The White Sox selected University of California first baseman Andrew Vaughn with the No. 3 pick in the MLB amateur draft Monday night.
Vaughn has "arguably the best combination of hit and power tools of any prospect in the 2019 draft class," according to Baseball America.
"We are thrilled to add a player of Andrew's caliber to the organization," director of amateur scouting Nick Hostetler said in a team statement. "He's a premium bat who has shown the ability to hit at every level. Andrew is considered one of the top offensive talents in this season's draft, and we can't wait to see him grow at the professional level."
Vaughn, 21, won the 2018 Golden Spikes Award as the nation's top amateur player and is a repeat finalist this year. The junior helped lead Cal to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.
He was second in Division I in walk rate (1.16), trailing only Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman, who was the No. 1 pick by the Orioles, and third in on-base percentage at .549. He has 15 home runs this year, down from 23 in his sophomore season, when he was named Pac-12 Player of the Year.
Some observers have questioned Vaughn's height, which, depending on the source, has ranged from 5-foot-10 (which would be somewhat short for a first baseman) to 6 foot, as he's listed on the Golden Bears' website. The Sox list him as a 6-foot, 215-pound right-handed bat.
"It puts a little chip on your shoulder," Vaughn told MLB Network's Harold Reynolds during Monday's live broadcast. "I'm not a big guy, obviously. But if I swing the bat like I know how, good things will happen."
The pick is a mild upset as a recent consensus had the Sox picking speedy shortstop C.J. Abrams out of Blessed Trinity High School (Roswell, Ga.).
Vaughn extends general manager Rick Hahn's streak of choosing a college player with the Sox's top pick for a seventh straight year.
The last time the Sox tapped a prep prospect in the first round was 2012, when they took Courtney Hawkins out of Mary Carroll High School in Corpus Christi, Texas.
In 2013, shortstop Tim Anderson (from East Central Community College in Decatur, Miss.) started the Sox's run of college picks. Last year, they drafted Oregon State infielder Nick Madrigal.
On Monday night, the Orioles selected Madrigal's former Beavers teammate Rutschman No. 1, to virtually no one's surprise. Among many laurels heaped on him from various corners in recent months, Baseball America proclaimed him the best prospect since Bryce Harper and the Ringer declared he'll be better than Buster Posey.
In another expected pick, at No. 2 the Royals snapped up shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., the son of 16-year big-league pitcher Bobby Witt Sr. Junior was the MVP of the 2018 Under Armour All-American Game at Wrigley Field.
Last week Sox director of amateur scouting Nick Hostetler said that whichever of several likely prospects fell to them, he or his scouts had seen that player four or five times this year.
"Over the course of his career? Fifteen to 20," he said. "Just because we have so many opportunities to see these players. For me, it's important to lay my eyes on them, obviously, because that's what I'm paid to do, that's my job. But at the same time, I also trust our staff. ... So if I don't get a chance to see a certain player that we draft or a certain player we take, I'm OK with it."
The Sox said before the draft that they were looking for "financial flexibility" with the top pick, particularly because they have a high second-round pick and may need additional money to sweeten an offer to that player as well as others from lower rounds.
The Sox have the fifth-biggest bonus pool at $11,565,500. Their first- and second-round slots are valued at $7.22 million and $1.65 million, respectively.
