His farm system stocked with some of the top pitching prospects in the game, Padres General Manager A.J. Preller used his first-round pick on a high school bat for the second year in a row.
The Padres drafted Tennessee high school outfielder Robert Hassell III with the eighth overall pick Wednesday afternoon.
Hassell, a two-time Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year, was the first high school prospect off the board.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Hassell hit .423 with 14 homers as a junior at Independence High School, which played just two games before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out his senior season.
Hassell was rated the draft's 16th-best prospect by MLB.com and could provide the Padres with some savings to use on the 34th overall pick later today. The eighth pick in the draft comes with recommended slot value of $5.18 million.
The left-handed-hitting Hassell _ like the Padres' first two picks in 2018, Ryan Weathers and Xavier Edwards _ is committed to Vanderbilt.
The Independence High School product was a leading hitter on the U.S. national team and hit .514/.548/.886 at the under-18 World Cub in South Korea in September.
From MLB.com's scouting report:
"The best pure hitter in the 2020 prep class, Hassell has a pretty left-handed stroke and the hand-eye coordination to barrel balls with ease. He's at his best when he lashes line drives to all fields but his swing got too uphill when he made a conscious effort to hit homers in the middle of the summer. There's some debate as to how much pop he'll ultimately have, with some scouts envisioning solid raw power and believing he'll tap into most of it, while other evaluators think he's more lean than projectable and more of a 15-homer guy. Similarly, Hassell's biggest boosters believe he could have solid or better tools across the board with a chance to stick in center field and other scouts think his bat and arm are his only above-average attributes and he'll have to play a corner."
Last year, the Padres selected shortstop CJ Abrams with the sixth overall pick, the first bat selected with the Padres' first pick in the Preller era. Area scout Tyler Stubblefield recommended both Hassell and Abrams.
The Tigers opened the draft by grabbing Arizona State first baseman Spencer Torkelson with the first pick.
Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad went second overall to the Orioles, followed by Minnesota right-hander Max Meyer to the Marlins, Texas A&M left-hander Asa Lacy to the Royals and Vanderbilt shortstop Austin Martin to the Blue Jays to round out the top-five picks.
The Mariners selected Georgia right-hander Emerson Hancock with the sixth pick and the Pirates chose New Mexico State shortstop Nick Gonzales seventh overall, giving the Padres their choice of picks high school bats for the eighth overall selection.
The Padres chose Hassell over Florida prep outfielder Zac Veen, who went one pick later to the Colorado Rockies.
The Angels then selected Louisville left-hander Reid Detmers 10th overall.
