selected infielder Cade Doughty from Louisiana State University as a second round compensation pick for the loss of Robbie Ray. A highly ranked player in 2019 out of high school who could have gone early on the second day but for a strong commitment toSimilar to Tucker Toman taken one spot ahead of him, the selling point here is the offensive profile, as Doughty hit .301/.379/.541 over his college career with 31 home runs in the SEC, the premier conference with the most pro-style pitching.
It’s this results-driven production that drives the draft profile, with reports noting an unorthodox wide stance that should make it more difficult to tap into power. There’s some parallels here to Riley Adams , who was also a college producer with similar performance/productivity and very wide batting stance. He projects for roughly average hit and power tools.
Defensively, Doughty played primarily at 2B and 3B, winning the starting job at the former in his abbreviated freshman year, moving primarily to the hot corner in 2021 and back to the keystone in 2022. it’s here where most reports and evaluations see his future home, though FanGraphs describes him as lacking an obvious defensive home.
it’s a solid value pick at 78th given a consensus ranking in the mid-50s that should come in slot at the $833,200 slot value. Of course, that’s contingent on the bat translating to the professional ranks. it will be interesting to see how aggressively the Jays assign him, as he could plausibly go high-A Vancouver if not directly then quickly given that the quality of pitching in low-A is now broadly similar to the SEC.
Doughty is the first player the Jays have drafted out of LSU since Austin Nola in the 31st round in 2011 . Once upon a time , the Jays drafted another LSU infielder by the name of Aaron Hill who had a pretty good run with the Jays. Doughty will try to be the second LSU draftee to make it to Toronto.