2020 Top 100 College Draft Prospects

Baseball America compiles draft rankings in consultation with major league scouts, front office executives, scouting directors and other professional evaluators. This list is an attempt to gauge the industry’s consensus on the top 100 players in the 2020 college draft class at the current moment. While much is sure to change with plenty of time between now and the 2020 draft, we believe this gives a solid gauge of the strengths and weaknesses of the class as it stands now.

Fall workouts, practices and scrimmages are underway throughout college baseball, giving major league scouts valuable off-season looks at many of their top targets for the upcoming draft. With that, and after having conversations with scouts around the country over the last few weeks, we’re excited to expand our 2020 college draft list to 100 players.

Scouts continue to rave about the depth of the college class, citing the strength in pitchers routinely. While the 2020 class was always bound to appear strong in pitching after following a historically weak college pitching draft in 2019, the talent and the depth is real.

Eight pitchers make up the top 15 players in the country at this point, with the group led by No. 2 ranked righthander Emerson Hancock (Georgia). No. 4 ranked lefthander Asa Lacy (Texas A&M) is right on his heels and has dominated in front of scouts this fall, with some saying he’s a lock to go in the top 10 thanks to his handedness, stuff and poise on the mound.

The 2020 class offers the sort of impact pitching prospects that the 2019 class simply didn’t have. Hancock and Lacy are both top-of-the-rotation types, and they are followed by more pitchers who have that sort of potential, including lefthander Reid Detmers (Louisville) and righthanders Carmen Mlodzinski (South Carolina), JT Ginn (Mississippi State), Tanner Burns (Auburn) and Cole Wilcox (Georgia).

One player who has gotten additional helium for his exploits this fall is lefthander Garrett Crochet (Tennessee), who jumps 11 spots from his previous ranking to get to No. 11 in our current update. Crochet has pitched off of an explosive fastball that’s sat in the mid-90s with impressive life and is thrown from a tough angle out of a 6-foot-5 lefthanded frame. With increased consistency of his secondaries, he could jump further in the rankings next spring.

In total, 67 of the top 100 college players are pitchers.

However, that doesn’t mean the hitting crop is down. There’s a strong crop of bats at the top of the class, with a mixture of polished hitters with long track records and high-upside toolsier prospects.

Three hitters are included among the top five prospects, including the top player in the class, first baseman Spencer Torkelson (Arizona State) and No. 3 Austin Martin (Vanderbilt), who has a case for the first overall pick in the draft if he shows he can handle shortstop next spring. At No. 5 is New Mexico State second baseman Nick Gonzales, who is among the best pure hitters in the class.

Also rising in this edition of the college list is outfielder Garrett Mitchell (UCLA), who checks in at No. 6 thanks to positive reviews from scouts during his fall season, Mitchell was highly touted as a high school player out of Orange (Calif.) Lutheran High and is likely has the loudest package of tools in the college class. He has 70-grade running ability, raw power that will earn 70-grades, plus arm strength and plus defensive ability in center field as well. If he hits this spring, there’s no reason he can’t go among the top five overall picks, though questions will linger about him as a Type I Diabetic.