2024 Amateur Draft

The 2024 First Year Player Draft was the 60th Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. It was held starting on July 14, 2024, at the Cowtown Coliseum in the historic Stockyards District in Fort Worth, TX as part of the 2024 All-Star Game festivities.

As had been the case in 2023, the first overall pick was determined through a lottery held at the winter meetings on December 5, 2023; while the three teams with the worst record the previous season - the Oakland Athletics, Colorado Rockies and Kansas City Royals - had the best odds of securing the top pick, it was an outsider who snuck through: the Cleveland Guardians won the pick in spite of having only 2% odds. It can be argued that the Cincinnati Reds, who barely missed out on the 2023 Postseason, did even better, turning odds of 0.9% into the second overall pick. The lottery only affected the top nine picks, and teams who were not eligible made up the rest of the first round in reverse order of finish. The Washington Nationals were ineligible for the lottery for being a high-revenue club that had benefited from the lottery the previous year, dropping them to 10th in spite of having the fifth worst record, and the New York Yankees, New York Mets and San Diego Padres all dropped ten spots for exceeding luxury tax thresholds. Reverse order of finish was then strictly applied for rounds 2 to 20.

For the Guardians, it was a first time picking first in franchise history; they had previously picked second on five separate occasions. The top prospects in the draft all seemed to be college players, largely hitters, with Charlie Condon of the University of Georgia, Travis Bazzana of Oregon State University and Jac Caglianone of the University of Florida leading discussions about the potential first overall pick. In the last couple of weeks before the draft, another name inserted itself in the discussion, that of SS JJ Wetherholt from the University of West Virginia as the Guardians did not want to give any early indication about their selection. The Guardians settled on Bazzana, who became the highest-drafted Australian-born player ever, with the three others mentioned all slotting in within the first seven picks. The eight top picks were college players, and 13 of the top 15 picks, with the overwhelming majority of these being hitters; this conformed to the assessment that had been made from the beginning of where this draft's strength lay.

Draft Order

First Round

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
1	Cleveland Guardians	Travis Bazzana	2B	Oregon State University (Col.)	Sydney, NSW
2	Cincinnati Reds	Chase Burns	P	Wake Forest University (Col.)	Hendersonville, TN
3	Colorado Rockies	Charlie Condon	OF	University of Georgia (Col.)	Marietta, GA
4	Oakland Athletics	Nick Kurtz	1B	Wake Forest University (Col.)	Lancaster, PA
5	Chicago White Sox	Hagen Smith	P	University of Arkansas (Col.)	Bullard, TX
6	Kansas City Royals	Jac Caglianone	1B/P	University of Florida (Col.)	Tampa, FL
7	St. Louis Cardinals	JJ Wetherholt	SS	West Virginia University (Col.)	Mars, PA
8	Los Angeles Angels	Christian Moore	2B	University of Tennessee (Col.)	Brooklyn, NY
9	Pittsburgh Pirates	Konnor Griffin	SS	Jackson Preparatory School (H.S.)	Florence, MS
10	Washington Nationals	Seaver King	SS	Wake Forest University (Col.)	Athens, GA
11	Detroit Tigers	Bryce Rainer	SS	Harvard-Westlake High School (H.S.)	Simi Valley, CA
12	Boston Red Sox	Braden Montgomery	OF	Texas A&M University (Col.)	Madison, MS
13	San Francisco Giants	James Tibbs	OF	Florida State University (Col.)	Marietta, GA
14	Chicago Cubs	Cam Smith	3B	Florida State University (Col.)	Lake Worth, FL
15	Seattle Mariners	Jurrangelo Cijntje	P	Mississippi State University (Col.)	Pembroke Pines, FL
16	Miami Marlins	PJ Morlando	OF	Summerville High School (H.S.)	Summerville, SC
17	Milwaukee Brewers	Braylon Payne	OF	Lawrence E. Elkins High School (H.S.)	Missouri City, TX
18	Tampa Bay Rays	Theo Gillen	OF	Westlake High School (H.S.)	Austin, TX
19	New York Mets	Carson Benge	OF	Oklahoma State University (Col.)	Yukon, OK
20	Toronto Blue Jays	Trey Yesavage	P	East Carolina University (Col.)	Boyertown, PA
21	Minnesota Twins	Kaelen Culpepper	SS	Kansas State University (Col.)	Memphis, TN
22	Baltimore Orioles	Vance Honeycutt	OF	University of North Carolina (Col.)	Salisbury, NC
23	Los Angeles Dodgers	Kellon Lindsey	SS	Hardee High School (H.S.)	Wauchula, FL
24	Atlanta Braves	Cam Caminiti	P	Saguaro High School (H.S.)	Scottsdale, AZ
25	San Diego Padres	Kash Mayfield	P	Elk City High School (H.S.)	Elk City, OK
26	New York Yankees	Ben Hess	P	University of Alabama (Col.)	Charleston, IL
27	Philadelphia Phillies	Dante Nori	OF	Northville High School (H.S.)	Northville, MI
28	Houston Astros	Walker Janek	C	Sam Houston State University (Col.)	Portland, TX
29	Arizona Diamondbacks	Slade Caldwell	OF	Valley View High School (H.S.)	Jonesboro, AR
30	Texas Rangers	Malcolm Moore	C	Stanford University (Col.)	Sacramento, CA

Prospect Promotion Incentive Picks

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
31	Arizona Diamondbacks	Ryan Waldschmidt	OF	University of Kentucky (Col.)	Bradenton, FL	Received for Corbin Carroll winning Rookie of the Year
32	Baltimore Orioles	Griff O'Ferrall	SS	University of Virginia (Col.)	Richmond, VA	Received for Gunnar Henderson winning Rookie of the Year.

Compensation Picks

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
33	Minnesota Twins	Kyle Debarge	SS	University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Col.)	Kinder, LA	Compensation for Sonny Gray leaving as a free agent

Competitive Balance Round A

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School (Type)	Hometown	Notes
34	Milwaukee Brewers	Blake Burke	1B	University of Tennessee (Col.)	Brentwood, CA	Obtained from Baltimore in trade for Corbin Burnes
35	Arizona Diamondbacks	JD Dix	SS	Whitefish Bay High School (H.S.)	Whitefish Bay, WI
36	Cleveland Guardians	Braylon Doughty	P	Chaparral High School (H.S.)	Murrieta, CA
37	Pittsburgh Pirates	Levi Sterling	P	Notre Dame High School (H.S.)	Los Angeles, CA
38	Colorado Rockies	Brody Brecht	P	University of Iowa (Col.)	Ankeny, IA
39	Washington Nationals	Caleb Lomavita	C	University of California (Col.)	Ewa Beach, HI	Obtained from Kansas City in trade for Hunter Harvey

Notes

Wake Forest University did not have a great season after reaching the 2023 College World Series, but they provided three of the top ten picks - only the second time this had happened after the 2004 amateur draft which saw three players from Rice University in the top ten.

Not only was Travis Bazzana the highest pick ever for a player from Australia (who do not normally need to go through the draft, unless they attend high school or college in the U.S.), but the number 2 pick was also born outside the U.S.: Chase Burns was born in Italy, where both of his parents worked for the US military at the time; he grew up in Tennessee however. That made #3 pick Charlie Condon the first US-born player selected.

Further Reading

• Mandy Bell: "Guardians make Aussie star Bazzana No. 1 overall pick", mlb.com, July 15, 2024. [1]
• Jim Callis: "New Draft Top 150 list: BIG changes at the top", mlb.com, April 24, 2024. [2]
• Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Brendan Samson: "Who will go No. 1 in the Draft? Our experts weigh the odds", mlb.com, May 23, 2024. [3]
• Sam Dykstra: "The most intriguing picks from Rounds 3-10 of the MLB Draft", mlb.com, July 15, 2024. [4]
• Jonathan Mayo: "Guardians win Draft Lottery, securing next year's top pick", mlb.com, December 5, 2023. [5]
• Jonathan Mayo: "Draft Day 1: Pick-by-pick rundown, analysis", mlb.com, July 15, 2024. [6]

Related Sites

• Complete draft order