By Josh Bookbinder
Everybody’s got something to say about the draft, especially round 1. I am no exception! So, without further ado, I figured I’d give out some positives and negatives. Note: this is just from round one, I’ll check in on the other rounds later.
Pick I Love: R1-P29, Slade Caldwell to AZ
Slade Caldwell to Arizona is a match made in heaven. The freakishly athletic high school lefty is undersized but hardly undervalued, and managed to fall right into the best situation he possibly could. Caldwell can become anything, but the Diamondbacks have the blueprint for him to follow if he wants to make the majors in the lane he’s currently projected.
Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, and Jake McCarthy are all former top-of-the-draft athletic burner lefties who turned into various levels of productive major leaguers with bright futures. My bet is on Caldwell to follow the wave and become the next one.
Pick I Hate: R1-P6, Jac Caglianone to KC
This sucks, man.
Look, I’m not trying to dump on the Royals. I’m not trying to dump on Jac Cag. I think both are good, in their own ways. I just think together, it doesn’t fit.
Early indications are that Caglianone will not be a two-way player for the Royals, despite the triple digit fastball and three plus off-speed pitches. No fun. That’s strike one.
While Caglianone has 70-grade power on the conservative side, there’s a lot of concern about his swing and miss and swing decisions. while the Royals can probably help that, what they have always struggled to develop are power prospects. Strike two.
The Royals play in Kauffman Stadium, which suppresses lefty homers more than all but three other parks in baseball. Jac’s home park is going to hurt his best tool more than almost anywhere else in the game. Strike three.
Pick I Love: R1-P22, Vance Honeycutt to BAL
Honeycutt is a freak athlete who will always have a major league floor as a defensive replacement. He’s incredibly talented as a defender and that part of his game will never go away. However, the bat is a big question mark.
Honeycutt has undeniable raw power and offensive potential, but also a ton of swing and miss. He hit 21 homers this year, swiped 28 bags, and struck out a whopping 83 times. That’s a project player.
The good news is, the Orioles have had an incredible amount of success drafting college bats in the early rounds and developing them. For example, Adley Rutschman, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser, Austin Hays, Kyle Stowers, Heston Kjerstad…
Anyway, he’s where he needs to be. If anyone can tap into whatever can make him a five-tool player, it’ll be the O’s. But with a three-tool floor, they’re already in good shape.
Pick I Hate: R1-P26, Ben Hess to NYY
I’m a Yankees fan, and I’m not in the business of rooting for prospects to fail. I want players to be good, and I want the Yankees players to be good. But this one makes absolutely no sense to me, especially in the first round.
Hess struggled to stay healthy in three years at Alabama, and when he was at his healthiest he was ineffective. He started 15 games in 2024 and got shelled to the tune of a 5.80 ERA, walking a batter every other inning and let up 13 homers in 68 IP.
Hess struck out 106 batters in those 68 innings and has a massive 6’5″, 255 lb frame, so he has potential. My issue with the pick is that I would rather see a guy with such a low floor and high bust potential go… well, anywhere other than the highest possible pick for a team. I just don’t see what the Yankees do in taking him over other, safer, and possibly higher upside options at 26.
Pick That Scares Me, In A Good Way: R1-P15, Jurrangelo Cijntje to SEA
Oh, Jurrangelo. The most fascinating draft prospect in a long, long time. A RHP/LHP? C’mon.
There’s a lot I like, but the best thing about Cjintje is that he can do something literally no one else can in baseball. There’s a lot of buzz that he’ll only throw from one side, the right, in pro ball. The reason that this pick scares me is that the Mariners are now in control of whether or not that happens. I’m begging, at least let him try to do the fun thing.
Conclusions
There’s more I could write about regarding round one, and a few more picks I think are interesting.
Chase Burns is a fly ball pitcher that just got drafted to the Reds, who play in the worst fly ball park in the league outside of Coors. Carson Benge got picked by the Mets, who have a history with former two-way guys turned hitters. PJ Morlando’s electric personality and massive power bat is on the way to Miami, where he’ll fit in perfectly. Charlie Condon is bringing his incredible bat to Colorado, where it’ll play way up.
I’m looking forward to seeing how all these picks and the rest of the rounds play out.
Josh Bookbinder is a writer for and co-founder of LowThreeQuarter. See more of his work and others’ work on the site through the links at the top of the page, or explore another recent article linked below.
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