Cleveland Guardians 2024 MLB Draft Review

Draft Theme: Overslot Prep Pitchers

After finally making their 1-1 choice of Travis Bazzana known, Cleveland hammered a demographic strength of the class (at least in terms of quality depth players) by taking four high school pitchers on the second day of the draft. Righthanders Braylon Doughty, Joey Oakie, Chase Mobley and Cameron Sullivan all ranked inside the top 110 players on the BA Board. The assumption is the prep arms will take up plenty of Cleveland’s historic bonus pool, but the draft doesn’t end with them. Second round catcher Jacob Cozart was considered a first round talent at various stages throughout the draft cycle and provides power and patience from the left side, while righthander Logan McGuire and catcher Bennett Thompson were two BA 500 players selected on day three.

Most Interesting Day 2 Pick: RHP Chase Mobley, 10th round

Mobley was one of the early standouts in the 2024 draft class, a notion reinforced after he went to the WWBA World Championship in October 2021 before his sophomore season. At Jupiter, he ran his fastball up to 93 mph as a 15-year-old while striking out five with no walks in five scoreless innings. Mobley has continued to make strides over the years and is now one of the younger pitchers in the 2024 class with a 6-foot-6, 200-pound frame and a fastball that has been up to 99 mph this spring. He’s a hard-throwing righthander who is consistently in the mid 90s, meaning he doesn’t require much projection to get to a plus fastball. He has thrown both a mid-70s curveball and a low-80s slider, though those pitches both blend together and he needs to improve the release point on both. Mobley’s best secondary pitch is a low-80s changeup that has impressive fade and tumbling action with swing-and-miss qualities, though scouts don’t get to see it often because his velocity is enough to overpower prep hitters and he’s also often behind in counts. Improving his control and command is a key piece of Mobley’s development, and some scouts wonder about his compact arm action and effort. Mobley is committed to Florida State but could be selected in the first three rounds.

Most Interesting Day 3 Pick: C Bennett Thompson, 13th round

Thompson is a 5-foot-10, 196-pound catcher who hit extremely well for Oregon in parts of two seasons in 2022 and 2023. In his first full season for the Ducks in 2024 his offensive numbers back up a bit, as he slashed .281/.386/.431 with less power than he had flashed in each of the previous two seasons. Thompson has a pull-heavy approach at the plate and generally stays within the strike zone on his swing decisions and rarely misses a fastball, but he profiles as a bottom-of-the-order type bat. He did an excellent job controlling the run game in 2024 and threw out 9-of-19 (47.4%) base stealers with a compact arm action and solid arm strength. He has the actions to stick behind the plate with solid mobility and hands and will need to be an above-average defender at the position to make up for his offensive questions. Thompson has a fairly extensive history in wood bat summer leagues but never did much to impress in that capacity beyond putting up solid strikeout and walk rates.