MLB Mock Draft 2.0: Twins have tough choice at No. 1; full first round projection
Tonight at 7 p.m. EST, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will step to the microphone and announce whom the Twins, the owners of the number one pick of this year's amateur draft, will take. But with just hours to go, there's still suspense throughout the industry regarding the identity of that selection, with draft experts generally pointing either to Vanderbilt's Kyle Wright, a righthanded pitcher, or Louisville's Brendan McKay, a two-way player whose future path—whether as a lefty starter or first baseman—remains up in the air. Nonetheless, since publishing my first mock draft on May 16, the industry consensus regarding 1/1 has shifted from McKay to Wright, and so with that in mind, he leads off Mock 2.0.
By industry consensus, I refer to the smart, hard-working folks at Baseball America, ESPN, FanGraphs, Hero Sports, MLB Pipeline and Perfect Game, all of whom have released mock drafts that reflect years of knowledge in the field and myriad discussions with scouts and front office executives about the talent at hand as well as organizational philosophies. Those drafts are educated stabs at an inexact science. This mock draft is merely an attempt to summarize the consensus from those sources while fitting the pieces together, hopefully without making a mockery of the process.
NOTE: Three teams—the Blue Jays, Rangers and Cubs—have two picks in the first round because they lost premium free agents in Edwin Encarnacion, Ian Desmond and Dexter Fowler to the Indians, Rockies and Cardinals, respectively. Those latter three clubs have therefore forfeited their first-round selections.
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