The Boston Red Sox went mining for infield depth in a familiar place on the first night of the Major League Baseball draft.
The Red Sox had to wait 42 picks, but when Boston finally went on the clock at No. 43, the defending World Series champions drafted infielder Cameron Cannon from the University of Arizona. That pick comes three years after the Red Sox scooped up power-hitting infielder Bobby Dalbec in the fourth round from the Wildcats.
Cannon and Dalbec didn’t overlap at Arizona, but Cannon hit the ground running in Dalbec’s stead back in 2017. Over the course of three seasons in Tucson, Cannon improved each season. He doesn’t quite have the same amount of pop as Dalbec, but Cannon did hit 16 home runs over his final two seasons. What he lacks in power, at least compared to Dalbec, he more than makes up for in bat-to-ball ability, striking out just 60 times over three seasons. By comparison, Dalbec averaged nearly 65 strikeouts per season over his three years at the U of A.
The hit tool easily is Cannon’s best attribute. Fangraphs saw Cannon as perhaps “the most advanced bat” in the group of draft-eligible major college infielders projected to go in the second round. He hit .397 during his junior season for the Wildcats, a batting average bested by just 16 players in all of Division I college baseball with very few in that group doing so in a conference as competitive as the Pac 12. Cannon has the ability to shoot the gaps, as evidenced by his 29 doubles in 2019, a total that led college baseball.
MLB.com labels Cannon as a “classic grinder who gets the most out of his tools,” touting the infielder as someone whose best attribute is “his ability to make repeated line-drive contact from the right side of the plate.” Cannon also “controls the strike zone well and has grown into some gap power.”
That last bit about the power is pretty interesting. Typically, power is the sort of tool that develops later in a career, and that’s something Cannon sort of displayed during college. He obviously doesn’t have the big-league ready power of someone like Dalbec or even American League rookie of the month Michael Chavis, but it’s reasonable to believe that might come with experience, especially if he’s able to add a little more muscle to his 5-foot-10, 196-pound frame.
Arizona head coach Jay Johnson complimented Cannon’s growth and progression early in the 2018 season, crediting Cannon’s improved pitch selection for early-season production. That progression obviously continued throughout all of last season and into the most recent campaign and should continue at the professional levels.
“I think he’s arguably, right now, one of the best pro prospects on our team,” Johnson said in March of 2018. “He’s got a body that I think can sustain professional baseball. He hits the ball with some authority, which I think as he continues to mature, he’ll do more of it. And he’s played a major league second base for us, defensively, in his ability to turn the double play, to range up on plays in the infield, he’s done a really nice job there.
“I’m happy with his evolution as a player, and I have no doubt it will continue.”
On the defensive side, Cannon’s versatility makes him even more interesting. As Johnson noted above, Cannon played a strong second base for Arizona, but Cannon also played some shortstop, and he spent most of his time in the Cape League at third base.
“(Cannon) has reliable hands and is best suited for second base because his arm is a bit stretched on the left side of the infield,” according to his MLB.com video profile.
That same profile says opinions are split among scouts. Some believe he’ll be able to hit his way onto a big league roster as an everyday player, while others aren’t as sold and project a major league utility player. Regardless, the Red Sox seem to have another solid college player with a high floor and a potentially high ceiling.
