Five Compelling 2024 MLB Draft Classes Through Day 2

Cleveland Guardians

Draft Class Summary: High-volume, high-upside preps to complement an elite hitter

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School	BA Rank
1	1	Travis Bazzana	2B	Oregon State	2
1s	36	Braylon Doughty	RHP	Chaparral HS, Temecula, Calif.	47
2	48	Jacob Cozart	C	NC State	44
3	84	Joey Oakie	RHP	Ankeny (Iowa) Centennial HS	49
4	113	Rafe Schlesinger	LHP	Miami	148
5	146	Aidan Major	RHP	West Virginia	108
6	175	Caden Favors	LHP	Wichita State	NR
7	205	Cameron Sullivan	RHP	Mt. Vernon (Ind.) HS	106
8	235	Donovan Zsak	LHP	Rutgers	294
9	265	Sean Matson	RHP	Harvard	290
10	295	Chase Mobley	RHP	Durant HS, Plant City, Fla.	84

The Guardians picked first in the draft, but perhaps more importantly, owned a record $18,334,000 bonus pool, which can be pushed all the way to $19,250,700 if the team decides to go to the full 5% overage (which they did in 2023).

After drafting the No. 2 ranked player on the board in Travis Bazzana with their first selection, the Guardians proceeded to load up on a trio of top-50 picks with their next three picks, including a pair of high-upside prep righthanders in Braylon Doughty and Joey Oakie. Both pitchers stand out for their tremendous feel to spin the baseball, with Doughty earning plus grades on his slider and curveball, and Oakie earning plus grades on his slider.

Later on day two, the Guardians added two more high school righthander viewed as top-four-round talents in Cameron Sullivan and Chase Mobley. Both have fastballs that get into the upper 90s but might need to add a bit more command and control. 

With just two hitters selected, it was one of the most pitcher-heavy drafts the Guardians have had in years. Even so, there’s still much more impact on the position player side simply because Cleveland has never had access to the sort of upside and talent Bazzana provides.

My assumption is that Cleveland will create some savings from the first pick and with senior sign Caden Favors—a lefthanded pitcher who who was on our top 100 college senior sign list—in order to ink each of their pricy, upside prep arms. 

New York Yankees

Draft Class Summary: Physical pitchers with stuff, size and extension

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School	BA Rank
1	26	Ben Hess	RHP	Alabama	38
2	53	Bryce Cunningham	RHP	Vanderbilt	39
3	89	Thatcher Hurd	RHP	LSU	128
4	119	Gage Ziehl	RHP	Miami	110
5	152	Greysen Carter	RHP	Vanderbilt	161
6	181	Griffin Herring	LHP	LSU	172
7	211	Wyatt Parliament	RHP	Virginia Tech	478
8	241	Tyler Wilson	OF	Grand Canyon	NR
9	271	Tanner Bauman	LHP	Auburn	NR
10	301	Joe Delossantos	OF	William & Mary	NR

The Yankees grabbed Alabama righthander Ben Hess in the first round, marking the first time the team had selected a pitcher with their first pick since 2017 when the team took South Carolina righthander Clarke Schmidt. 

New York continued hitting the college pitcher button throughout the draft, with only senior sign outfielders Tyler Wilson and Joe Delossantos not fitting that demographic. The Yankees ditched the high school demographic altogether. 

Hess and Cunningham as the team’s first two selections seems like solid value when put together. Both were viewed as top-40 players in the draft with legitimate first-round stuff. However, some questions remain about their consistency and command on the bump.

The Yankees targeted pitchers with size and extension. Seven of their eight pitchers drafted were 6-feet-2 or taller—Gage Ziehl at 6-feet was the only one to miss the mark—while six of the eight averaged more than six feet of extension on their four-seam fastballs this spring and four—Greysen Carter, Griffin Herring, Ben Hess and Bryce Cunningham—averaged at least 6.4 feet or more with their four-seam fastballs.

Atlanta Braves

Draft Class Summary: Pitching, pitching and more pitching

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School	BA Rank
1	24	Cam Caminiti	LHP	Saguaro HS, Scottsdale, Ariz.	21
2	62	Carter Holton	LHP	Vanderbilt	67
3	99	Luke Sinnard	RHP	Indiana	287
4	129	Herick Hernandez	LHP	Miami	419
5	161	Nicholas Montgomery	C	Cypress (Calif.) HS	222
6	191	Ethan Bagwell	RHP	Collinsville (Ill.) HS	362
7	221	Brett Sears	RHP	Nebraska	NR
8	251	Logan Samuels	RHP	Montevallo	NR
9	281	Owen Hackman	RHP	Loyola Marymount	NR
10	311	Jacob Kroeger	LHP	Maryville	NR

Despite a pitcher-heavy farm system that lacks impact hitters, the Braves continued to target pitching in the draft, taking a pitcher with their first overall pick for the fifth consecutive year.

While that might be the luxury of having a young and controlled position player core in the majors, it is hard to blame them. Lefthander Cam Caminiti was expected to be long gone by the time Atlanta’s pick at 24, but the No. 1 high school southpaw in the class probably fit better on talent in the 20s than in the 10-15 range he was expected to come off the board. 

After Caminiti, the Braves selected eight more pitchers. Lefthanders were a focus in the first four rounds, as the Braves stacked longtime Vanderbilt starter Carter Holton and Miami’s Herick Hernandez.

A frequent trait of many of the team’s pitchers was riding fastballs. Owen Hackman, Herick Hernandez, Carter Holton and Brett Sears each averaged at least 17.6 inches of induced vertical break on their fastballs this spring.

Additionally, even after an injury-ravaged 2022 draft class, the Braves didn’t shy away from selecting righthander Luke Sinnard in the third round. Sinnard missed the 2024 season after undergoing elbow surgery, but in 2023 he set the Indiana single-season record with 114 strikeouts as a sophomore. 

Atlanta used its only position player selection on high school catcher Nicholas Montgomery, who stands out for his contact skills and power projection but has some questions about whether or not he’ll stick behind the plate.

Colorado Rockies

Draft Class Summary: Condon + Coors = Cool

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School	BA Rank
1	3	Charlie Condon	OF	Georgia	1
CB-A	38	Brody Brecht	RHP	Iowa	28
2	42	Jared Thomas	OF	Texas	58
3	77	Cole Messina	C	South Carolina	72
4	106	Blake Wright	3B	Clemson	395
5	139	Lebarron Johnson Jr.	RHP	Texas	189
6	168	Konner Eaton	LHP	George Mason	344
7	198	Fidel Ulloa	RHP	LSU	280
8	228	Luke Jewett	RHP	UCLA	368
9	258	Tommy Hopfe	1B	Fresno State	NR
10	288	Fisher Jameson	RHP	Florida	NR

The expectation leading up to the draft was that the Rockies might prefer Charlie Condon if he were to fall to them, and that was exactly how it played out on draft day. As the No. 1 player on the board, Condon could easily wind up signing the largest signing bonus in the class at the third overall pick, and his 60 hit/70 power combination is a scary toolset for Coors Field. 

You could nitpick Condon’s offensive profile this spring because his numbers were better in the hitter-friendly confines of Georgia’s Foley Field than on the road. With the Rockies, though, he goes from one hitter-friendly park to another, a development that could lead to plenty of towering home runs if he lives up to expectations.

While Condon is clearly the focal point of the draft, he was far from the only exciting name. Colorado got good value based on the BA 500 with each of its next three picks, landing a high-upside, athletic pitcher in Brody Brecht in a range on the board that feels much more palatable given his control questions before adding athletic, up-the-middle profiles with Jared Thomas and Cole Messina in the second and third round.

Scouts expect Thomas to be able to play center field in pro ball, and he brings an advanced pure hit tool to the table with some physical projection remaining. Messina, meanwhile, is a shockingly good athlete for his size and pairs big-time raw power with above-average defensive skills behind the plate. 

San Francisco Giants

Draft Class Summary: Top-heavy with two completely contrasting profiles

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School	BA Rank
1	13	James Tibbs III	OF	Florida State	14
4	116	Dakota Jordan	OF	Mississippi State	35
5	149	Jakob Christian	OF	San Diego	457
6	178	Robert Hipwell	3B	Santa Clara	157
7	208	Greg Farone	LHP	Alabama	236
8	238	Niko Mazza	RHP	Southern Miss	NR
9	268	Zane Zielinski	SS	Illinois-Chicago	NR
10	298	Cade Vernon	RHP	Murray State	NR

The Giants picked just once on the first day of the draft and didn’t get back on the clock until the fourth round on day two after losing their second and third round picks for signing Blake Snell and Matt Chapman in free agency.

Despite that, the team secured a pair of top-40 talents in Florida State outfielder James Tibbs and Mississippi State outfielder Dakota Jordan. Tibbs ranked exactly in the range where he was selected, while Jordan was the highest-ranking player to not get selected on day one and went to San Francisco with the 116th overall pick. 

Presumably, this works for the Giants because of a top-heavy approach on signing bonuses that will pay Jordan a significantly overslot bonus in the fourth round and is covered via underslot deals with college seniors like Greg Farone, Zane Zielinski and Cade Vernon.

While Tibbs and Jordan are both day one talents, they create their value in completely different ways.

Tibbs was viewed as one of the best pure hitters in the class not named Travis Bazzana, JJ Wetherholt or Nick Kurtz. He’s coming off a sensational season in the ACC where he hit .363/.488/.777 with an 11.6% strikeout rate and 18.1% walk rate. He’s an instinctual hitter who uses the entire field, makes a lot of contact and gets to his game power more through great contact quality than by possessing huge raw power. Tibbs is quite limited defensively and is unlikely to provide much value at all. He could even move to first base in the future. 

Jordan is a boom-or-bust-type player with tremendous physical tools, athleticism, bat speed and monstrous raw power. When everything clicks for him, he’s a dynamic player in all phases of the game, but he also owns a 27.4% career strikeout rate across two college seasons and was one of only a handful of BA 500 hitters this spring with a 90th-percentile exit velocity greater than 108 mph and a contact rate lower than 70%. He’s a plus runner and should be a better defender and baserunner than he is because of that speed, but will need to refine those areas of his game as well. 

Much of the success of this draft class will fall on the shoulders of Tibbs and Jordan, but sixth rounder Robert Hipwell is an intriguing pick as well. He could have gone higher if he wasn’t suspended for half the season and had put together a full year of good performance.