San Diego Padres: Three first baseman to target in 2020 MLB Draft

Aaron Sabato, North Carolina

The Padres will have no shot at landing arguably the best player in the country in Spencer Torkelson, so they should take the next best first baseman in this class. Aaron Sabato is a draft-eligible sophomore and was recently ranked as Baseball America’s 35th best prospect in this class.

With the Padres having the eighth overall pick and the 34th overall picks, there is a chance that another position could be addressed before taking Sabato. However, that’s tricky, especially if another team falls in love with Sabato, given that the first base class is not as deep as years prior.

The Rye Brook, New York native was named the ACC Freshman of the Year and earned first-team All-ACC honors. In 64 games, Sabato posted a .343/.453/.696 line with 25 doubles, 18 home runs, and 63 RBI. He displayed tremendous patience at the plate, taking walks at a 14.4 percent clip.

He was off to a terrific start this year before the pandemic shut everything down. In a 19-game sample size, Sabato posted a .292/.478/.708 line with six doubles, seven home runs, and 18 RBI and took more walks than strikes.

I personally would have liked to see if his skill set translated in a wood-bat league, but he didn’t participate in one between his freshman and sophomore years as most college kids do. That said, his film shows that he does a great job of driving the ball to the opposite field for power.