Marlins director of amateur scouting DJ Svihlik knew going into Day 2 of the 2021 MLB Draft on Monday that there was going to be an excess of talented players available for the taking.
More so than usual.
That’s a residual effect from what happened a year earlier when the 2020 draft was shortened from 40 rounds to five due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of more than 1,200 players being selected, as has been the case every year since 2012 under the current collective bargaining agreement, just 160 players had their names called last year.
Because of that, a slew of college players who would have normally been taken in the middle and later rounds a year ago were back in the draft cycle, along with the new crop of high school seniors and the first-time eligible college players.
It provided an extra task for Svihlik and his team on the amateur scouting side to maneuver.
And it’s something that Svihlik believes will take “a couple years to work through this circumstance.”
“If you had an opportunity to walk into the draft room,” Svihlik said, “it’s amazing — and we anticipated this; we knew how this was going to happen or we felt like we knew how this was going to go down — the whole front of the board from Rounds 5 and above is heavy, heavy high school this year.”
That played a role in the Marlins going with two top prep players who fell to them on Sunday — Wake Forest High shortstop Kahlil Watson (a consensus top-10 prospect in the draft cycle) at No. 16 and Buffalo-area catcher Joe Mack (No. 19 by MLB Pipeline) at No. 31.
And it’s why they waited until Day 2 to take some of these college players with proven track records, knowing that they would be available later on (and, tangentially, could be signed to bonuses that were below their slot value to help sign a few of the prep players).
An example: Mississippi State outfielder Tanner Allen. Svihlik said the Marlins wanted to draft him last year “really bad.”
“Couldn’t do it,” Svihlik said.
So Allen went back to school for his senior year and dominated for the Bulldogs. Over 67 games en route to helping Mississippi State win the College World Series, he set career-high marks in batting average (.383), slugging (.621), home runs (11), RBI (66), runs scored (72) and stolen bases (11). Allen was the SEC Player of the Year.
The Marlins drafted him in the fourth round on Monday.
“We feel very fortunate that we were able to acquire him,” said Svihlik, who compared Allen to Corey Dickerson. “Plays extremely hard, can flat-out hit, can play multiple outfield positions, should be able to move fairly quickly and start at a higher level” in the minor leagues.
SUMMARY OF MARLINS DRAFT PICKS SO FAR
The breakdown of Marlins selections through 10 rounds and 11 total picks: Seven position players (two high school shortstops, two college outfielders, one college shortstop, one high school catcher and one college catcher) and four pitchers (three righties and a lefty, all from the college ranks).
Day 2 started with the Marlins drafting a pair of shortstops, Boston College’s Cody Morissette in the second round and Pensacola Catholic High’s Jordan McCants in the third round.
They took South Carolina outfielder Bruce Allen in the fifth and Alabama catcher Sam Praytor in the sixth as part of a three-pick run of SEC players in addition to Tanner Allen.
The Marlins closed out the day by selecting four consecutive college pitchers: Indiana righty Gabe Bierman, Texas Tech lefty Patrick Monteverde, Wright State righty Jake Schrand and Florida State righty Hunter Perdue.
Svihlik described Bierman and Monteverde as “pitchability arms,” pitchers who are more command-centric, while Schrand and Perdue are velocity throwers.
The draft concludes Tuesday with Rounds 11-20, starting at noon. Prior to the COVD-19 pandemic, the MLB Draft had been 40 rounds since 2012 under the current collective bargaining agreement. It was cut to five rounds in 2020 and 20 this year as part of an agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association prior to the 2020 season.
