The Phillies have made it official, taking high school outfielder Mickey Moniak with the first overall selection of the 2016 draft. That makes him the first draft choice of GM Matt Klentak.
Philadelphia had been connected with several other players in recent months, including southpaws Jason Groome and A.J. Puk. But the rebuilding organization ended up going with the youngster out of Carlsbad, California, as had seemed increasingly likely in recent weeks. He is currently committed to play at UCLA.
Moniak doesn’t wow with off-the-charts physical prowess, but ESPN.com’s Keith Law says he “appears to have the best hit tool in the high school class.” Baseball America and MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis join Law in rating Moniak the fifth-best overall talent in the draft.
While some question whether he’ll ever develop significant power to match his 6’2 frame, the evaluators agree that Moniak ought to be capable of manning center field in the long run, with his good wheels aiding him both in the field and on the basepaths. The 18-year-old draws universal praise for his instincts on the field as well as his work ethic.
It seems likely that the Phils are angling to preserve some of their spending power with the choice. That’s not to say that Moniak isn’t a top talent — by all accounts he is. Rather, somewhat like the Astros did in going with Carlos Correa over Byron Buxton back in 2012, the idea would be to take a more affordable player with hopes of adding yet more talent later in the draft. (Lance McCullers, Rio Ruiz, Brett Phillips, and Preston Tucker were among the other early-round choices that year by Houston.)
Philadelphia has $9.015MM to put towards signing Moniak, but it can allocate any savings to other selections. The club’s total pool adds up to just over $13.4MM, ranking second to the Reds — who just top their National League foes thanks to landing the first overall competitive balance Round A selection.
I will never not think of Mickey Morandini when I hear his name. Fitting that the Phils took him.
I can hear the late, great Harry Kalas: “Mick-ey Mon-i-ak.”
I miss him.
I played against this guy, man he has some tools, philly u got a young future star!
Sweet!!! Welcome to the Phillies Moniak!
Definitely reminds me of Yelich and what team wouldnt want Yelich playing for them. A safe pick for a high school talent
No one would have drafted yelich first overall however
If you know they will develop into yelich. Every team would take yelich first overall. Only 2 recent drafts that I can think of would have risked not taking him. Harper and Strasburg.
Correa?
Knowing what you know now Yes. But my hypothetical was you know what yelich gives but the other guys are just prospects. At the time correa wasn’t a clear cut number 1, lot of people thought they grabbed him to go underslot. Harper and Strasburg were thought of generational talents so u go upside despite risk there.
I’d take a lot of different people before Yelich
All he’s saying is if you have the #1 overall pick and there’s a kid who if you take is guaranteed to give you production equal to Yelich or draft someone else from this particular class, the majority of teams will draft that player despite other players potentially having a higher ceiling. In the crapshoot of pro sports drafts-which in themselves are a crapshoot- that’s a very accurate statement. In essence you’re picking a 18-22 year old based of what he’s doing at that age because you think he can be a good MLB player when he’s 25 and older. With so many misses, give me a guarantee Yelich anyday in the MLB draft.
Hey can someone tell me. When a team picks in the draft, how sure are they that he will sign? Like this kid is committed to UCLA and I’ve heard of players deciding they wanted to go to college instead. So when a team picks someone, how sure are they that the kid will say yes? Anyone know of a good article that explains this? I heard one player one time explain that a club was calling him to say “if we pick you next will you sign with us?” During the draft.
Pretty sure most of the time. Most of the kids agents float numbers ahead of time. I’m average there’s like 1 first round pick that doesn’t sign every other year.
When you are a top pick, and in this case number one overall, you are not going to UCLA. 100%
Fair point. I just wonder what a teams due diligence is for any draft pick. Like there’s stories of picks not signing. I’ve heard conflicting stories that a team cannot talk with a player before they draft them and then I’ve read stories of how like one team was on the phone with Brandon Crawford asking them if he would sign with them if they picked him and then the Giants picked him at that same moment and he had no idea the Giants were interested. So it’s not like they were calling to check. I’ve also read that if a player doesn’t sign then the team gets a compensation pick in another draft. Which would delay stocking the farm system.