3 First Round MLB Picks Who Have Done Well This Season

Major League Baseball (MLB) is back in full swing in 2021 and it is as enthralling as ever. All the teams are looking to make it into the playoffs and there are a number of players who are performing par excellence showing their mettle with fast pitches and bat swings. The theme of Major League Baseball’s season so far has been the lack of offense. Coming into play on Thursday, the league-average slash line was just .236/.312/.395. Teams are striking out more frequently than ever before, hitting for the lowest average in league history, and plating runs at a lower clip than they have since the 2015 season.

Amongst the players who have done well so far this season, we will take a look at a few of the first-round picks who are making great grounds in the 2021 season. We will have a look at a few of these players in the following lines.

Adley Rutschman, C, Baltimore Orioles

The top pick in the 2019 draft, Rutschman has been phenomenal so far this MLB season. In 110 plate appearances with the Bowie Baysox (Double-A), he’s hitting .277/.445/.530 with six home runs and two more walks than strikeouts (23 versus 21). When the Baysox played a doubleheader on Sunday, Rutschman started both games and he combined to go 5 for 6 with two home runs, seven runs batted in, and a walk. He’s the best catching prospect in the game for a reason, and that reason is he has the potential to become a multiple-time All-Star once he reaches the Show.

CJ Abrams, SS, San Diego Padres

Abrams was the sixth pick and the sixth position player to come off the board in that 2019 class. He’s hitting .288/.366/.438 with two home runs and four stolen bases (on four attempts) in 19 games at the Double-A level. Those numbers may not pop off the page as Rutschman’s do, but the context surrounding his performance is important. Abrams, who won’t turn 21 until after the season, is playing against competition that is four years his senior. The average slash line in his league is .232/.327/.371, while his San Antonio team is hitting .229/.314/.346. Oh, and Abrams entered the year with fewer than 10 career at-bats above rookie ball. When you consider those angles, what he’s doing is borderline remarkable — and bodes well for him turning into a star in MLB.

Jordan Walker, 3B, St. Louis Cardinals

Back in 2018, the Cardinals drafted a power-hitting third baseman (Nolan Gorman) with the 19th pick in the MLB Draft who then dominated the competition in his first professional season. Last summer, the Cardinals popped a similar prospect, in Walker, with the 21st pick. He’s following Gorman’s blueprint for raising one’s stock by hitting .333/.474/.600 with seven extra-base hits in 45 at-bats against Low-A competition. Walker leads the league in both average exit velocity (94.7 mph) and max exit velocity (116), with the latter putting him in rarified air. (Only seven big-league players have hit a ball harder than he has this season.) Walker will need to learn to lift the ball more consistently, as his average launch angle is around 2 degrees. If he can make that adjustment (and he just turned 19), then he’s going to assert himself as one of the top slugging prospects in the minors.