Irrelevant of the Indians current status in Major League Baseball, they will attempt to rejuvenate the franchise a bit over the next three days as they participate in the 2019 amateur draft. Unlike the last few years where the Indians used the qualifying offer system and competitive balance picks to stack up first day choices (three in 2016, two second round picks in 2017 and four in 2018 including three first rounders), they have just the standard two picks in the first two rounds this year. Those picks will also be about as bad as could be as the Indians seventh place overall finish last year affords them the 24th overall pick.
The good news for the Indians is that recent drafts have went extremely well for the Tribe (at least as far as we can tell right now) and many of those picks came late in rounds as the Indians have been on the positive side of .500 since 2013. The group from 2018 looks particularly spectacular and that is not just the day one guys, but many players from round 20 and beyond. With that being said, let’s take a look at who the Indians will be going home with on day one of the 2019 draft.
Round 1, Pick 24
Daniel Espino – RHP – Georgia Premier Academy
6’4″ – 200 lbs – Age: 18
The Indians went high velocity with their first pick by taking the right handed pitcher Espino out of high school. Espino great up in Panama, but moved to the United States two years ago to attend Georgia Premier. Espino has two plus pitches, a slider and a fastball that sits between 98 and 100 according to multiple sources. His last season of high school saw him post a 0.32 ERA with 109 strike outs in 44 innings with just nine walks.
Espino was originally ranked at #23 coming into the draft by MLB.com. He was the second high school pitcher taken in the draft after the Pirates took Quinn Priester with the 18th pick and the 7th pitcher taken overall.
[protected-iframe id=”4221a25b8ef9c33974e9d06c0fbcf118-142507471-107853376″ info=”https://streamable.com/m/2019-draft-yordys-valdes-ss” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=””]Round 2, Pick 63
Yordys Valdes – SS – McArthur High School (FL)
5’11” – 170 lbs – Age: 18
The Indians second and final pick on day one of the draft was a defense first shortstop also from the Southeast. Ranked #82 by MLB.com, Valdes is considered the top defensive short stop in the draft by some, but has a very light bat with poor contact abilities. He is trying to improve his overall skill set by becoming a switch hitter. While it may seem that the Indians reached for this pick, it’s important to note that they love athletic middle infielders (nearly all of the big name international signings in recent seasons have been similar) and that they will not have another pick until late in the third round. They obviously were enamored by Valdes and he would not have been available by the time their next pick came around.
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