Alex Binelas

Binelas entered the 2021 season as one of the better in-game power hitters of the 2021 class, with a chance to go in the top half of the first round. He has slid down draft boards after getting off to an extremely slow start with the bat and moving across the diamond from third base to first. He went 2-for-31 during the first eight games of the season and around the halfway point was hitting just .212/.317/.424. He did have a stronger finish and hit .256/.348/.968 with 19 home runs, but teams have struggled to look past how lost he looked at the plate early, in addition to a 22% strikeout rate. Binelas does have massive raw power out of a strong, 6-foot-3, 225-pound frame and he distributed his homers from the left-center gap to the right-center gap, with some scouts assessing his raw power as 70-grade. While his career average won’t look great, Binelas’ power output and walk rates are impressive and scouts who like him appreciate his plate discipline and all-fields approach. Teams entered the year hoping he would prove his ability at third base—where he’d shown stiff actions and fringy glovework—but now he’s a likely first baseman. Some scouts think he might be athletic enough to handle left field. Binelas did have a massive, three-homer game against Clemson in the ACC Tournament, which could have swayed evaluators back to his preseason hype, but it seems safe to say Binelas raised more questions than he answered this spring.