Zander Darby

School: UC Santa Barbara
Commit/Drafted: Never Drafted
Age at Draft: 21.6

Darby is a lean and lanky, 6-foot-3, 205-pound third baseman coming off a 2023 season where he led UC Santa Barbara with 62 hits. Darby has always shown solid on-base skills in his college career, but he cut his strikeout rate nearly 10 points, from 25.9% to 16.3% and then followed up his strong spring with a solid summer in the Cape Cod League. In 35 games with Yarmouth-Dennis, Darby slashed .292/.404/.407 with nearly as many walks as strikeouts. Darby is a fastball hitter who does most of his damage to the pull side, and while his production against secondaries is modest he has shown enough of a savvy batting eye to lay off pitches out of the zone and keep himself in counts and on base via the walk. He’s a fair defender at third base, but often plays too high and could improve both his footwork and throwing accuracy on difficult plays without his feet set. He still has physical projection and could come into more power as he layers on strength.