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MLB Draft 2019: Teams with Best Overall Results and Grades
June 6, 2019
The MLB draft concluded Wednesday, with all 40 rounds now officially completed.
Some teams made great strides in improving their farm system, while others took some risks they hope will pay off.
Either way, it will not be for another couple years until we can really gauge the true winners or losers of this year's draft, but we can do our best with the information at hand.
MLB Draft 2019: Teams with Best Overall Results and Grades
Arizona Diamondbacks: A (Top pick: Corbin Carroll, OF, Lakeside HS)
Atlanta Braves: C+ (Top pick: Shea Langeliers, C, Baylor)
Baltimore Orioles: A (Top pick: Adley Rutschman, C, Oregon State)
Boston Red Sox: B+ (Top pick: Cameron Cannon, SS, Arizona)
Chicago Cubs: C+ (Top pick: Ryan Jensen, RHP, Fresno State)
Chicago White Sox: A- (Top pick: Andrew Vaughn, 1B, California)
Cincinnati Reds: B (Top pick: Nick Lodolo, LHP, TCU)
Cleveland Indians: B- (Top pick: Daniel Espino, RHP, Georgia Premier Academy)
Colorado Rockies: C (Top pick: Michael Toglia, 1B, UCLA)
Detroit Tigers: A (Top pick: Riley Greene, OF, Hagerty HS)
Houston Astros: B- (Top pick: Korey Lee, C, California)
Kansas City Royals: A- (Top pick: Bobby Witt Jr., SS, Coleyville Heritage HS)
Los Angeles Angels: B (Top pick: Will Wilson, SS, North Carolina State)
Los Angeles Dodgers: A- (Top pick: Kody Hoese, 3B, Tulane)
Miami Marlins: A (Top pick: J.J. Bleday, OF, Vanderbilt)
Milwaukee Brewers: B+ (Top pick: Ethan Small, LHP, Mississippi State)
Minnesota Twins: A- (Top pick: Keoni Cavaco, SS, Eastlake HS)
New York Mets: A (Top pick: Brett Baty, 3B, Lake Travis HS)
New York Yankees: A- (Top pick: Anthony Volpe, SS, The Delbarton School)
Oakland Athletics: B+ (Top pick: Logan Davidson, SS, Clemson)
Philadelphia Phillies: A- (Top pick: Bryson Stott, SS, UNLV)
Pittsburgh Pirates: B (Top pick: Quinn Priester, RHP, Cary-Grove HS)
San Diego Padres: B- (Top pick: CJ Abrams, SS, Blessed Trinity HS)
San Francisco Giants: B+ (Top pick: Bishop Hunter, OF, Arizona State)
Seattle Mariners: B (Top pick: George Kirby, RHP, Elon)
St. Louis Cardinals: B+ (Top pick: Zack Thompson, LHP, Kentucky)
Tampa Bay Rays: A (Top pick: Greg Jones, SS, UNC-Wilmington)
Texas Rangers: B- (Top pick: Josh Jung, 3B, Texas Tech)
Toronto Blue Jays: B+ (Alex Manoah, RHP, West Virginia)
Washington Nationals: B (Jackson Rutledge, RHP, San Jacinto College)
Best Draft: Arizona Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks had seven of the draft's first 75 picks and took full advantage of that, stocking their farm system with seven of the top-100 draft prospects ranked by MLB.com.
Their top pick, Corbin Carroll, is a 5'9" 175-pound high school outfielder from Washington State, who was ranked the 15th best prospect by MLB.
He hit .450 with 22 home runs and 101 RBI in his high school career and has drawn comparisons to other undersized lefty hitters, such as Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Benintendi.
From there, the Diamondbacks honed in on pitching, adding a mix of high school and college arms.
The two arms with the most upside may be Blake Walston, a 17-year-old hard-throwing left-hander who can dial it up to 93 mph and has a nasty curveball, and 18-year-old right-hand pitcher Brennan Malone, who can touch 96 mph on the gun.
The Diamondbacks have the most bonus pool money to use of any team in the draft and that will surely help them lock up some of these young studs.
Biggest Gamble: New York Mets
The Mets managed to score two prospects ranked in MLB Pipeline's top 20, drafting high school third baseman Brett Baty in the first round and nabbing high school pitcher Matthew Allan, ranked the 13th best prospect by MLB.com, in the third round.
There is a reason Allan fell, though. There are concerns he will not sign and instead move forward with his commitment to play at the University of Florida. He is believed to be asking for a signing bonus in the $4 million range and the pick the Mets took him with is valued at $667,900.
The Mets have roughly $8.2 million of bonus money to spend and focused on drafting college seniors—who have little negotiating leverage—so they can go all-in on Allan, Baty and second-round pick, right-hand pitcher Josh Wolf, which Mets VP of international and amateur scouting Tommy Tanous fully expects them to do:
If the Mets can somehow pull off signing Allan in addition to Baty and Wolf, that would be the biggest steal of the draft.
Under-the-radar: Miami Marlins
Don't look now, but the Miami Marlins might be building something here.
Miami has been focusing on restocking its farm system since trading away some of its bigger stars over the last 14 months and may have had the best draft, at least Jim Bowden of MLB Network thought so:
The Marlins decided to go heavy on position players. They selected three college power lefty bats in JJ Bleday, Kameron Misner and Evan Edwards.
Bleday, the fourth overall pick, was the NCAA home run leader and someone Ken Griffey Jr. described as "a whole lot stronger than I was." High school shortstop Nasim Nunez, who was taken in the second round, may be the best defensive infielder in the whole draft.
The Marlins continued to focus on college bats on Day 2 and turned their attention to pitching the following day. They may not be quite there yet, but they definitely took the necessary steps toward building a strong farm system.