Shortstop Grady Emerson comes into the spring as the clear top high school prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft class, bringing an advanced feel to hit and early comparisons from scouts to two of the top 10 prospects in pro ball right now, JJ Wetherholt and Kevin McGonigle.
I saw one game from Emerson on Saturday in an abortive scouting trip to Dallas that I cut short by a day because they close the Philadelphia airport if someone whispers the word “snow” outside a Wawa.
Emerson is loading his hands a little deeper now than he did last year, which could be a way to get to a little more power, and the few in-game swings I saw from him had a good path for line-drive contact. The bat path is similar to what I saw from McGonigle in high school, where I never saw the kind of power he’s shown since Detroit drafted him. Emerson also showed above-average speed out of the batter’s box. He was fine at shortstop, but his range wasn’t tested at all; the consensus from scouts who’ve seen him this spring and whom I’ve asked was that he could stay at shortstop, but it’s not a certainty.
Emerson, who transferred from a public high school to a small religious one (Fort Worth Christian School in North Richland Hills, Texas) for his senior year, showed very strong plate discipline on the showcase circuit last year, with a chase rate of 17 percent that dropped to 9 percent on pitches well out of the zone. His hitting profile is hit over power, which showed last year as well, with enough projection to see him getting at least to average home run power at his peak.
I’m hoping to see him once more, as this wasn’t enough for anything close to a real evaluation, but I also haven’t had a single person tell me there’s a better high school position player in the class yet.
Savion Sims has the size, maybe not the polish for pro ball
I also saw Prestonwood Christian Academy (Plano, Texas) right-hander Savion Sims, who is 6 feet 8 inches and about 84 percent legs. He started his outing throwing 95-97 mph, eventually drifting down to 92-94 mph by his fourth inning. He has a very fast arm and a reasonably clean delivery, but no average second pitch. He doesn’t seem to spin the ball well, throwing a slider that had velocity but wasn’t sharp, and he was throwing either a cutter or sinker in the low 90s (it looked much more like a cutter to me) that was sort of his change-of-pace pitch to get guys off the fastball. He had below-average command and control, as well.
The size, delivery and arm strength will appeal to some teams — the Padres take guys like this all the time — but I think the majority of clubs will want to see a better secondary pitch before paying up. He’s committed to Oklahoma.
Wes Mendes shows well at Amegy College Series, hit hard by player absences
My main reason for going to Texas this weekend was for the Amegy College Series at Globe Life Field, which had a promising group of teams. At least seven MLB scouting directors joined me there on Friday. Unfortunately, the main story of the tournament was who wasn’t playing: Chris Rembert of Auburn is still out for a few weeks with an ankle injury. Louisville outfielder Zion Rose is out with the same. Florida State starter Trey Beard is still out with food poisoning, missing his first two starts, as he was quite sick.
Florida State’s Wes Mendes showed the ability to compete well with his stuff in his outing this weekend. (Gary McCullough / Associated Press)
Florida State left-hander Wes Mendes threw on Friday and really competed, showing four pitches in an outing against Michigan, with his fastball/changeup combo the highlight. He was 92-93 mph for most of his outing, finding another gear in the third inning when he bumped 95 mph, while the changeup had good fading action, enough that he threw five straight at one point to get a right-handed hitter out.
He threw a slider and curveball but under-threw a lot of them, so they weren’t that sharp and often finished higher than you’d want. His throwing motion is on line to the plate with a three-quarters arm slot, not showing much deception, with some effort to the delivery. His profile is third-ish round.
On Friday, Michigan started sophomore Tate Carey, a right-hander who was 93-95 mph with four pitches, showing good arm speed on the changeup and a solid-average slider in the mid- to upper-80s. He spins off his front foot way too often when he lands and ends up across his body, but that’s not a hard thing to fix. He’s definitely an arm to watch for 2027.
Florida State has a bunch of hitters who should go in the third-to-fifth rounds, depending on the seasons they have. The most famous name is sophomore third baseman Noah Sheffield, whose bat wag would tell you who his father is even if you didn’t see the name on the jersey. He went 1-for-2 with a walk but did not look good at all against Carey’s slider.
First baseman Myles Bailey struggled with fastballs up, but he did draw a couple of walks. Left fielder Brayden Dowd transferred to FSU after two years with USC (the one in California) and might have the best pure hit tool of the group, although he’s a below-average runner and has to hit because I don’t think he can play anywhere more valuable than left. Cal Fisher moved from third base last year to shortstop this year, showing good hands but too much inconsistency on his throws despite plenty of arm strength. He had a hard-hit rate over 50 percent last year that put him on my radar, although the swing decisions have to improve a little to get that to translate to more production.
Florida State right-handed reliever John Abraham was 91-93 mph with two 50/55 (on the 20-80 scouting scale) pitches in his curveball and change-up. After two years of putting up high walk rates out of the bullpen, he’s at least come out throwing more strikes this year, with one walk in 23 batters faced through three appearances. It wasn’t wow stuff by any means, but in a time when everyone is trying to throw 105, it was great to see a reliever come in and just attack guys in the zone. I was shocked to see his high walk rates from his past two years, given how he pitched on Friday.
Auburn’s lineup was thin without Rembert. Catcher Chase Fralick is a sophomore and the Tigers’ next-best hitter, a top draft prospect for 2027. Fralick makes a ton of contact, especially in the zone, though his high-hands setup did have him on the top half of the ball.
Outfielder Cade Belyeu is the Tigers’ next-best prospect for this year’s draft. He’s coming off an injury-plagued sophomore year where his power disappeared after a shoulder injury cost him a couple of weeks early in conference play. He’s in center field now but will end up in a corner, as he’s a 45 runner (on the 20-80 scouting scale) and doesn’t have the range to stay up the middle. If the power he showed as a freshman and before the shoulder injury comes back while he’s playing full-time, he’s got a chance to be a top-two rounds pick.
Auburn started sophomore left-hander Jake Marciano, a transfer from Virginia Tech and a side character in Raging Bull, and he was dominant against Kansas State, with six shutout innings, no walks and eight strikeouts. He sits just 89-92 mph but goes heavy with his offspeed stuff, led by a slurvy pitch in the mid-70s that generated six of the 11 whiffs he got on the night. I saw him last year as well, and he doesn’t look like he’s added any weight since then, so he’s still quite projectable at 6-3, 180 pounds or so.
Louisville center fielder Lucas Moore is an extreme contact hitter, whiffing on pitches in the zone less than 10 percent of the time he swung last year, with below-average power despite plenty of bat speed. He’s a plus runner with a 45 arm (on the 20-80 scouting scale), probably staying in center despite the latter, but he’s got to put some more juice into all that contact he’s making. Kane Kepley is a similar player and went in the second round last year, but I thought that was a reach, and Moore’s more of a third-rounder in a typical year.
Neither Nebraska nor Kansas State had much for this year’s draft. Huskers right-hander Ty Horn is a strike-thrower who was 91-94 mph with a solid-average cutter and slider, nothing better than a 50 (on the 20-80 scouting scale), although he has some deception from a high three-quarters slot and could get more if he took a longer stride towards the plate. He’s more of a sixth through 10th round type right now, but I could see a team with strong pitching development rolling the dice on getting him to throw harder.
Additional draft notes
Some chatter from around the country: UC Santa Barbara right-hander Jackson Flora may follow in former teammate Tyler Bremner’s footsteps as the first pitcher taken in the draft, as Flora has been 96-100 mph as a starter in two pitch-limited outings so far.
Florida right-hander Liam Peterson bounced back from a brutal first outing to strike out 12 against Kennesaw State in Week 2. Coastal Carolina right-hander Cameron Flukey was nails in his first start but was scratched from his second start with a strained intercostal muscle (the muscles between the ribs).
Kentucky shortstop Tyler Bell, a likely top-10 pick coming into the spring, has a shoulder injury and will be out for a while. TCU right-hander Tommy LaPour missed his outing against UCLA this weekend with elbow soreness, and the injury doesn’t sound great.
The 2026 class also improved a little bit with the news that Huntington Beach (Calif.) HS two-way player Jared Grindlinger has reclassified into this year’s class, making him one of the youngest players in the upcoming draft. He’s a left-handed pitcher and outfielder, right now getting more attention on the mound, although that often changes once scouts bear down on a guy because it’s his actual draft year. He’s the second reclassification this calendar year, with Vermont — yes, Vermont, that baseball hotbed — high school right-hander Kaiden McCarthy doing so in January.