2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: Outfielders

[Jeremy Nygaard]

We have reached the end of our positional previews for the 2024 MLB Draft, as we conclude with outfielders. Those who will likely be off the board when the Twins come onto the clock won’t be previewed here.

This is the last of our position-by-position previews of the 2024 MLB Draft class. These pieces aren’t meant to be an exhaustive list, rather, an overview of the caliber of talent at the position. For each player, we'll run down some basic information, in addition to some strengths and weaknesses. You’ll also find their current position on the Consensus MLB Draft Board in parentheses next to their name.

Braden Montgomery (Texas A&M), Konnor Griffin (Mississippi prep), and James Tibbs III (Florida State) all seemed destined to be taken in the top dozen picks, and we've talked about each in the past, so today, we'll dispense with them and focus on some players who should be available when the Twins first get to make a selection.

Carson Benge, L/R OF, Oklahoma State (15)
Carson Benge is a two-way player who missed a chunk of the 2023 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, before returning for the latter part of the campaign. Though he did post some impressive pitching numbers in 2024 (44 strikeouts in 37 innings, 11 walks, .186 batting average against), he’s expected to focus on hitting as a professional.

Benge has an exciting offensive toolkit, led by good bat speed that produces consistently high exit velocities. This is paired with a chase rate under 20% and a contact rate over 80%, a potent combination. Benge has posted high ground ball rates.

In 2024, Benge batted .335/.444/.665, with 18 home runs and 10 stolen bases.

Benge has average speed, a plus arm, and an above-average glove that should lend itself to a really solid right-field profile, defensively. If Benge can lift the ball with more consistency, look out.

Vance Honeycutt, R/R OF, North Carolina (19)
At 6' 3”, 205 pounds, North Carolina center fielder Vance Honeycutt is perhaps the one college player in the 2024 class who can boast true five-tool upside.

Honeycutt had an incredible freshman campaign for North Carolina, punctuated by 25 home runs and 29 stolen bases. Slowed a little by a back issue in 2023, his performance came back down to Earth, although he did cut down significantly on the strikeout issues that arose in his first season of college baseball. In 2024, Honeycutt trended back the right direction, hitting .313/.407/.703 with 28 home runs and 28 stolen bases. He did strike out 86 times with only 37 walks, but was absolutely a must-watch player in the College World Series.

Generating plenty of bat speed and loft from the right side of the plate, it's the development of the hit tool that will govern Honeycutt's ultimate ceiling. Most of his power comes to the pull side currently, and although he doesn't chase much, he has struggled more with breaking stuff than other pitches. Teams are easily (and significantly) turned off by in-zone swing-and-miss, and that’s something Honeycutt possesses.

Defensively, he's the total package; an outstanding center fielder who should stick at the position, with plus speed and a plus arm. Honeycutt has the potential to be the whole package, with speed, defense, a great arm, on-base skills and burgeoning power.

Slade Caldwell, L/L OF, Valley View HS, Ark (20)
Caldwell was the Arkansas player of the year in 2023 and 2024. At 5' 9”, 175 pounds, he's an undersized player who will naturally draw comparisons to Jett Williams, a first-round selection in 2022.

While Caldwell is undersized, he's an explosive athlete. A sweet, quick left-handed swing generates sneaky-good bat speed, and he has an effective line-drive swing, able to sting it to all parts of the ballpark. As a senior, he batted .485. Caldwell has fringe-average power, and while that is unlikely to blossom into above-average thump, he can hurt you in a ton of different ways.

A double plus runner, he's a problem on the base paths, stealing 51 bases on the season. This is augmented by his discerning approach at the plate; he has a great eye and feel for the strike zone.

Defensively, he has the speed and athleticism to remain in center field as a pro, although a below-average throwing arm lessens the appeal slightly. At worst, he'll be a plus defender in left who gets on base a ton and steals plenty of bases.

Ryan Waldschmidt, R/R OF, Kentucky (63)
Waldschmidt is an all-around, tweener-type prospect who transferred from Charleston Southern to Kentucky before his sophomore season. Despite not having a carrying tool, he can chalk up value in a number of different ways.

It's a little bit of everything at the plate, as strong bat-to-ball skills are combined with good on-base skills. There's sneaky pull-side power there, too, with line-drive-to-all-fields impact at the plate.

In 2024, Waldschmidt batted .333/.469/.610, with 14 home runs and 25 stolen bases. He walked 41 times with 45 strikeouts. While the numbers aren’t eye-popping, Waldschmidt is considered an “analytics darling.”

Waldschmidt has good speed which aids him defensively and on the bases. In the outfield, he takes efficient routes and has a good shot to stick in center as a pro.

Mike Sorota, R/R OF, Northeastern (48)
At 6' 3”, 190 pounds, there's still some projectability left in Sirota's frame. He has plenty in the bag in terms of tools. His offensive profile is underpinned by his right-handed swing. Operating from a crouched stance, it's quiet and clean, without a lot of moving pieces. Sirota has good bat speed and quick hands, and his ability to let the ball travel in the zone and relatively flat bat path give him line drive ability all over the field.

Sirota had a big power breakout in 2023, taking his home run total from 4 to 18. Back-to-back outstanding performances in the Cape Cod League (.942 OPS) should allay fears about him stacking up against consistently inferior competition.

Defensively, it's plus speed, with an above-average arm and glove, a combination that should allow him to stick at center. The problem with Sorota, however, is that he came into the season as a potential top-10 pick, but struggled on the season. His .298 batting average was a career low. He showed very little power, as his home run numbers dropped (he only had seven). He did walk more (59) than he struck out (48) for the first time in his career, but all the things that put him on the map took a step back. 

Sorota has shown enough that he could still be a Day One pick. But he’s also shown enough recently that maybe the “breakout” Sorota had was just an aberration, and he’s more of a Day Two guy.

Who excites you from the outfielder class in 2024? Who are you higher on than other prospects? Jump into the draft conversation in the comments below.

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Find more draft coverage here:

 

2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: Prep Pitchers

2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: College Pitchers

2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: First Basemen

2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: Second Basemen

2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: Midwest Highlights

2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: Third Basemen

2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: Shortstops

2024 MLB Draft Position Previews: Catcher

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[Dman]

I'd really like to see the Twins take an outfielder with pick 21.  The system and the MLB club seem weak on outfield depth.  The infield seems set with Lewis, Correa and likely Lee with others filling in at 1st base and loads of options for second base.

So ideally I would like to go with a HS player at 21 but it looks like the only player available that high might be Caldwell. I know you can't trust mocks but he seems to be falling down boards to the comp round Although he is mentioned as being loved by every team so who knows.  If he is there I still think that would be my pick.

I really like the hit tools of Benge and Waldschmidt and they are getting a lot of love in the teen picks right now.  They should be fast moving bats and Benge would be nice because he can play right field..  I really like both and would be happy with either one at 21.  

Honeycutt is getting a lot of juice in the top 20 and I have come around some on him.  He has All Star tools no doubt, but the K rate and contact rate really scare me.  If his hit tool is even just below average he will be a monster at the MLB level, but with the pitching there can he even get to just below average?  Look at a lot of the younger players that make good contact and the issues they have at the MLB level and it seems like Honeycutt would have no chance.  I am not a scout I don't have advanced reports on his swing and what can maybe be fixed, but I just hate power over hit guys because it is generally a lot of pain\missed opportunity for small amount of joy when they hit their HR's. Still if he fixes the hit tool the guy will be an All Star so someone will take a chance.

The more I get into this the more conflicted I get about who they should take, but I like the idea of an outfielder better than infield as the infield seems set for the next 4 to 5 years IMO. The outfield is in flux.

Also I heard\read a rumor that the Twins might be working an under slot deal with Sandford. Anyone else hear about that? He has been mocked to the Twins at 33 quite a bit, but not sure if a deal at 21 makes sense or not.  It would be an up the middle player who has great defense and a solid bat, so that works for me.  I just wonder what they would do with the extra money to make that move worth it.

[2wins87]

Not a dig on this writeup specifically, but reading the Honeycutt profile made me think of how often the term "potential 5-tool player" gets thrown around for guys with 4 great tools but realistically a well below average hit tool.

Probably there are a couple examples of guys that made big improvements to their hit tools during development, but probably much more often it's more a matter of can he hit enough to let the other tools play.

I'm kind of split on whether I'd like Honeycutt at 21.  It seems like it would be a pretty good value for him to fall that far, but it still seems like a fairly risky profile at 21.  I'd hope that there are a few names that are a little more exciting to me still available.

I like Caldwell at 21. I've seen Waldschmidt getting top 20 buzz lately but I don't quite see it personally. I'd like it if he were to make it to the comp A pick.

One other name, I thought Dylan Dreiling looked really good from what I saw in the CWS.  Obviously he performed well but the quality of at bats just looked a step above a lot of the other guys, including many of the top prospects.  Comp A round would maybe still be a little aggressive for pretty much a bat only prospect, but I think it's the kind of bat that could look like a steal in the second round, particularly paired with some high upside HS picks early.

[2wins87]

27 minutes ago, Dman said:

Also I heard\read a rumor that the Twins might be working an under slot deal with Sandford. Anyone else hear about that? He has been mocked to the Twins at 33 quite a bit, but not sure if a deal at 21 makes sense or not.  It would be an up the middle player who has great defense and a solid bat, so that works for me.  I just wonder what they would do with the extra money to make that move worth it.

I think I saw that in one mock, those sorts of rumors actually pan out so infrequently though.  The Twins seem to be a very tight-lipped org, so it could be coming from an agent but you have wonder what motives they could have for putting something like that out too.  Could a team like Arizona or Baltimore with two picks in between 21 and 33 be heavily interested and the agent is trying to get them to put out a higher offer?

It sounds like Sanford has one of the better defensive profiles among the HS hitters, so if the Twins have higher confidence in his offensive development I could see something like that making sense.  There will probably be a few enticing HS arms available at 33 that could be worth making a run at with the extra money.

[Dman]

34 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

I think I saw that in one mock, those sorts of rumors actually pan out so infrequently though.  The Twins seem to be a very tight-lipped org, so it could be coming from an agent but you have wonder what motives they could have for putting something like that out too.  Could a team like Arizona or Baltimore with two picks in between 21 and 33 be heavily interested and the agent is trying to get them to put out a higher offer?

It sounds like Sanford has one of the better defensive profiles among the HS hitters, so if the Twins have higher confidence in his offensive development I could see something like that making sense.  There will probably be a few enticing HS arms available at 33 that could be worth making a run at with the extra money.

Yeah that makes a ton of sense to get Arizona, Baltimore and the Twins to fight over him and up the anti.  He is a player I think all three teams would like at the beginning of the comp round and they all have extra picks to "find" more money.  

There is going to be some good players that fall to 21. Hard to say what players the Twins like best there, but if someone they really, really like falls have to believe it would trump Sanford.

Hypothetically Sanford's floor is the Twins at 33.  If they split the difference between that pick and 21 it would give the Twins around an extra $600,000 and Sandford pick 26\27 money.  There should still be someone good who could fall to 33 and they could just take whoever they like that drops to that spot and then they could try to buy down a player to pick 60.  If they used the hypothetical $600,000 and added another 200,000 to 300,000 they could buy their way back into the top of the second round if they still wanted to get someone in that not far out of the Comp A range.

You'd have to really like Sanford to do that though because you are likely passing on elite talent at 21, but it could buy you a higher 2nd round pick which depending on who is left could be pretty valuable.  Tough call but interesting thought exercise non the less.

[SaberNerd]

3 hours ago, Dman said:

Also I heard\read a rumor that the Twins might be working an under slot deal with Sandford. Anyone else hear about that? He has been mocked to the Twins at 33 quite a bit, but not sure if a deal at 21 makes sense or not.  It would be an up the middle player who has great defense and a solid bat, so that works for me.  I just wonder what they would do with the extra money to make that move worth it.

I haven't heard anything, but this draft looks pretty chaotic after the top 15.  The Twins may view Sanford as the BPA and will save some money because he could fall 10 picks if they don't take him.

As for the money, there will always be HS players that go to college because nobody meets their number and you can nab them in the 3rd round (Winokur last year).  You could also potentially use it to get one of the top HS arms at 33 who may go overslot there.  It probably isn't worth it to draft Sandford to save 600K if you think he's the 30th best player, but if you think he's close to the best at the pick it would make sense to save for later picks.

[Otaknam]

With early picks take the best players according to your draft board, not on minor league position needs. 

[Dman]

1 hour ago, Otaknam said:

With early picks take the best players according to your draft board, not on minor league position needs. 

Totally agree but they are all rated about the same from 14 to 24 or so. from there players with slightly fewer tools but still good bats.

[DocBauer]

Honeycut is so enticing. A legit, high quality CF with speed and power and a top 10-ish talent if he had a more proven HIT ability. But sometimes you roll the dice when you draft later in the 1st round like we are.

Caldwell is the guy I really like. I can live without big power if he can hit and get OB as projected, fly across CF, and fly on the bases. It feels like the system is short on true CF types. And Caldwell is sort of that old school CF fly paper glove who drives the other team crazy on the basepaths. I see a system fit.

I definitely could see one of the top HS SS go at 21 as well. Someone needs to succeed Correa a few years from now. Might be the perfect year to grab a top, athletic prep SS in the 1st and groom him.

If there WERE some kind of pre-arranged under slot deal, I could easily see those savings going to a top HS arm...or a pair of them...and "outbid" a couple teams. The Twins do have one of the largest $ pools in the whole draft.

I know it sounds crazy, but I can see a logical scenario where the Twins first 4 picks are all prep kids before they turn to college players/arms.

[Mike Sixel]

I would be happy with any of those top three, acknowledging I'm leery of Honeycutt..... But I'd be good with that chance at 21. Nervous, but good.