FORT WORTH, Texas — The first two rounds of the 2024 MLB draft took place Sunday, as the first 74 selections out of 615 overall heard their names called at Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Here are our top seven takeaways from the evening:
Travis Bazzana takes overall lead
In the end, the Cleveland Guardians chose the best player available.
The Australian second baseman from the University of Oregon is an exhilarating offensive player. He has lightning-fast hands, which, combined with his short levers, allow him to spin and burn at high speeds across the inner half of the strike zone. Built like a tank, Bazzana has a keen batting eye, the type of advanced approach that data-driven teams love. He’s also an intense, fiery competitor who grew up playing a long list of sports as a child in Australia.
The biggest criticism of Bazzana is his lack of defensive potential. He’s the first second baseman to be taken first overall in the draft. Ultimately, Cleveland didn’t think too hard. Bazzana isn’t a first-generation pick like Bryce Harper or Paul Skenes, but he should become an impact player in the major leagues over the next few years. —Mintz
Chase Burns and Charlie Condon return at #2 and #3
With Bazzana off the board, the industry consensus was that Cincinnati wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to select Charlie Condon, the Golden Spikes Award winner from the University of Georgia who is coming off a historic spring in which he led the nation in batting average and home runs. The Reds were expected to target hitters, with Condon near the top of their board, while Colorado, picking third, would be more intrigued by the best arms in the draft class, given how rare it is for the Rockies to add top-tier pitching talent on the open market.
Or not!
In the end, it was the Reds who took the top pitcher on the board, Wake Forest right-hander Chase Burns, suggesting that his spectacular arsenal and potential to be a front-line starter were worth picking over an offensive stalwart like Condon or one of the other highly accomplished college hitters on the board. That left Colorado in the unlikely position of selecting the best overall player on many people’s boards at No. 3, leaving us all to dream of what kind of numbers a fully realized Condon might one day put up at Coors Field. It’s a huge bet on Burns by the Reds, and the careers of these two players will likely be intertwined for a long time, given how certain everyone was that each would end up in the other’s shoes. Shusterman
Jac Caglianone falls out of the top 5
The Royals got the most famous player in the draft with Caglianone, who rose to prominence as a two-way player at the University of Florida. Caglianone was billed as a two-way player, but is expected to focus on hitting as a professional.
The Royals may think he can pitch well, too, but Caglianone was a top pick this year because of his immense potential as a hitter. He hit .419/.544/.875 with 35 big balls this year as the Gators advanced to the College World Series for the second straight year. The bat speed, barrel control and raw juice are a rare combination, though there are major concerns about his tendency to run beyond the zone. And while the Royals will try him in the outfield first, Caglianone could be limited to first base going forward.
But make no mistake: This is a huge injection of talent for a Kansas City farm system that is lacking in potential. —Mintz
Nationals capitalize with 3 picks
The Nationals were an intriguing team heading into the night after trading reliever Hunter Harvey to Kansas City over the weekend in exchange for third base prospect Cayden Wallace and the No. 39 pick on Sunday. We’ve seen teams trade competitive balance picks — the only draft picks eligible for trade — a few times over the years, but it was unique to see a deal flip so close to draft day. With it, Washington got an extra Day 1 pick and more than $2 million in bonuses to spread among its 2024 class.
So what did Washington do with its three first-day picks? At the 10th pick, the Nats picked up Seaver King, a supremely athletic right-handed hitter from Wake Forest who was billed as a shortstop but could play third base or even center field someday. His offensive potential is exciting if he can implement his ultra-aggressive approach…a sentiment that also surrounds the player Washington selected with that 39th pick: Caleb Lomavita, a catcher from Cal who should stay behind the plate and is one of the most fun hitters to watch in the entire class when he’s on the ball. Like King, walking isn’t exactly Lomavita’s strong suit, and he’ll have to make adjustments to maintain his production in professional baseball.
Finally, Washington rounded out its Sunday haul with Luke Dickerson, a high school shortstop from New Jersey who garnered a lot of interest this spring and was one of the last to be cut from my top 50 prospects list. There’s certainly some work to be done on the player development side of things with this team, but the ingredients present are undeniably exciting. Shusterman
Orioles stick to strategy
Baltimore once again took position players with its first two picks, but the college hitting tandem couldn’t be more different. UNC center fielder Vance Honeycutt, drafted 22nd overall, has a skill set, including superior power and speed, but he struck out a boat in college. University of Virginia shortstop Griff O’Ferrall (32nd) is a contact merchant with limited power potential. If you average their strikeout rates, that’s a number that seems normal. Plus, that’s six drafts for the Mike Elias-led management that has overseen the Orioles’ return to contention; they’ve taken a position player with their first-round pick every year.
This is a sign of a very interesting strategy. The Birds are already facing a situation where they don’t have enough big-league everyday roster spots for all of their prospects, but they continue to sign hitters. Why? Well, this organization knows it develops hitters better than any other in baseball. And because of injury risks, the value of a talented pitching prospect is inherently less than the value of a talented hitting prospect. But established big-league pitchers can be acquired for a bunch of hitting prospects, as the Orioles showed this winter by acquiring Corbin Burnes to lead their rotation.
Given the club’s track record, Honeycutt and O’Ferrall are good candidates to become impact players whether or not they play for the Orioles. This team knows what it’s good at and sees no reason to stray from the formula. Mintz
Kellon Lindsey breaks through with Dodgers
For a high school player, the draft process ramps up the summer before. The showcase circuit is where scouts see prep players and begin to form opinions about them. It’s a useful environment to make evaluations in large part because the quality of play is so much higher. And that means that any time a kid, for whatever reason, doesn’t make the showcase circuit, he can fall through the cracks.
That’s what happened to Lindsey, who sat out the league last summer due to a minor leg issue. His absence — and his stellar high school quarterback career — meant scouts simply didn’t know much about him until this spring. That’s when sensational reports started pouring in about the stupidly fast shortstop from the middle of nowhere, Florida. Lindsey is an exceptional athlete who will need time to develop as a baseball player, but the Dodgers got their hands on a Trea Turner starter kit here. Mintz
Braves secure two more talented lefties
Six prospects were in attendance Sunday in Fort Worth, and the order in which they were selected was completely unexpected. Most notably, no one could have predicted that the sixth and final player to hear his name called in the first round would be Arizona high school left-hander Cam Caminiti, widely regarded as the top prep pitcher in the class and projected in nearly every mock draft to go between 10th and 15th.
Instead, he dropped all the way to No. 24 with Atlanta, a result that might have been disappointing on the surface but appears to be a blessing in disguise, as Caminiti now joins an organization known for its ability to develop young arms. It’s also a team that features two of the best left-handers on the planet in Chris Sale and Max Fried, who Caminiti is surely eager to meet once he officially signs in the coming weeks.
Caminiti wasn’t the only promising lefty the Braves selected Sunday, as Atlanta used its second-round pick on Vanderbilt’s Carter Holton. Holton is a talented arm who looked like a possible first-round pick at various points during his three years in Nashville, but he was inconsistent as a junior and had enough health issues to fall outside the first 30 picks. At No. 62, though? Holton could make that pick look really good in the not-too-distant future. Shusterman