By Louis Addeo-Weiss
With Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft commencing on June 3rd, the Miami Marlins used their fourth overall pick to draft J.J. Bleday, a power-hitting outfielder from baseball powerhouse school Vanderbilt University.
Bleday, who has led all of NCAA baseball this spring with 26 home runs, was recently named SEC Player of the Year for his junior year, a season which has seen him hit.353, drive in 68 runs, and walk 52 times. For his college career, Bleday is a career .327 hitter with a robust .449 on-base percentage. One of the most impressive aspects of his game is his advanced knowledge of the strike zone. Across three seasons, all of which he spent at Vanderbilt, the Florida native has only struck out 100 times in 662 plate appearances, only 15.1-percent of the time. His plate discipline is further personified by the fact that he has walked more than he has struck out, with his aforementioned 52 bases on balls this season being a career best.
The drafting of Bleday by Miami breaks the team’s streak of six consecutive high school players selected in the first round. Being that Bleday already has an advanced approach at the plate and given his time spent in college, he should progress through the team’s minor league system rather quickly.
As far as positional projections go, many scouts see Bleday as a guy who will fit best in the corner outfield spots, with many in Miami already penning him their right fielder of the future.
Speaking on his defensive skills, Baseball America states that “Bleday moves well and could handle center field in a pinch, but he profiles best as a corner outfielder—where his newfound power should allow him to succeed.”
A recent poll posted courtesy of Ely Sussman of Fish Stripes has 94-percent of voters approving of the Bleday selection, a rare nod of approval from a fanbase that has traditionally shunned most moved made on behalf of the organization.
Should Bleday and the Marlins come to terms, he’ll join an up-and-coming farm system ranked 14th prior to the start of the 2019 season.
The future addition to Bleday would give the Marlins added power they’ve been lacking since the team traded superstars Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, and Marcell Ozuna after the 2017 season. The team’s 128 home runs in 2018 ranked last in the National League and their 43 thus far in 2019 keep them in the NL home run cellar.
