The Guardians are heading into the first night of the MLB draft with plenty to do and plenty of reason to trust their process.
When the draft opens Saturday in Philadelphia, Cleveland will make four selections on Day 1: No. 19 overall, then No. 59, No. 95 and No. 123, according to senior vice president of scouting Paul Gillispie. The draft has been trimmed to two days this year, with rounds one through four on Saturday and rounds five through 20 on Sunday.
“Our first-round pick is No.19. After that we have No.
59, No. 95 and No. 123,” Gillispie said.
Cleveland originally had two first-round picks, but on May 9 the club dealt one of them, along with minor-league lefty Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson, to the Giants for catcher Patrick Bailey. The pick was No. 29, a Competitive Balance Round A selection, which made it one of the few draft choices MLB teams are allowed to trade.
Gillispie said the move fit the organization’s broader goal of turning draft capital into immediate help.
“Our scouts want to take as many bites of the apple as they possibly can,” said Gillispie. “We were able to get Patrick Bailey, a two-time Gold Glove winning catcher, who is one of the best defensive catchers in the game.
“The draft is really a tool to fuel the major league team. We just did it in a little bit more of a unique way. I think we were able to immediately impact the organization in a meaningful way.”
That draft-and-develop pipeline has been a major part of Cleveland’s recent success. Over the last five years, the Guardians have used their No. 1 pick on college hitters Jace LaViolette, Travis Bazzana and Chase DeLauter, plus college pitcher Gavin Williams and high school catcher turned first baseman Ralphy Velazquez.
LaViolette, last year’s top pick, is batting .238 (64 for 269) with 14 homers, 55 RBI and a .796 OPS at Lake County, Cleveland’s High-Class A affiliate. Bazzana, MLB’s top pick in 2024, reached the big leagues on April 28 and was chosen by the players for the American League All-Star team. DeLauter and Williams are also in the majors with the Guardians.
Cleveland’s rookie wave has been a big part of this season, too. The club has had nine players debut in the majors this year, the most in franchise history before the All-Star break. The Guardians, tied for first in the AL Central after beating Minnesota on Thursday, are carrying six rookies on their 26-man roster, and five of them were drafted by Cleveland.
Gillispie, in his 20th season with the organization, said that kind of homegrown impact means a lot inside the scouting department.
“That’s a proud feeling, especially for our organization,” said Gillispie, “specifically our scouts because they work so hard to understand the players and to put us in position to be able to select those players. It’s very similar to our international organization as well.
“It is very gratifying feeling. When you look on the major league field and see those players impacting the game. It lets us know our process is effective.”
The Guardians’ current bonus pool is $9,303,700, down by $3.3 million because of the traded No. 29 pick. The No. 1 overall slot value this year is $10,507,000.
Even with the reduced pool, Gillispie believes Cleveland is positioned to add talent, especially with the draft’s depth.
“The strength of this draft is its depth,” he said. “I think analysis would say the draft is really deep in every demographic. So, I think we’ll be able to add some good talent throughout.”
At the top of the board, the White Sox hold the No. 1 pick, followed by the Rays, Twins, Giants, Pirates, Royals, Orioles, Athletics, Braves and Rockies. The players widely viewed as the top three prospects are UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, high school shortstop Grady Emerson and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey.
All of this comes as owners and the players association are already circling the next labor fight. MLB owners have proposed eliminating high school players from the draft entirely and making players wait until age 20 to become eligible, effectively turning college into the sport’s farm system. The players association says that would strip away $1 billion in compensation over the first five years of the new system.
Gillispie said Cleveland would adapt if the rules changed, but he isn’t pretending to know exactly what that future would look like.
“Right now, we know what you know,” said Gillispie. “I think organizationally we’re very agile.
I think we’ll be able to make whatever modifications we need to make into the future. But it’s really hard to speculate what the system will be.”
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