San Diego Padres 2020 MLB Draft scouting profile: Austin Hendrick

We continue preparing for the San Diego Padres 2020 MLB Draft by looking at one of the best high school players in the upcoming draft.

Up to this point I’ve only been focusing on college players that the San Diego Padres could take in the upcoming 2020 MLB Draft.

But now I’ll turn my attention to the high school ranks by looking at outfielder Austin Hendrick from West Allegheny High School in Pennsylvania.

I’ll be honest and tell you my knowledge of high school players is not nearly as good as those in college. And just in general, high school players are much harder to judge.

But we’ll do our best to give you as much information as possible on these prospects as we prepare for the upcoming draft in June.

And with the high school baseball season getting underway in parts of the country, it’s time to start familiarizing ourselves with these names.

The profile on Hendrick is that he has elite bat speed and raw power. Many project that he could be a 30-40 home run hitter in the big leagues one day.

As you can see from his swing, he is certainly a fan of the launch angle with the way he keeps his back elbow up, drops his back half, and looks to drive the ball on an upward path.

It’s certainly been effective in his high school career and helped him win the Under Armour Home Run Derby.

With that, he’s also susceptible to a lot of swing-and-miss. But like most teams in today’s game, you’ll take that if the guy runs into 40 a year.

In some videos I’ve seen of him with an awkward toe-tap where he started open, toe-tapped closed, and then almost jumped towards the ball.

There was certainly a lot going on and it did not look pretty.

But in the video above it looks like he took that out and instead now just has a high leg kick, which is fine.

Some of the comparisons I’ve seen for him are Cody Bellinger and Shohei Ohtani because of the left-handed power potential he possesses. Those are pretty lofty expectations.

Defensively, I’ve read some reports that say he has an above-average arm, which means he’ll likely be a right fielder.

He’s already 19, so he’s a little older than most kids coming out of high school for the 2020 MLB Draft, but he already has a solid frame.

FanGraphs list him with a future value of 45+.

Hendrick is committed to go play college baseball at Mississippi State if he turns down the pros. But all expect that he’ll go at least in the top 15 of the upcoming MLB Draft, and some even say he could be the first high school player off the board.

My guess is that he goes sixth overall to the Seattle Mariners in the upcoming 2020 MLB Draft. But if you Padres fan are hoping for a big bopper out of this draft, start hoping Hendrick falls to them at eight.