With the Boston Red Sox being one of the hottest teams in all of baseball during the month of June, the upcoming Major League Baseball draft has somewhat flown under the radar.
But the Red Sox, stationed in the back half of the first round, will be on the clock in the near future with the draft now less than a month away.
The Athletic’s Keith Law recently took a stab at what direction Boston may go in with the No. 24 overall pick, and has the Red Sox selecting Stanford outfielder Brock Jones. In his junior year with the Cardinal this season, the lefty batted .324 with 21 home runs and 55 RBIs while also swiping 16 bases.
Going this late in the first round didn’t seem possible for Jones several months ago. Law noted that coming into the college baseball season, Jones was viewed as a player who could go in the top 10, and possibly even the top five. But a poor start to the season ended any notion of Jones being one of the top picks.
If the Red Sox go this route, Law believes Boston is betting on the major upside Jones possesses since he isn’t the most polished hitter in the draft.
Here’s the scouting report of Jones that Law provided:
Jones came into the spring with top-5 pick buzz, then got off to a miserable start for the Cardinal, but he turned his season around when conference play started, hitting .350/.490/.795 in the PAC-12 — albeit with a 26 percent strikeout rate. A former football player who played one year for the Cardinal, Jones has 25 homer/25 speed upside if he hits enough to get to it, with the speed to potentially stay in centerfield. Even in this generally successful season, Jones has done nearly all of his damage on fastballs, whiffing on nearly half of the offspeed pitches he swings at. There are better pure hitters in this year’s draft class, and thus position players with more probability of reaching the big leagues and having some kind of positive value, but Jones beats most of them in potential upside.
Law’s mock draft follows a recent trend with most insiders predicting the Red Sox will target an outfielder with their first pick. Boston has been linked to Jones before, as well as a slugging third baseman from Clemson.
The three-day, 20-round MLB draft begins on July 17 at 7 p.m. ET.
