D-backs Take Fastest Player in Draft in Baseball America Mock

Baseball America published their first mock draft of the 2023 MLB Draft cycle, with Carlos Collazo collaborating with a high-ranking amateur scout in a big league organization. In this mock draft, the scout picks Vanderbilt outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. for Arizona with the 12th overall selection.

Here is the scout's justification for that selection:

Scout's Take: There are few players in the draft class with a better and longer track record of hitting than Bradfield. Even though he hasn't started well this year, his swing and miss and contact is similar to past years. His profile is not for everyone and is an outlier in today's game. If he can somewhat approximate the power he demonstrated last year I think he doesn't get out of the top 15 or so picks. There are few players you can count on being that sort of impact defender and baserunner. And those things are probably overstated when we think about most profiles but he is truly scale-setting in that regard and we might understate the separation between his traits and the rest of the class. I'm eager to see how the new base running rules in pro ball will impact action on the bases -- if it further aides elite runners, he could benefit more because his combination of speed and instincts is truly exceptional.

The Diamondbacks have selected a bat with their top selection in five of the six years under Mike Hazen. Bradfield very much fits the type of hitter Arizona covets in the draft, as a dynamic athlete with a strong feel to hit, underlying power, and the ability to impact the game on the bases and in the field with plus speed. The organization has shown the ability to develop this type of skillset into big leaguers, with Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, and Jake McCarthy already a huge part of their outfield mix.

In a vacuum, this pick doesn't make as much sense for the D-backs as they took Druw Jones with the second overall pick last year and have six outfielders on their current 40-man roster with less than a year of service time. However in this mock the top infield bats, Jacob Wilson, Brayden Taylor, and Aidan Miller, were all taken in the top 11 selections. The alternative would have been to take a well under-slot pick, something the organization has never done in the top half of the first round.

An hypothetical outfield of Carroll, Jones, and Bradfield would be one of the fastest and most dynamic in MLB history. All three players are projected to have plus speed and outfield defense. With Chase Field recently turning into a fly ball haven, especially when the roof is closed, having an outfield that can cover a lot of ground is a huge advantage.