While the MLB Amateur Draft doesn’t get as much attention as those of the NFL and NBA, that doesn’t mean that it’s any less important. Cheap, young talent is the most valuable commodity in baseball and can help close the revenue gap between some teams.
The Sox own the 13th pick in the draft, which starts on Monday. While they won’t get a sure-fire impact player at their pick, there are a number of players that could make a difference in a few years.
I made a couple of assumptions in cutting down to this short list.
1) The Sox will take a college player. Kris Honel was their last high school player selected in the first round back in 2001, and 13 of their last 14 first rounders have been college players.
2) They will probably take a pitcher. The Sox spent their last two first rounders on position players and have a lack of high end pitching talent in their minor league system. If they do take a position player, it will probably be an infielder given the outfield heavy drafting recently ( primarily Jared Mitchell, Jordan Danks and Trayce Thompson).
3) They will not take a player represented by Scott Boras or a guy that’s considered “a tough sign.” The Sox have notoriously avoided Boras clients as much as possible and have generally selected guys that they can sign at or near slot money. This eliminates players like Anthony Ranaudo (pictured) and Matt Harvey that would normally make sense otherwise.
I want to emphasize that I have not seen these guys play extensively. Any commentary is based on information gathered from sources like MLB.com and brief scouting videos.
Players are listed in alphabetical order.