped to No. 16 after his rib injury. You hear rib injury and you think future TOS. Not a great draft if you are looking for pitching in the first round. Now compare all of that with Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, and he has Rojas going at No. 21. Both Baseball America and ESPN have identical 1-5 picks right now.
For Rojas, that mock at pick No. 6 is the highest we have seen him projected. He had been in the teens, or the 20’s, in every previous mock and had been my first choice for months. In fact picks 5-11 are all newer names that have moved up — and that means several names have dropped back. The college postseason will shake up this list again as names emerge from playing well. Brody Bumila is the second ranked prep arm after Rojas. He’s an intriguing name that has emerged after a no-hitter and 20-K performance, but he pitches in Massachusetts where the talent isn’t deep.
There will also be some key high school invitational tournaments as well as the MLB Combines which usually doesn’t have the top picks, but is a great chance to see lesser known players. MLB began the combine event in 2021.
The Nats bonus pool this year is $12,278,300 with a 1st round slot value of $6,133,500. The Nats could go under slot with their first pick and use that to get more talent later. That strategy seems to be a mark of the past couple of years to get a deeper draft class.
A long way to go in the process for us, and a lot of work ahead for the scouting and draft group.
