MLB Draft 2026: Top 50 draft prospects, starting with Roch Cholowsky, Grady Emerson and Vahn Lackey

Welcome to the 2026 MLB Draft.

A yearlong process that appeared to be counting down to an inevitable conclusion has featured some intriguing late drama. For a long stretch, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky sat comfortably atop the 2026 class as the prohibitive favorite to be the first overall pick. Teams that tumbled down the standings in 2025 were said to be heading toward “Roch bottom.” When the 102-loss Chicago White Sox won the top pick at the draft lottery in December, it wasn’t long before general manager Chris Getz was fielding questions about Cholowsky, which he, predictably, professionally and perhaps presciently, deflected.

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Fast-forward eight months, and Chicago’s choice atop the draft doesn’t seem quite so obvious. While Cholowsky had another excellent season for the Bruins, two other prospects — Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey — have joined him in what is considered by the industry to be a clear-cut top three, rather than a tier of one. In fact, White Sox scouting director Mike Shirley publicly confirmed that this is the trio Chicago is contemplating as the draft approaches.

Beyond that top three, chaos reigns. Another group of a half-dozen or so players follow as likely top-10-to-15 picks, but it gets hazy in a hurry after that trying to identify slam-dunk first-rounders. And as is the case every year, medical concerns and the signability of high school prospects are the great unknowns behind the scenes that can significantly impact how the draft unfolds.

Clarity is nearly here, however. The White Sox will be on the clock Saturday in Philadelphia to kick off one of the first official events of All-Star week. The first 10 picks will be broadcast on NBC/Peacock starting at 1:30 p.m. ET, and the remainder of the first round (picks 11-40) will be on MLB Network. Picks 41 through 135 (the end of the fourth round) can be watched on MLB.com starting at 4:30 p.m. Rounds 5 through 20 will take place on Sunday beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET, also viewable on MLB.com.

This is my third year putting together a Top 50 draft prospect list for Yahoo Sports, and my rankings are again informed by a combination of my own evaluations and intel gathered from major-league sources. Because I’m not releasing a traditional mock draft, I also want these rankings to serve as a rough preview of when players are expected to hear their names called on draft day, so I’ve organized the list into tiers to convey the buckets of similar players who are being debated by scouts and front-office officials in the days leading up to the draft.

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In 2024, players from my Top 50 accounted for 37 of the first 50 picks and 42 of the first 60. Last year, 43 players from my rankings were selected in the first 50 picks, with another four drafted in picks 51-60. Matching those totals in a murky class such as this year’s seems unlikely, especially with so much variance expected beyond the top handful of picks, but I’m excited to see how it all unfolds.

To the Top 50 we go.

The Big Three

1. SS Roch Cholowsky, UCLA

Plenty of teams were eager for Cholowsky to start his professional career three years ago, as his advanced right-handed bat and top-notch defense at shortstop at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona made him one of the more exciting prep players in the 2023 draft. But Cholowsky was not satisfied with his late-first-round projection and committed to elevating his stock further at UCLA. His introduction to college baseball was sobering, as he started mostly at third base and showed well for a freshman (.899 OPS), but the Bruins suffered through their worst season in years, going 19-33 and finishing last in the Pac-12 in its last year of existence.

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Undaunted, Cholowsky went to work. Alongside a deep group of talented players in his recruiting class who took their lumps as freshmen, Cholowsky led an astonishing UCLA resurgence as a sophomore, making the program’s first trip to the Men’s College World Series since 2013. That season, Cholowsky hit .353/.480/.710 with 23 home runs and just a 9.3% strikeout rate while starting every game at shortstop, where he made highlight plays look routine.

Restoring UCLA to college baseball’s center stage and raising his individual stock to new heights made Cholowsky the prohibitive favorite to be the first overall pick entering his junior season. But it also might’ve set unreasonable expectations for what Cholowsky could accomplish in his draft year. In assuming an uninterrupted upward trajectory, there was thought that Cholowsky could put up even bigger numbers as a junior for a loaded Bruins team with its sights set on a national championship. And though UCLA held the top spot in the polls for the entirety of the regular season, the Bruins crashed out at home in the regionals, and Cholowsky’s stats regressed. It was a strong season by any other player’s standard — 1.086 OPS, 21 homers, stellar defense at shortstop — but it wasn’t the legend-solidifying and top-pick-securing finale many envisioned.

Nevertheless, Cholowsky maintains a loose grip on the top spot in my rankings. Reasonable minds can poke holes in his profile, wondering if his hit tool will be exposed at the next level after he beat up on Big Ten competition rather than thriving in a better conference. And it’s not unfair to call his junior season a disappointment based on the lofty hype going in. Still, I’m confident in Cholowsky’s ability to make the necessary adjustments at the plate to reach his All-Star upside and take comfort in the knowledge that he’ll provide elite defense at a premium position along the way. There’s no wrong answer among these top three players — which is better news for the Twins picking third than for the White Sox picking first — but Cholowsky still looks like the best-in-class.

2. SS Grady Emerson, Fort Worth Christian School (Texas)

Just as Cholowsky separated himself from his collegiate peers for the majority of this draft cycle, Emerson has done the same among the 2026 high school class. As a shortstop from the Dallas/Fort Worth area who has been projected as a top pick since he was an underclassman, Emerson has had a tough time escaping the superstar shadow of Bobby Witt Jr., though those parallels are a compliment to Emerson as much as they invite unrealistic pressure to become a perennial MVP candidate.

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While Emerson doesn’t presently demonstrate the same outlier power and speed that Witt did as an amateur, there are parts of his game that are ahead of where the Royals’ shortstop was as a teenager. Emerson has the advantage of being left-handed — which teams value more than ever nowadays — and he exhibits an extremely polished approach and smooth swing that have many talent evaluators calling him the best pure hitter in the class. As is the case with most high school bats, Emerson’s ultimate power potential will depend on how he fills out his 6-foot-2 frame, but he already hits the ball hard with frequency, lending optimism that he can access more slugging in the future as he dials in his approach. He might not ever appear toward the top of the sprint-speed leaderboards like Witt, but Emerson is a plus runner, so he could be a factor on the basepaths in the future as well.

His defensive outlook is a more interesting discussion point. Many scouts view Emerson as a no-doubt shortstop long-term, a line of thinking that strengthens his case as the best overall player in the draft, as that puts him on par with Cholowsky as a defender but as a left-handed bat with even more upside in a lot of teams’ eyes. Others believe he doesn’t have the quick-twitch actions to stick at short and might outgrow the position, in which case his bat would need to clear a higher bar at third base in order for him to be an impact player.

As the lone high schooler among the top three, Emerson has developmental time on his side, but that also means he has more to prove — performing at scattered summer showcase circuit events is not the same as starring at the highest level of college baseball for multiple years. Still, it’s no accident that a lot of the best players in the league, past and present, were signed out of high school, so if Emerson ends up being Chicago’s pick at No. 1, a lot of the industry would nod and say “makes sense.”

3. C Vahn Lackey, Georgia Tech

Lackey’s journey to the top tier of this class is a wonderful contrast to the high-profile paths taken by Cholowsky and Emerson. As a high school senior, Lackey was ranked barely inside the top 200 players in the state of Georgia by Perfect Game, but he has since exploded out of obscurity to become one of the most impressive catching prospects in recent memory. It didn’t click right away in college; Lackey showed some interesting contact skills and athletic actions behind the dish as a freshman in 2024 but posted a .711 OPS in 103 plate appearances. And he didn’t perform much better the following summer, hitting .196 across 41 games in the Northwoods League.

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As Lackey gained strength and got more reps, his ability on both sides of the ball began to shine through. It started to become clear that he was not just a good athlete for a catcher but often the best athlete on the field, one who happened to be happy at the game’s most demanding position. Then the production started to follow. As a sophomore, Lackey’s bat took a big jump (.921 OPS), his defense continued to progress, and his super-strong arm seized attention.

After he played for USA Baseball’s collegiate national team last summer, talent evaluators began to whisper about Lackey’s potential as a first-round draft pick. Such speculation continued into the fall, when scouts started to suggest they might prefer Lackey to his highly accomplished teammate Drew Burress. That notion seemed somewhat preposterous at the time, considering Burress’ résumé, but proved spot-on come spring. Lackey delivered a humongous junior season for the Yellow Jackets, his powerful, right-handed swing laying waste to ACC and nonconference arms to the tune of .397/.519/.772 with 20 homers and more walks (50) than strikeouts (38), with 15 stolen bases to boot. Even in a historically productive Georgia Tech lineup, Lackey stood out, solidifying his unexpected case as the best player in the class.

Lackey’s chances of going first overall are uncertain; industry speculation leans toward more of a toss-up between Emerson and Cholowsky for Chicago. But this is a potential franchise catcher who has gotten so much better in such a short amount of time that it’s incredibly exciting to think about the next chapter of his development. His story might just be getting started.

The best pitcher in the draft

4. RHP Jackson Flora, UC Santa Barbara

Like second overall pick Tyler Bremner last year, Flora enjoyed a gradual evolution in Santa Barbara from a lanky, projectable right-hander who arrived on campus without much fanfare to a full-blown college ace who won’t wait long to hear his name called on draft day. Flora’s sophomore season as Bremner’s co-ace was good enough to elevate him into the first-round mix, but his junior season — an utterly silly 1.05 ERA across 102 innings with 133 strikeouts to just 32 walks and 55 hits allowed — was otherworldly, vaulting him into a tier of his own as the best pitcher this class has to offer.

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Following in Bremner’s footsteps, Flora embraced the environment at UCSB known for fostering pitching development and worked relentlessly to maximize his potential. He has done well to fill out his previously quite skinny 6-foot-5 frame, and he has done a better job of holding velocity deep in games, with his four-seamer averaging 96 mph. Beyond the heater, Flora deploys a barrage of brilliant breaking balls, including a sharp, upper-80s slider. He can really spin it and has good command of all of his pitches. Most obvious when you talk to Flora is his passion for finding the next thing that can help him become even better, striking an excellent balance between confidence in his current strengths and ambition to chase the next upgrade. If I were the Giants picking at No. 4 and the consensus top three names were already taken, I’d be thrilled to make Flora, a native of nearby Pleasanton, California, my first pick. We’ll see if Buster Posey and Co. concur.

The mold-breaking dynamo

5. OF Drew Burress, Georgia Tech

Save for Cholowsky, no hitter in this draft has put together as comprehensive of a collegiate résumé as Burress. He had late helium as a possible early draft pick out of high school in 2023 but made it to campus in Atlanta, where he spent the past three years wrecking ACC pitching, rewriting the record books for a program that has produced dozens of big leaguers and finding time to complete his degree in business administration along the way. His freshman season was particularly sensational, as Burress clubbed 25 homers with a 1.333 OPS — marks he couldn’t quite match his next two seasons — setting the tone for a memorable career as the Yellow Jackets’ every-day center fielder. Lackey leapfrogged his teammate by the end of their junior years in terms of draft stock, but it was Burress whose total contributions put him in the inner-circle of Georgia Tech greats. In total, he hit .357/.484/.720 with 60 home runs across 886 plate appearances, with more walks (160) than strikeouts (122) and 189 RBI in 179 games.

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What makes Burress so different from the collegiate megastars of years past? He’s listed as 5-foot-9 on Georgia Tech’s roster, but anyone who has seen Burress in person will tell you he’s likely an inch or two shy of that. It’s not that shorter players haven’t become big-league stars — from Mel Ott to Joe Morgan to Tim Raines to Dustin Pedroia to Jose Altuve to Jose Ramirez to Mookie Betts — but Burress’ specific demographic as a right-handed-hitting center fielder of his stature? That has minimal precedent. The only examples of such a player with star-level production in modern baseball history are Hack Wilson, Dom DiMaggio, Curt Flood and Kirby Puckett. That quartet exemplifies the extreme rarity of this genre of player. Also: It has been a while.

To be clear, this brief history lesson is meant not to cast doubt on Burress’ chances of fulfilling his star potential at the next level but rather to highlight the rarity of his profile. If anything, it makes what Burress has already accomplished that much more impressive. And in a draft loaded with uncertainty, his plus tools across the board, three-year track record and outstanding makeup — everyone loves this kid — make Burress exceptionally alluring, no matter his height.

High school bats with sky-high potential

6. OF Eric Booth Jr., Oak Grove High School (Mississippi)

Built like a five-star football recruit slated to play running back or safety in the SEC — Booth’s father was a star speedster on offense and in the return game at Southern Miss in the ’90s — Booth Jr. has a case as the best athlete in this draft, giving him a huge ceiling if he is able to hone his skills in tandem with his incredible physical traits. He’s one of the fastest players in the class, with a lightning-quick bat from the left side, a fantastic power-speed foundation that profiles well in center field. Booth isn’t all projection, either, as he has already demonstrated a solid approach and knack for making contact, first on the summer showcase circuit against top arms from around the country and then this spring, when he demolished the local competition his senior year.

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The biggest question is whether his swing, which features an unusual amount of movement in his hands as he loads, will work at the next level in its current form, both from a timing standpoint and in terms of achieving desirable batted-ball outcomes (i.e. pulled fly balls) to make the most of his raw power. There’s untapped potential beyond the bat as well, as Booth is still improving in the outfield and on the basepaths, and his wheels give him a great chance to develop into an impact defender and baserunner at the next level. Booth’s power-speed upside is rare in this class, which is why he could be the second high schooler to hear his name called.

7. SS Jacob Lombard, Gulliver Prep (Florida)

The son of Tigers bench coach George Lombard and younger brother of top Yankees prospect George Jr., Jacob offers the most prominent boom-or-bust profile among the upper-echelon players in this class. An outstanding athlete with spectacular speed, he preferred soccer for much of his youth — a rarity as a second sport among top baseball prospects — before the bloodlines redirected him to the diamond, where he blossomed into one of the top prep shortstops in the country. His explosive quickness and baseball IQ from growing up around the game have made him a terrific defender at shortstop and a game-changer on the basepaths.

As for the bat, it’s complicated. While he also has premium right-handed power and made progress this spring against solid competition in south Florida, Lombard struck out a lot over the summers in a sizable sample of at-bats against quality arms. Some teams view his paltry contact rates as untenable moving forward, while more bullish clubs believe an athlete of Lombard’s caliber and with his baseball roots has a great chance to make the adjustments necessary at the next level. There’s a ton of potential, but patience might be required here.

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The best prep pitcher in the draft

8. LHP Gio Rojas, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (Florida)

Rojas grew up in Colorado, but his family moved to Florida to put him in better position to chase his baseball dreams. As luck would have it, his aunt lived minutes from a high school that has churned out several future big leaguers, providing the perfect spot for Rojas to continue his progression as a talented young lefty. Stoneman Douglas has produced several draft picks over the years, from Anthony Rizzo to Jesus Luzardo to Roman Anthony, but Rojas is in position to be the earliest-selected Eagle yet.

The ease with which Rojas unleashes high-90s heaters is almost startling; some of the best prep hitters in the class told me that facing him was an unrivaled challenge on the showcase circuit. The low-effort nature of Rojas’ delivery sets a misleading tone before the ball explodes out of his hand and darts toward the strike zone. And gearing up for the fastball gets you only so far, as Rojas’ wicked sweeping slider generates plenty of whiffs and weak contact. He also tunnels the changeup off the fastball well, and there’s still room for growth with that pitch as he faces tougher right-handed hitters in pro ball. Some teams won’t bother considering a high school pitcher this early in the draft, but for those unbothered by the associated risk, Rojas is a fantastic option.

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The no-doubt catcher with big power

9. C Ryder Helfrick, Arkansas

His athleticism and hit tool aren’t close to Lackey’s, but Helfrick’s ultra-advanced glove and right-handed juice make him the heavy favorite to be the second catcher off the board, even ahead of SEC rival and Golden Spikes Award winner Daniel Jackson. Known more for his right-handed bat as one of the top prep catchers in the 2023 draft class, Helfrick’s stock skyrocketed during his three years in Fayetteville, thanks to the enormous progress he made behind the dish, where he now grades out as an elite framer and blocker and has always boasted a strong arm to control the running game.

At the plate, Helfrick overcame a challenging freshman season (.642 OPS) to become a reliable source of slugging, tying for the home run lead in the prestigious Cape Cod League in 2024 and launching 33 long balls across his sophomore and junior seasons. The batting average might not always be pretty, but Helfrick’s power and patient approach should profile well in the modern game. In tandem with his excellent glove, that makes him an upper-echelon prospect in this draft.

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Tier 2 college infielders

10. SS Tyler Bell, Kentucky

In 2024, the Rays drafted Bell 66th overall out of an Illinois high school but were unable to come to terms with him on a signing bonus, which sent the switch-hitting shortstop to the SEC to raise his stock for two seasons before he resurfaced as a draft-eligible sophomore. Mission accomplished on that front, as Bell played his way into the top of the first round this spring, even while battling through a shoulder injury suffered in Kentucky’s season opener. Only Florida’s Brendan Lawson (a projected top-10 pick in 2027) had a higher OBP than Bell (.510) among every-day players in the SEC, and his smooth glovework at shortstop provides value on defense as well.

11. 2B Chris Hacopian, Texas A&M

Hacopian spent two years putting up monster numbers at Maryland, where his dad, Derek, and older brother, Eddie, both played. With little else to prove against Big Ten pitching, he then transferred to A&M for his draft year to demonstrate that his advanced bat could shine against improved competition. Hacopian generally succeeded in that effort, though he regressed as a defender, splitting his time between second base and DH with the Aggies after manning third and shortstop with the Terps.

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A recurring back injury that Hacopian dealt with throughout the spring is another risk for teams to weigh, especially those less convinced that the right-handed Hacopian is worth a top pick if he’s a second baseman or even a corner outfielder down the line. Even so, Hacopian’s bat checks a lot of boxes, blending high contact and low chase with gaudy exit velocities and strong surface-level stats to boot. He won’t be on the board long.

Tier 2 outfielders

12. OF Trevor Condon, Etowah High School (Georgia)

Condon shares a lot of the same traits as Booth, as a lefty-hitting center fielder with plus speed and bat-to-ball skills, but his upside is considered a tick below due to Booth’s superior physical projection. Still, there’s a lot to love about Condon’s profile, with his intense competitiveness boldly on display between the lines and his vibrant personality and positivity winning over teammates and strangers alike away from the field. Even with limited pop, Condon’s hit tool stands out among this year’s prep class, which, in tandem with his up-the-middle defense and left-handedness, makes him a popular target for teams picking in the middle of the first round — if he lasts that long.

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13. OF Derek Curiel, LSU

Curiel was well-known in scouting circles throughout his high school career in southern California but decided to withdraw from the 2024 draft to honor his commitment to LSU. That decision paid off immediately, as Curiel starred as the lone freshman starter on the Tigers team that won the national championship last season. Year 2 didn’t go quite as swimmingly, as LSU failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament and Curiel plateaued with the bat, rather than taking a meaningful step forward as a draft-eligible sophomore. He doesn’t project to slug much in pro ball, but scouts have watched Curiel’s smooth lefty swing and solid defense in center field for nearly a half-decade now, which should win over a team that takes comfort in the familiarity.

14. OF AJ Gracia, Virginia

After two years at Duke, Gracia followed his head coach to Charlottesville for his junior year, as longtime Blue Devils skipper Chris Pollard made the jump to Virginia last summer. Gracia continued to punish ACC pitching in his new uniform, drawing more walks than strikeouts while collecting more than 25 extra-base hits for a second consecutive season.

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But some scouts were somewhat underwhelmed by Gracia this spring, suggesting that his smooth, left-handed swing should produce even more power than he did, and his exit velocities lag behind where you might think they’d be based on his physical 6-foot-3 frame. His defensive future is also cloudy, as he mostly played center field in college but projects better in a corner, though his arm strength is below-average. There are some questions here, but few other college bats in this class hit for three years to the degree Gracia did, so he should hear his name called pretty early on draft day.

15. OF Sawyer Strosnider, TCU

A draft-eligible sophomore, Strosnider did not perform well in Big 12 play this spring, which could lead to him being picked closer to the next tier of outfielders on this list in the late 30s. He and Chase Brunson (a narrow miss from this Top 50) alternated between right and center field for the Horned Frogs for much of the season, though it was Brunson who primarily handled center down the stretch. A shaky hit tool and struggles against southpaws are ominous red flags for Strosnider, but his athleticism and significant left-handed power have teams enamored enough to consider him in the middle of Round 1.

Tier 2 college right-handers

16. RHP Liam Peterson, Florida

It wasn’t long ago that Peterson’s lengthy track record of poor run prevention in college would’ve made his viability as a first-round pick tenuous at best. But major-league clubs nowadays are often willing to overlook results on the mound if there are strong ingredients to work with, and Peterson is a textbook example of a pitcher who will benefit from this dynamic. The 6-foot-5 right-hander spent three years in the Florida rotation and posted a 4.95 career collegiate ERA in 216 1/3 innings, including a 5.27 mark in SEC play. His conference performance improved year over year, but Peterson rarely strung together consecutive quality starts, racking up plenty of strikeouts with his premium stuff but allowing too many free passes and surrendering all kinds of damage along the way.

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Yet because Peterson possesses an ideal workhorse build (6-foot-5, 225 lbs.), easy plus velocity and a potentially plus-plus slider, with feel for additional secondaries beyond that, he has stayed firmly in the first-round mix, even as his college career ended on a dour note when he allowed a career-high nine earned runs in a loss to Troy in the NCAA tournament. There’s work to be done here. It’s not like Peterson was merely unlucky the past three years; he needs to make some adjustments. But chances are some team will embrace that challenge, based on the exciting traits in Peterson’s profile.

17. RHP Cameron Flukey, Coastal Carolina

Flukey, who sat alongside Flora and Peterson atop the college pitching class entering the spring, suffered a rib injury in February that put him on the shelf for more than two months and limited him to seven outings totaling 24 innings. This made his draft year a relatively useless data point. Because it wasn’t an arm injury, teams aren’t that concerned about how the ailment might impact him moving forward, only that it cost him the chance to assert his prospect status as a junior.

Fortunately for Flukey, he’d already banked a sizable sample of standout performance with the Chanticleers, posting a 33.6% strikeout rate as a freshman and then headlining a pitching staff that made it to the Men’s College World Series finals as a sophomore. Last year in Omaha, Flukey was on the losing end of a championship series pitchers’ duel with eventual No. 3 overall pick Kade Anderson of LSU, but he threw well in that high-stakes showdown against the Tigers to punctuate his splendid sophomore season. Flukey has a starter’s frame at 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, throws strikes and has an impact heater that sits at 96 mph. The key to unlocking his midrotation starter potential at the next level will be finding some more reliable secondary offerings.

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The two-way mystery box

18. OF/LHP Jared Grindlinger, Huntington Beach High School (California)

Trent Grindlinger emerged as a key bat for the Tennessee Volunteers this spring, a mature right-handed hitter with rare physicality and SEC readiness for a freshman. For his younger brother, Jared — committed to Tennessee but unlikely to make it to Knoxville — it’s all about projection, as we’re years away from fully comprehending what kind of player he can or should be. That’s in part a product of his age, as Grindlinger’s stunning (and unusually late) decision to reclassify in February just two months before his 17th birthday made him one of the youngest eligible prospects in draft history. That alone gives him more time than his peers to develop physically and hone his talent, but his varied ability on both sides of the ball also makes him a tantalizing prospect (and project) for a big-league club to target.

On the mound, Grindlinger is an advanced strike-thrower and was up to 96 mph last summer with the makings of a plus slider and changeup — impressive ingredients that earned him a spot on the Team USA pitching staff, where he was by far the youngest player on the roster. But his velocity was more low-90s in the spring, which redirected the focus toward his upside as a position player. His defensive outlook is uncertain — his left-handedness limits his options, and most scouts don’t think he’s fast enough to handle center field — but Grindlinger has elite bat-to-ball skills that have teams dreaming on his potential as a hitter once he adds muscle to his 6-foot-3 frame.

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Such physical gains could also benefit Grindlinger as a pitcher, inviting the possibility that a team could let him remain a two-way player to start his pro career. However it unfolds, Grindlinger’s development is a fascinating choose-your-own-adventure to monitor on draft day and beyond.

Tier 3 college infielders

19. 3B Ace Reese, Mississippi State

After a big freshman year at Houston, Reese transferred to Starkville and took the SEC by storm. He led SEC hitters in OPS (1.344) and home runs (15) in conference play, a resounding introduction to the toughest league in college baseball that skyrocketed his draft stock into first-round range entering his junior year. His encore wasn’t quite as emphatic — Reese tied for second in home runs in SEC play, with 12, but finished 18th in OPS (.993) — but his overall batting line improved, raising his OPS against all competition from 1.140 to 1.152 while he set career-best marks in homers (24), doubles (23) and RBI (74).

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There’s a good amount of swing-and-miss in Reese’s thunderous left-handed swing, but he draws a healthy helping of walks to offset the strikeouts, and the power production has been undeniable for three years running. There will be added pressure on his bat because scouts aren’t sold on his chances of sticking at the hot corner; a future in left field or at first base might be in store. But in a class filled with college bats who didn’t quite take the step forward teams were hoping for, Reese’s steady production appeals.

20. SS Justin Lebron, Alabama

In simple terms, Lebron is a college parallel to Lombard: a dynamic athlete at shortstop who looks like by far the best player on the field when things are going well but whose serious red flags involving the hit tool could undercut the entire profile. Lebron burst on the scene as a freshman as an immediate must-watch player in college baseball, but his production against top arms got progressively worse across his three years in Tuscaloosa, with his OPS falling from .910 to .820 to a paltry .741 (.229/.328/.413) this spring in conference play.

This trend is troubling for a lot of clubs, but Lebron’s other tools are so tremendous that he remains a likely first-round pick. His blazing speed enabled him to steal 66 bases in college (including 42 in 61 games this season) while being caught twice. When he does make flush contact, he has considerable right-handed pop, as evidenced by his 46 career collegiate homers. And his defense at shortstop can wow on any given day. It’s all there for Lebron, but will he hit enough? Some team will be happy to take the gamble to find out.

The Golden Spikes Award winner

21. C Daniel Jackson, Georgia

The honoree for top amateur player in the country, Jackson delivered a historic season as the driving force for the Bulldogs, the headlining act in a high-powered offense that led Georgia to its first Men’s College World Series appearance since 2008. Lightly recruited at an Atlanta-area high school, Jackson began his collegiate career at Wofford, where his overlooked talent quickly stood out relative to his SoCon peers. That prompted the transfer to Athens, where he continued to do damage in nonconference play but struggled immensely in his first season against SEC arms, hitting .203 with a 34.2% strikeout rate. While his rare athleticism and power for his position still made him an intriguing prospect entering his draft year, little suggested that Jackson was about to unleash a season for the ages.

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But that’s exactly what happened. Jackson joined Rafael Palmeiro and Brent Rooker as the third player to win the SEC triple crown, leading all hitters in college baseball’s toughest league in batting average (.379), homers (32) and RBI (87). He also became the first catcher in Division I history to hit 25 homers and steal 25 bases in a season.

The statistics are jaw-dropping no matter how you slice them, but they haven’t earned Jackson an automatic ticket to the top of the first round. Not every club is sold on his ability to stick behind the plate, and Jackson still whiffs frequently enough that his big-time power could be quieted somewhat against pro pitching. Still, Jackson’s remarkable developmental path exemplifies his work ethic and plus makeup, traits that should ensure an early selection on draft day.