Phillies select Bryson Stott in first round, 40 players total, in 2019 MLB Draft

Bryson Stott was Phillies 2019 first round pick

After three days, the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft is now finally complete. 

The Philadelphia Phillies selected 40 players in total, and will now begin the process of negotiating contracts and then assigning players to their minor league system.

The Phillies, who had no second round pick this year due to the signing of free agent Bryce Harper back in late February, had an interesting first seven rounds. During that early phase of the selection process the Phillies chose three shortstops and four pitchers.

Overall, the Phillies draft prospects shake out as follows positionally: 12 left-handed pitchers, 11 right-handed pitchers, 3 catchers, 1 first baseman, 1 second baseman, 5 shortstops, 1 third baseman, 1 corner outfielder, 5 center fielders.

The Phillies selected 21-year-old shortstop Bryson Stott out of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) with their first round pick at 14th overall. Stott had been projected by most pre-draft evaluation services as a likely top ten pick, so the Phillies appear to have gotten strong value.

The second pick came in the third round, and appears on the surface to have been a bit of a reach. The Phillies made shortstop Jamari Baylor that selection at 91st overall. An 18-year-old out of a Virginia high school, Baylor had been projected by MLB as the 161st-ranked prospect, and he did not show up at all in Baseball America’s Top 200 pre-draft rankings.

In the fourth round, the Phillies found southpaw Erik Miller from Stanford had slid to them with the 120th overall pick. Miller was projected by MLB to go about 60 places higher, and Baseball America ranked him at 106.

Another potential high-value pick was 35th rounder Michael Prosecky, a lefty high school arm who the club will now try to keep from a commitment to the University of Louisville.

Eight of the Phillies first nine picks were college ballplayers who could reach the big leagues sooner rather than later. Aaron Nola was selected in the first round out of Louisiana State University in 2014 and reached the Phillies just over a year later. Adam Haseley was the club’s top pick in 2017 from the University of Virginia and made his debut earlier this week.

The club’s top pick in last year’s draft, Alec Bohm, was also a highly-rated college player. We ranked the third baseman from Wichita State as the Phillies top prospect back in April. He is slashing .333/.396/.525 with six home runs, 30 RBIs, and 25 extra-base hits over his first 53 games across two levels in the 2019 season.

Currently at High-A Clearwater, Bohm should be at Double-A Reading before the summer is out, and could push his way to the Phillies as soon as next season.

Originally published at Phillies Nation as "2019 MLB Draft review: Phillies select 40 players"