Diamondbacks tab shortstop Jordan Lawlar with No. 6 overall pick
The Diamondbacks selected Dallas prep shortstop Jordan Lawlar with the No. 6 overall pick on Sunday, landing a player viewed by some as the top talent in the draft after the first five selections came off the board in an unexpected manner.
Scouting director Deric Ladnier gushed about Lawlarâs tools and pure ability, calling him a âslam-dunk shortstopâ who can run, throw, hit and hit for power.
âAll those things that he possesses are the type of tools that we as evaluators are always looking for when we go to the ballpark,â Ladnier said. âWe could pretty much walk out of the ballpark and check every box, which doesnât happen a lot.â
Now they just have to sign him away from his commitment to Vanderbilt. The sixth pick has an approximate slot value of $5.74 million. Lawlar is being advised by agent Greg Genske.
Most years, the Diamondbacks will set up a conference call for local media with their selection. Lawlar was not available. The last top Diamondbacks pick not to speak with the media on draft night was infielder Matt McLain in 2018; he ended up not signing and instead attended UCLA.
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âObviously, we donât want that to happen again,â Ladnier said. âBut anytime you go into the selection of a player, there are a lot of things that could happen. We selected him with every intent of signing him and getting him out here."
Ladnier said he spoke with Lawlar after the draft, saying he was "excited about the opportunity to hopefully get out here and start his career." Ladnier added, "Obviously, thereâs always different choices that players have to make; thatâs their own personal decision. We selected this player with every intent of getting him on the field and getting him in the uniform to where he can start his development process."
Louisville catcher Henry Davis, whom most had projected somewhere in the Top 6 picks, went first overall to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Right-handers Jack Leiter (Rangers) and Jackson Jobe (Tigers) were the next off the board.
California prep shortstop Marcelo Mayer, whom many expected to be taken first, went fourth to the Boston Red Sox. The Baltimore Orioles then made perhaps the most surprising selection of the Top 5 by tabbing Colton Cowser, an outfielder out of Sam Houston State.
That left the Diamondbacks to choose from a handful of players who, in some projections, were not expected to be available at No. 6, including Lawlar and Vanderbilt right-hander Kumar Rocker.
Ladnier would not say where the Diamondbacks had Lawlar on their board or if he were surprised he was still available to them.
âI came into this draft not really knowing what teams were going to do,â Ladnier said. âWe were obviously very pleased he was there.â
Lawlar, who turns 19 on Saturday, was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 1 player in its pre-draft rankings. Listed at 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, Lawlar has been a consistent performer on the showcase circuit for years.
If there were questions about him in the publicly available pre-draft scouting reports, most revolved around just how much he would hit. Baseball America said that question was the separator for some evaluators in whether he was âthe best prospect in the draft classâ or merely a âtop-tier draft prospect.â
Ladnier said Lawlarâs senior season at Dallas Jesuit High got off to a slow start but picked up by the end. He said the Diamondbacks scouted âbasically all of his gamesâ this season, seeing him display an ability to control the strike zone, recognize pitches and tap into his power. Ladnier noted that just about every hitter in the draft will have questions about his ability to hit professional pitching until he shows he can.
âBut we didnât see a lot of things with him â with his swing, his bat speed â that we felt would be something that is alarming to us,â Ladnier said. âI feel like this young man is going to develop into a really good hitter and have the power to go back with it, potentially a middle-of-the-order type hitter who plays shortstop.â
Lawlar has drawn comparisons to Kansas City Royals top prospect Bobby Witt Jr., another Dallas-area shortstop taken at the top of his draft. (Witt went second overall in 2019.) On MLB Networkâs draft coverage, analyst Harold Reynolds compared Lawlarâs swing to that of the Houston Astros Carlos Correa. The broadcast also drew parallels with his defensive actions to those of New York Yankees Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.
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