{"id":122144,"date":"2026-05-18T21:01:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=122144"},"modified":"2026-05-18T21:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:01:02","slug":"daniel-jackson-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/18\/daniel-jackson-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia’s Daniel Jackson Picked the Right Year to Have a Historic Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting selected in the Major League Baseball Draft is a dream that most baseball players share. However, with around 615 picks in an average draft, it isn’t a reality for most. With that much competition, ballplayers all over the country need to find a way to stand out, and Georgia Bulldogs catcher Daniel Jackson<\/a> has done just that.<\/p>\n

Entering the 2026 season, only five players in the history of college baseball had ever recorded a season with 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases. Well, with a stolen base against Auburn over the weekend, Jackson became the sixth player in the history of the sport and just the second D1 player in the last 20 years to join that illustrious group.<\/p>\n

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Daniel Jackson’s Historic Season<\/h2>\n

The long-term theme of Jackson’s college career is that it’s not about where you start, but about where you finish. In Jackson’s case, he spent his freshman season at Wofford and, after winning the SoCon Freshman of the Year, leaped into the big time by transferring to Georgia. Despite not starting his career in the SEC, Jackson is likely to finish it as the SEC Player of the Year<\/a> by hitting .387 with 27 home runs, 77 RBIs, and 28 stolen bases.<\/p>\n

\"Georgia
Apr 18, 2026; Fayetteville, AR, USA; Georgia Bulldogs catcher Daniel Jackson (3) hits a single during the fourth inning against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Baum-Walker Stadium. Georgia won 26-14. Mandatory Credit: Brett Rojo-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Behind his historically rare 25-25 season, the Bulldogs won the SEC Regular Season Championship, earning them a double-bye and the number one seed in the SEC Tournament. For all parties involved, this season has provided the opportunity to bounce back in a big way. Not only did the Bulldogs get quickly bounced from both the SEC Tournament and the Ann Arbor Regional, but in 48 games and 39 starts, the 2025 version of Jackson did not look like the draft prospect he is today.<\/p>\n

Jackson finished last season hitting .218 with 14 home runs, a .556% SLG, and 47 strikeouts. While the power potential was certainly there, it would be hard for anyone to predict that the Bulldogs’ catcher would turn in a historic 2026 campaign. With the regular season over, Jackson will enter the SEC Tournament ranked 7th in the country in wOBA (.542%), 5th in OPS (1.328), and 5th in SLG (.836%).<\/p>\n

For as impressive as Jackson has been at the dish, his performance in the field and on the base paths is what truly sets him apart from all the other extremely talented catchers in the 2026 MLB Draft<\/a>. In 58 games, the Bulldogs backstop committed just two errors, giving him a fielding percentage of .996. For comparison, the current top catcher on most scouts’ draft boards, Vahn Lackey<\/a>, has a fielding percentage of .992%. As a baserunner, Jackson finished 4th in the SEC in wSB (weighted stolen bases), with the conference leader being projected first-rounder Justin Lebron.<\/p>\n

Where Daniel Jackson Currently Stands in the Draft<\/h3>\n

With the postseason about to get underway, MLB Pipeline<\/a> has Jackson ranked as their 55th MLB Draft Prospect, while Kiley McDaniel of ESPN<\/a> has him ranked 57th. Based on those rankings, the Georgia standout should hear his name called somewhere in the first two rounds of the 2026 MLB Draft<\/a>. While it may still seem surprising that the likely SEC Player of the Year could land in the middle to end of the second round, it’s important to remember that before the season, Jackson ranked outside the Top 70 on Perfect Games’ Draft Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is also potential for Jackson to improve his draft stock even more. The SEC Tournament will be crawling with MLB scouts, and that will continue to be the case when the NCAA Tournament rolls around and the Bulldogs are hosting a regional. Being able to continue to play at home at Foley Field, which is historically hitter-friendly, bodes well for Jackson to continue to boost his stock, as he hit .404 with a 1.398 OPS and 19 home runs at home during the regular season.<\/p>\n

Some clubs may be hunting for future potential during the first two rounds, which could cause them to miss out on Jackson, since he will be 21 years and seven months old in July. The teams that are looking to get the best player available, though, likely won’t hesitate to draft a guy like Jackson early in the second round, given his plus power and unique versatility.<\/p>\n

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Main Photo Credit: Brett Rojo- Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting selected in the Major League Baseball Draft is a dream that most baseball players share. However, with around 615 picks in an average draft, it isn’t a reality for most. With that much competition, ballplayers all over the country need to find a way to stand out, and Georgia Bulldogs catcher Daniel Jackson has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5819,"featured_media":122192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,29143,35],"tags":[1308],"class_list":["post-122144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-mlb-draft","category-news","tag-mlb-prospects"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5819"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122144"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122194,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122144\/revisions\/122194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}