With the MLB season now over, it’s time to turn on the stove and let it run hot. Free agency is about to kick off, featuring high-profile names such as Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes. We’ve already seen a few trades in the first hours of the offseason, but nothing groundbreaking. However, it’s also time to grade the top draft prospects from the 2024 MLB draft. For this article, we’re using MLB Pipeline’s rankings for the top five prospects selected in this year’s draft. We’re seeking to answer questions of how well prospects translated to professional baseball and where their strengths lie. Also, do they fit in their organization? Is there a quick path to the majors for them?
Here are the top five draft prospects from the 2024 MLB draft and how they performed.
Reviewing The Top Five 2024 MLB Draft Prospects
2B Travis Bazzana (Cleveland Guardians)
2024 (High-A): .238/.369/.765; 7 doubles; 3 home runs; 12 RBI; 17 BB to 31 K; 5 SB
22-year-old Australian native Travis Bazzana was selected as the first overall pick by Cleveland over right-hander Chase Burns and outfielder Charlie Condon. The pick itself seemed to be a bit of a surprise, given that current second baseman Andrés Giménez is only 25 and most of the team is under 30. In addition, given that Shane Bieber may walk in free agency and the team is thin on starting pitching, this was not everyone’s first pick.
Between 2022 and 2024, Bazzana had an excellent .360/.498/1.157 slash line at Oregon State, along with 180 walks to 146 strikeouts. In addition, he displayed a solid, wide array of gap and raw power, clubbing 45 home runs. There is justification, especially on the power front, for why Cleveland went with Bazzana.
For his first season in Cleveland’s system, Bazzana put up okay numbers at High-A. All first overall picks come in with whipping expectations, especially after putting up a 1.100 OPS in college. For this year’s first overall pick, though, he didn’t explode onto the scene.
Bazzana put up an average .238/.369/.765 slash line, along with three home runs. His .369 OBP already displays an above-average eye, given he walked 17 times in 122 plate appearances. He also showed off some of his split gap and raw power, with nearly half of his hits going for extra bases.
However, as with most rookies, Bazzana appeared to be jumpy at the plate. He did strikeout 31 times, holding a decent but unimpressive 25% strikeout rate. For a player who walked twice as many times as he struck out in his 2024 college season, it’s underwhelming.
That being said, Bazzana has established a baseline where he can be relied on as a power bat in an offense that needs it going forward. Once he gets around the learning curve, then we can expect him to see whether he has prolonged success.
OF/3B Charlie Condon (Colorado Rockies)
2024 (High-A): .180/.248/.518; 4 doubles; 1 triple; 1 home run; 11 RBI; 4 BB to 34 K; 4 SB
The Rockies are a bad team and everyone knows it. The team has a major issue with strikeouts, garnering walks, and stealing bases. Never mind the pitching for now, the team’s offense is anemic. In fact, the team has led the National League in strikeouts for two years running.
Charlie Condon, the third overall pick of the 2024 MLB Draft from Georgia, was brought in to help give the team someone who won’t have these issues. At Georgia, he walked more than he struck out in his 2024 season and slugged almost 40 home runs. For a team a mile high and their only over-.800 OPS hitter being Jacob Stallings, it was an easy decision.
Condon’s first season in the Rockies system has been far from successful. In 109 plate appearances, the Georgia product struck out 34 times and only walked four times. That’s a strikeout rate of over 30% and a walk rate of under 4%. It’s a far cry from the 57 walks and 41 strikeouts he put up in college this year.
In addition, the 21-year-old hit only one home run and four doubles, along with a triple, for an extra-base hit percentage under 33%. This is simply not a good start for a guy the organization is banking on for a few years down the line.
When looking at his scouting video, it seems Condon is trying to get on top of the ball instead of squaring up. His stride is okay, but it just appears that he’s not confident when swinging the bat. He’s not putting the barrel on the ball, but rather just getting enough to hit it straight up or on the ground.
It’s too early to hit the panic button on Condon, but these numbers are not what you want to see from a second-overall pick. Colorado needs to spend as much resources as possible to ensure that this is only a blip in his development.
1B Jac Caglianone (Kansas City Royals)
2024 (High-A): .241/.302/.690; 9 doubles; 1 triple; 2 home runs; 14 RBI; 7 BB to 26 K; 2 SB
Following a 100-plus loss season in 2023, the Royals made a statement this year by ending up in the American League Division Series. The team lost 3 games to 1 to the New York Yankees, but there was a lot to love. The team had the least amount of strikeouts in the American League and had the fourth-best batting average in the league. They do need to garner more walks, however.
Jac Caglianone, the sixth-overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft, came in as the “next Shohei Ohtani,” according to MLB Pipeline. However, he was drafted for his hitting abilities, not his pitching.
In three years at Florida, he was a home run machine, hitting 75 home runs while still being able to keep a modest walk-to-strikeout ratio. His power is almost exclusively raw, hitting only 28 doubles in three years. For a team in need of more raw power, it’s a blessing that Caglianone fell to them.
Much like the aforementioned Bazzana, Caglianone hasn’t quickly translated his college success into the professional level yet. Whereas he hit more home runs than doubles, he hit four times as many doubles as home runs in his first year in the Royals system. His raw power seems to be lagging behind his gap power so far.
The good news is that he’s not a strikeout liability. The Florida product struck out 26 times in 126 plate appearances, good for a 20% strikeout rate. He wasn’t patient at the plate, however, walking only seven times, putting his walk rate at 5%.
He did not pitch in 2024, which could mean that the Royals are transforming him into a batter-only player. Caglianone, for what it was worth, threw a 4.55 ERA and 1.470 WHIP in college. He also tossed 105 walks in 148 1/3 innings. So it’s simple to understand why that move was made.
There are some good things to like about Caglianone’s performance in 2024, especially his ability to keep strikeouts low and get runs across the plate. When his raw power finally arrives, then Caglianone will be a true threat.
SS/2B JJ Wetherholt (St. Louis Cardinals)
2024 (Low-A): .295/.405/.805; 5 doubles; 2 home runs; 20 RBI; 16 BB to 15 K; 2 SB
The Cardinals are in this weird growing-up phase of their franchise. While their pitching staff is one of the oldest in baseball, their lineup is one of the youngest. They have some good young batters, such as Masyn Wynn and Alec Burleson.
Even though St. Louis needs arms to develop, the pitching class in this draft was light, so the pick of JJ Wetherholt makes sense. With Nolan Gorman struggling to pan out, the seventh overall pick of the 2024 MLB Draft has a good chance of being on the roster in a few years.
In three seasons in West Virginia, Wetherholt developed a strong eye and a solid ability to put the ball in play. The 21-year-old had a perfect 1:1 ratio on strikeouts-to-walks, and hit .370/.468/1.092. In addition, his gap power made him a good candidate for a spot third in any lineup.
Wetherholt’s transition to the majors is probably the smoothest on this list. He has lived up to every single trendline he created in college in Low-A, such as the 1:1 strikeout-walk ratio and hitting more gap power than raw power. To give some context, the 21-year-old struck out only 15 times in 126 plate appearances, a rate of around 12%, which is similar to his college number.
There’s really not much else to critique about Wetherholt since he’s been holding his own at the professional level. The only thing to note is that he is in Low-A ball, not High-A ball like the aforementioned three on this list. His numbers may change significantly when he gets to a more difficult level.
Given that Wetherholt has continued to show why he was drafted seventh overall, expect him to move quickly in the farm system should that continue. He would make a great asset next to Wynn down the line.
LHP Hagen Smith (Chicago White Sox)
2024 (High-A); 0-1; 7 2/3 IP; 7 hits and 2 BB (1.174 WHIP); 7 K; .250 OBA
There’s no reason to do a deep dive into the mess that was the 2024 White Sox. As mentioned in a previous article, this goes beyond one playmaker and a draft pick. It is one of if not the worst season by any MLB team in this century so far.
Hagen Smith is only the first piece in a number of moves the White Sox must make going forward. The Arkansas product was the fifth overall selection this year. He is considered to be one of the higher-end pitching prospects from the draft.
In Arkansas, Smith compiled a respectable 3.40 ERA and 1.223 WHIP in 233 innings of work. What’s more impressive is Smith’s 360 strikeouts in the same time frame. The White Sox needed to start this long rebuild on the right foot when it came to draft picks, and Smith was a good first choice.
The one concern with Smith is his surgically-repaired elbow, going down with Tommy John surgery in 2020. However, it seems the surgery was successful, given his stat lines in college. His home run rate remained at an average of one per nine innings. Meanwhile, his walks were also around 4.5 per nine innings. All fair numbers.
There is not enough information from Smith’s current start in the White Sox system to determine whether he is a good pick or a bad pick. However, just by looking at the current numbers, he seems to be on a trajectory to put up respectable numbers. He might be a serious player in the White Sox rotation going forward.
Photo Credit: © Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
