2019 Draft Prospects

Image credit: Oregon State's Adley Rutschman (Photo courtesy of Karl Maasdam/Oregon State)

The BA 500 is an attempt to capture the industry’s consensus on the talent of the 2019 class—not to predict where players will be selected on June 3-5. The list was compiled in consultation with major league scouts, front office executives, scouting directors, college coaches and other professional evaluators. JJ Cooper, Teddy Cahill, Justin Coleman, Kyle Glaser, Bill Mitchell and Carlos Collazo contributed to the reporting and writing.

By Carlos Collazo

UPDATE (5/28): We’re now up to a full 500 scouting reports! There’s been some slight player movement in our most recent—and likely final—update to the BA 500, but most importantly you can now read about each and every player listed to get a thorough understanding of the 2019 draft class. We’ve also added a demographic breakdown of the class.

Since last June—just a few weeks after the conclusion of the 2018 draft—we have been watching the 2019 draft class by traveling across the country to high school showcases and college series while also talking with scouts and scouting directors in order to bring you a comprehensive ranking of the class as a whole.

Today, that comes together in the form of the BA 500, which is a list that’s been exhaustively tweaked and adjusted throughout the spring based on player performance, talent and discussions with industry sources throughout the league. Again, this list is an attempt to capture the industry’s consensus on the talent in the 2019 class—not to predict where players will eventually be drafted.

Signability can affect where players are selected, and particularly this year with a more shallow class on the whole, the industry consensus diverges fairly rapidly.

At the top is Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman, who has been the clear cut No. 1 player in the nation since last summer and remains there today. Following him are a number of talented position players, including uber-talented prep shortstops Bobby Witt Jr. and C.J. Abrams, the best hitter in the class in California first baseman Andrew Vaughn, the top prep bat in outfielder Riley Greene, and a pair of college outfielders rounding out the top seven in Vanderbilt’s J.J. Bleday and Arizona State toolshed Hunter Bishop.

Make no mistake, there is impact to be found at the top of the class and in many of the bats. We haven’t even touched on players like Nevada-Las Vegas shortstop Bryson Stott, who leads a deep class of college shortstops, or Baylor backstop Shea Langeliers, who could give the draft its first year with two college catchers selected among the top-10 picks since 2008, when Buster Posey and Jason Castro were taken at No. 5 and No. 10, respectively.

The pitching class is more muddled. There are few standout, top-of-the-rotation type arms to be found on the college side, which has plenty of pitchers with high odds to be relievers at the next level or who lack the impact stuff that is typically found among the top arms of the class. There is no Casey Mize here, and on the high school side there is no MacKenzie Gore.

Texas Christian lefthander Nick Lodolo is routinely one of the first pitchers listed among the industry, but names like West Virginia righthander Alek Manoah, Kentucky lefthander Zack Thompson and San Jacinto (Texas) JC righty Jackson Rutledge are the best in a down year for arms.

We will continue to make tweaks and adjust the BA 500 as necessary as we get closer to draft day, and we’ll also regularly roll out scouting reports on every player ranked—in addition to state lists which will delve even deeper into the class. Today, we roll out the list with updated reports on the top 100 prospects.

You can find all of our 2019 draft coverage in one spot here.