Jared McKenzie

Coming out of the 2021 season, McKenzie looked to be one of the better hitters in this draft class, but his resume the past 12 months has clouded that assessment. McKenzie hit .389/.453/.583 in his first two seasons at Baylor, but he struggled with a wood bat in the Cape Cod League last summer and that carried over into his 2022 Baylor season. He hit .288/.388/.517 with his strikeout rate soaring from 14% in 2021 to 26% in 2022 without any significant increase in his power production. At his best, McKenzie has a compact and simple lefty swing that begins with a small timing step. This year he struggled to connect on quality velocity at the top of the zone. The hope is that a rough season for Baylor as a whole (it finished under .500) affected McKenzie as well. McKenzie played center field exclusively at Baylor, but in pro ball, he’ll likely need to move around. An average runner, McKenzie gets good reads, but lacks top-end speed. His below-average arm is accurate.