The Major League Baseball Draft is one month and one day away. To really kick things into gear we’re going to take a look at the Top 30 players in the draft as things sit right now. We will update this a few times between today and the draft. And the individual player reports will start up, too.
There are four places that have draft boards available right now that I used in order to create this cumulative draft board. They are Fangraphs (free), ESPN ($), and Baseball America ($). I took their Top 30 prospects in the draft and used an AP points format to create an overall Top 30. The MLB Pipeline list may be added later if they update their rankings for the first time since the spring began. Since they haven’t, though, I chose not to include it as it doesn’t reflect opinions based on how things sit today.
| Rank | Player | POS | School |
| 1 | Adley Rutschman | C | Oregon State |
| 2 | Andrew Vaughn | 1B | California |
| 3 | Bobby Witt Jr | SS | Coleyville Heritage HS (TX) |
| 4 | CJ Abrams | SS | Blessed Trinity HS (GA) |
| 5 | Corbin Carroll | OF | Lakeside HS (WA) |
| 6 | Riley Greene | OF | Hagerty HS (FL) |
| 7 | JJ Bleday | OF | Vanderbilt |
| 8 | Nick Lodolo | LHP | TCU |
| 9 | Hunter Bishop | OF | Arizona State |
| 10 | Bryson Stott | SS | UNLV |
| 11 | Matt Allan | RHP | Seminole HS (FL) |
| 12 | Alek Manoah | RHP | West Virginia |
| 13 | Josh Jung | 3B | Texas Tech |
| 14 | Zack Thompson | LHP | Kentucky |
| 15 | Michael Busch | 1B | North Carolina |
| 16 | Will Wilson | 2B | North Carolina State |
| 17 | Shea Langeliers | C | Baylor |
| 18 | Brett Baty | 3B | Lake Travis HS (TX) |
| 19 | Jackson Rutledge | RHP | San Jacinto JC |
| 20 | George Kirby | RHP | Elon |
| 21 | Kameron Misner | OF | Missouri |
| 22 | Brennan Malone | RHP | IMG Academy HS (FL) |
| 23 | Logan Davidson | SS | Clemson |
| 24 | Quinn Priester | RHP | Cary-Grove HS (IL) |
| 25 | JJ Goss | RHP | Cypress Ranch HS (TX) |
| 26 | Daniel Espino | RHP | Premier Academy HS (GA) |
| 27 | Braden Shewmake | 2B | Texas A&M |
| 28 | Maurice Hampton | OF | Memphis University HS |
| 29 | Jack Leiter | RHP | Delbarton HS (NJ) |
| 30 | Nasim Nunez | SS | Collins Hill HS (GA) |
There’s only one pitcher in the top 10, TCU’s left-handed starter Nick Lodolo. There are seven guys listed as outfielders or shortstops – where there’s some real depth. It seems that the top two players, Adley Rutschman and Andrew Vaughn have separated themselves from the group.
It’s unlikely that either of those two players would be available for the Reds. It seems that Bobby Witt Jr. is also very likely to be off of the board. Beyond those players, though, it seems that things are wide open. The Reds have been linked to several players throughout the spring, including third baseman Josh Jung, left-handed pitcher Nick Lodolo, and right-handed pitcher Matt Allen at different points this spring.