San Diego Padres 2020 MLB Draft Guide and Strategy

Names to consider

A lot can obviously change during the Spring, but as of right now there is a pretty clear consensus of the top three college players in right-handed pitcher Emerson Hancock of Georgia, first-baseman Spencer Torkelson of Arizona State, and shortstop Austin Martin of Vanderbilt.

Unless one of them has a big down year or gets hurt, it’s hard to imagine any of them falling to the Padres at eight.

Jared Kelley, a right-handed pitching prospect in Refugio, Texas is considered the top high school prospect in the 2020 MLB Draft.

But another right-handed pitcher, Mick Abel out of Portland, Ore., is not far behind Kelley.

Nick Bitsko, yet another right-handed high school pitcher, who was projected by many to be the number one pick in the 2021 MLB Draft has reclassified and will graduate early so that he will be draft-eligible for this year’s draft.

Pennsylvania native, outfielder Austin Hendrick, is projected to be the first high school bat to come off the board.

I’ve seen some outlets project the Padres to take outfield high school prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong out of Studio City, California at eight.

But high school players are really unpredictable, so I won’t get into too much detail about them.

And I think it’s much more likely that the Padres take a college player with the eighth pick, and here are same names to consider:

Asa Lacy – LHP – Texas A&M

Garrett Mitchell – OF – UCLA

Heston Kjerstad – OF Arkansas

Casey Martin – INF – Arkansas

JT Ginn – RHP – Mississippi State

If I were picking for the Padres, those are the five players I would be targeting at eight right now — assuming Hancock, Torkelson, Martin, Kelley, Abel, and Bitsko are off the board.

Keep this article handy somewhere as we begin the journey towards the MLB Draft. And in the coming weeks/months I’ll be putting together full scouting reports on each of the players the Padres could take with their first two picks in the 2020 MLB Draft.