One of the few benefits of the White Sox losing 100 games during what was forewarned as the toughest year of their ongoing rebuilding project is the No. 3 pick in Monday night’s MLB Draft.
It’s a big opportunity for the White Sox, who will add another star prospect to an organization packed with them. Last season, they picked fourth and selected Nick Madrigal, who instantly became one of the highest rated minor leaguers in the farm system. A similar fate likely awaits whichever highly rated draft prospect they choose Monday night.
With the White Sox picking so high, it’s not difficult to narrow the list of possibilities for that first-round pick to five or six guys, and you can read all about those six guys in this more detailed breakdown.
Nick Hostetler, the White Sox director of amateur scouting and the guy in charge of this draft, said that any of the 10 best players in the draft have the potential to become big league superstars. That’s got to be music to White Sox fans’ ears, as it’s guaranteed their team will end up with a really good young player.
But plugged-in fans might have their own preferences on who the White Sox spend that No. 3 pick on Monday night. Whether you prefer the power bat of Andrew Vaughn or the “game-changing speed” of CJ Abrams — or are praying the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals let either Adley Rutschman or Bobby Witt Jr. slip through to the third spot — part of your preference likely stems from what else is happening in the White Sox organization.
You think there’s a dearth of middle-of-the-order bats? Then you probably think Vaughn looks real nice in the middle of that lineup of the future. You think there’s a need for some blazing speed? Then you probably think Abrams would look good swiping bags on the South Side.
That’s a perfectly acceptable way to think. Just know the White Sox won’t be thinking that way. They’re looking to take the best player available at No. 3, and they’ll be thinking the same way during the first 10 or so rounds, Hostetler said Thursday.
MLB
“(Drafting based on organizational need) won’t start probably until the 10th round is when we will get into that mode,” Hostetler said. “At that point, the talent is pretty close together. So we will at that point try to fill teams and needs that we have in the organization, whether it’s more pitching — which we always need more pitching. That first 10 rounds we will take the guy we feel at that point is the best talent with the best makeup.”
It’s going to be simple as that for the White Sox, who will be doing two things at once Monday night. Of course they’ll be trying to select a player who can star on championship-level teams. But they’re going to putting the rest of those championship-level rosters out of their minds and focusing on just one player.
Fans might have this question: Why, though? Why create a potential problem for yourself if you can avoid it?
For example, if the White Sox were to draft Abrams, who MLB Pipeline’s latest mock draft has them taking, that adds to a crowded infield. Tim Anderson is entrenched as the shortstop of the future. Nick Madrigal, last year’s first-round pick, seems destined for second base. Yoan Moncada just slid over to third base. So is there room for a speedy middle infielder?
General manager Rick Hahn would described that as a good problem to have, and he’s not wrong. But with the opportunity to add a player of such a high caliber and the transition from rebuilding to contending supposedly coming soon, why not avoid the headaches and add a player who can more easily slot into those lineups of the future?
Those questions seem valid. But Hostetler, just like he did last summer, when the same questions accompanied Madrigal’s selection, explained that the difficult of predicting how prospects will turn out makes choosing the best player available the best strategy.
“In four or five years, we have no idea where we are going to be as an organization, what we are going to be, what that player is going to be,” Hostetler said. “The development timeline is going to be different for everybody.
“Just look at last year. Right when we took Nick Madrigal, a lot of people said Yoan Moncada is our second baseman. Fast forward a year, and he’s now playing third base for us. So there’s so many different variables that come into this, that Rick has to take into consideration when he’s putting this team together.
“And so when we look at the draft, we can’t worry about position or anything along that. We have to take the guy we feel is the best player there.”
Some fans might bristle at that strategy, seeing it as passing up an opportunity to fill a need that the White Sox might still need to fill anyway down the line.
But the White Sox are seeing it as a low-risk strategy, one that assures they get the best player available. And who could be upset about this already loaded farm system adding another one of the best young baseball players in the world?
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