Top Louisiana 2020 MLB Draft Prospects

Image credit: LSU's Daniel Cabrera (Courtesy LSU)

To see our BA 500 draft rankings, click here. To see other states, click here.

State List Talent Ranking: ????
(Stars are listed on a 1 to 5 scale relative to what the state typically produces, with 1 being the weakest)

Nat Rank	Player	Pos	School	Ht	Wt	B-T	Commit/Drafted
42	Daniel Cabrera	OF	Louisiana State	6-0	180	L-L	Padres ’17 (26)
Scouts have been infatuated with Cabrera’s swing since his days as a prep player. Out of Parkview Baptist High in Baton Rouge, evaluators admired his standout barrel control and a bat path that stayed in the zone for a long time. Known for his all-fields line drives in high school, Cabrera has started to tap into more of his raw power over three years at Louisiana State, highlighted by a 12-homer campaign in 2019. There aren’t many moving parts in Cabrera’s swing. It’s simple and easy and, like his prep days, he’s still capable of hitting the ball to all fields, which has helped him stay consistent. While his raw power is more above-average than plus, and mostly to the pull side, he’s the sort of hitter scouts believe will tap into everything he has during games. His power numbers were more suppressed last summer in the wood-bat Cape Cod League, so how his power transfers to a wood bat in pro ball is worth considering. Including 16 games in a shortened 2020 season, Cabrera is a .300/.382/.520 hitter in his LSU career. He has a corner-outfield profile and will likely be no more than average defensively there, and probably fits best in left field. Because of that, there’s more pressure on his bat, but he’s one of the college hitters who scouts generally feel comfortable with moving forward. He could sneak into the back of the first round or go off the board at some point in the second.
44	Cole Henry	RHP	Louisiana State	6-4	214	R-R	Tigers ’18 (38)
One of the talented draft-eligible sophomore pitchers in the 2020 class, Henry ranked No. 225 on the BA 500 in 2018, when he showed a fastball up to 97 mph as a high school senior with a big frame to match. Henry has started to fill out that frame in two years with Louisiana State and is now listed at 6-foot-4, 211 pounds. With the increased strength he’s also improved his stuff, most notably a breaking ball that now has plus potential. He still can run his fastball up into the 97 mph range, but sits in the 92-95 mph range more typically, with a two-seam fastball in his arsenal as well. His curveball is a power offering with impressive depth, and he’s also shown feel for a changeup that scouts believe can be plus as well. With plus stuff across the board, Henry has all the pieces to be a frontline arm, but scouts have wanted to see more consistency. When everything’s on at the same time he can be electric, but that happens infrequently because he struggles at times to put hitters away or land his off-speed stuff for strikes. Henry established himself as LSU’s No. 1 weekend starter as a freshman, when he posted a 3.39 ERA over 58.1 innings with 72 strikeouts and 18 walks. He was once again the Friday arm in 2020 through four starts before the season was canceled. In that time, Henry posted a 1.89 ERA over 19 innings with 23 strikeouts and six walks. With sophomore eligibility, Henry could be a tough sign but is solidly a Day One talent.
138	Hayden Cantrelle	SS	Louisiana-Lafayette	5-10	175	B-R	Yankees ’17 (40)
The coronavirus shutdown came at an extremely inopportune time for Cantrelle. After two strong seasons at Louisiana-Lafayette, he looked somewhat lost at the plate in the early going this spring. Cantrelle was hitting .136/.320/.237 in 17 games. But there is reason to write that off as a rough month in an otherwise solid college career. After looking somewhat overmatched for much of the summer of 2018 in the Cape Cod League, he showed a much better approach and a more controlled swing in 2019. Playing shortstop and second base for Harwich, he finished ninth in the league with a .315 average. While he played more second base than shortstop with Harwich, Cantrelle projects as an average shortstop defensively in pro ball and an above-average defender at second. He has average arm strength but is an accurate thrower. He isn’t big, (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) but he is a plus runner. He swiped 28 bags in 32 tries as a sophomore and 19 in 21 attempts in the Cape last summer. From either side of the plate, the switch-hitting Cantrelle is a top-of-the-order table setter, but he shows 40 power from the left side. His righthanded swing is generally more of a contact-oriented approach. Cantrelle’s awful spring clouds his status, but he had a lengthy resume of success before that and teams like his baseball IQ. He lacks flashy tools, but a team who relies strongly on a player’s Cape Cod League performance could be enticed in the fourth or fifth round.
205	Braden Olthoff	RHP	Tulane	6-4	208	R-R	Never Drafted
Like many kids, Olthoff dreamed of being a Division I baseball player, but heading into his senior year in high school, he realized his bat wasn’t going to be enough to take him there. He started pitching as a senior and quickly found success thanks to solid command and control, even if he generally sat around 85 mph. Palomar (Calif.) JC liked his feel for pitching and projectable frame. Olthoff was effective in two seasons at Palomar and earned the Friday starter job for Tulane during fall ball. He dominated in his four 2020 starts, going 4-0, 0.32 with a 47-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His 47 strikeouts were third best in Division I baseball and his 0.54 WHIP was sixth-best. Olthoff threw the first six innings of a no-hitter against Middle Tennessee. Olthoff throws four pitches that are all average or better, but it’s his plus command and control that is most notable. Olthoff has not allowed a home run in 135 college innings. His above-average changeup, a pitch he didn’t really trust until 2019, has emerged as his best weapon. He sits 90-92 mph but can brush 93-94. He also picked up a slider last year, which has become an average offering as well and he also throws an average curveball. Olthoff was barely on teams’ radars before the season began, so he’ll be a tough evaluation for teams who have very little track record with him and have not extensively scouted him. But his stuff is solid, his command is notable and his results are hard to argue with.
210	Hudson Haskin	OF	Tulane	6-2	198	R-R	Athletics ’18 (39)
A draft-eligible sophomore, Haskin has been one of Tulane’s best players since the day he arrived on campus. A 39th-round pick of the A’s out of high school, Haskin hit .372/.459/.647 as a freshman while roaming center field and showing big tools. This spring, his swing wasn’t as pretty—he now dives into the ball and is very focused on pulling with power, but his well above-average hand-eye coordination made it all work. He was hitting .333/.452/.500 with 14 walks and 10 strikeouts in 66 at-bats. Multiple scouts compare his swing to Hunter Pence in how it works despite being ugly. Haskin is a plus runner with plus defense in center field and even a plus arm. He’s yet to make an error in college. A team willing to live with the swing could be getting a five-tool player, but Haskin may opt to return to school (he could still have three more years of draft eligibility after next season) and put up even larger numbers.
331	Hayden Durke	RHP	North Vermilion HS, Parish, La.	6-2	210	R-R	Louisiana-Lafayette
A Louisiana-Lafayette signee, Durke has plus velocity for a high school arm as he sits 93-95 and can regularly get to 97. His fastball has plenty of arm side run and some boring action. He’s had some control troubles at times in high school, but when he’s on he has a plus 12-to-6 curve to play off of the big fastball. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound righthander is durable and he has a delivery that should allow him to consistently repeat it as he gets more experience.
360	Connor Pellerin	RHP	Tulane	6-4	190	R-R	Never Drafted
Pellerin has the arsenal to be a power reliever with a 93-96 mph fastball and a high-spin rate slider. But until he learns how to command them, he is too inconsistent to fill a high-leverage role. Pellerin lost one game this spring where he struck out a batter, but he reached on a wild pitch. In another game he was lifted after giving up back-to-back batters. But Pellerin struck out 24 in 13 innings last summer in the Cape Cod League and fanned 10 in just four innings (over six appearances) this spring.
367	Brody Drost	OF	Barbe HS, Lake Charles, La.	6-2	200	L-L	Louisiana State
Drost has been a very productive high school hitter. He was the most outstanding player in Louisiana’s 5A state championship game in 2019 and has a picturesque lefthanded swing. But his lack of clear plus present tools—he’s an average runner, average defender and he has present fringe-average power—makes it very likely he makes it to Louisiana State. He has a chance to turn into a very productive college hitter and if his power takes a step forward he could be a name to watch down the road.
371	Blake Shapen	SS	Evangel Christian Academy, Shreveport, La.	6-0	165	R-R	Baylor
Shapen is two-sport star at Shreveport (La.) Evangel High, following in the footsteps of quarterback/shortstop Josh Booty, a Shreveport Evangel star who was a first-round pick of the Marlins before eventually returning to football. Shapen has signed with Baylor to play football and baseball. He showed excellent athleticism and bat speed at the Under Armour All-America game last summer and has the range to potentially stay at shortstop, but scouts have seen him more on the football field than the diamond. Considering how hard it has been to see him on the baseball field, he’s likely to make it college. He is also old for the class as a 19-year-old.
379	Saul Garza	C	Louisiana State	6-3	229	R-R	Royals ’19 (32)
Garza ended up spending less time behind the plate in 2020 because freshman Alex Milazzo’s glovework was so impressive, but the two-time draftee—Cardinals, 31st-round 2017 and Royals, 32nd-rounder, 2019—still fits as a potential backup catcher with plus raw power that fits as a DH/first baseman as well. Garza is a fringe-average defender.
478	Logan Hofmann	RHP	Northwestern State	5-10	190	L-R	Cardinals ’19 (35)
Hofmann is a short, 5-foot-10 righthander who led all Division I with a 0.00 ERA in 28 innings with 38 strikeouts. Hoffman doesn’t overpower batters, but he has a fringe-average 90-91 mph fastball and an above-average 12-to-6 curveball with some power.
497	Eric Orze	RHP	New Orleans	6-3	185	R-R	Never Drafted
Orze has already beaten cancer twice—first it was testicular cancer and then skin cancer. His 2018 season was hampered by abdominal pain that eventually led to the cancer diagnosis. He then missed all of 2019 recovering. Returning to action this spring, Orze showed an above-average, 92-95 mph fastball, an average slider and an above-average splitter. A starter at New Orleans, he’s more likely a reliever in pro ball because his stuff tails off pretty quickly. He had a 17-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 12.2 innings this spring. He’s a potentially interesting senior sign but is very old for the class, turning 23 in August.