The Red Sox landed one of the most highly regarded players in this year’s draft, selecting Texas A&M outfielder Braden Montgomery with the No. 12 overall pick.
Montgomery, a junior outfielder, was widely expected to be taken within the top 10 and wound up slipping to Boston at No. 12. He was ranked as the draft’s No. 7 prospect by Baseball America and No. 8 by MLB Pipeline, and now he’s set to join a Red Sox system that’s already packed with talented position players.
Standing at 6-foot-2, 220 pounds, Montgomery is a switch-hitter who boasts a cannon for an arm and projects as a big league right fielder. He spent his first two years of college at Stanford before transferring to Texas A&M, earning First Team All-SEC honors for the eventual College World Series runner-ups.
“Montgomery had more of a hit-over-power profile in high school but that has reversed in college,” writes MLB Pipeline’s scouting report. “A switch-hitter with strength and a quick, aggressive stroke from both sides of the plate, he does more damage as a lefty hitter and his plus power plays to all parts of the ballpark. He has improved his plate discipline and his ability to handle breaking balls during the last two seasons, but he still swings and misses at pitches in the zone a bit too often and will chase non-fastballs.”
This past spring Montgomery batted .322 with 27 home runs, 85 RBI and a 1.187 OPS in 61 games for the Aggies. His season came to an abrupt end when he suffered a broken ankle in the Super Regionals, but the 21-year-old still entered the draft as one of the top college position players in his class and should immediately slot in alongside Roman Anthony as a potential outfielder of the future.
Oregon State infielder Travis Bazzana was selected No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Guardians. He was followed by Wake Forest right-hander Chase Burns at No. 2 to the Reds, Georgia outfielder Charlie Condon at 3 to the Rockies, Wake Forest first baseman Nick Kurtz at 4 to the Athletics and Arkansas left-hander Hagen Smith at 5 to the White Sox.
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