This week Major League Baseball scouts are descending on North Carolina to take a close look at some of the best available talent in the 2021 MLB Draft.
On that list are Florida Gators Jud Fabian, Tommy Mace, and Jacob Young.
This is the inaugural MLB Draft Combine, where players from all over the country will get a chance to watch players run, throw, field, and hit this week, as well as meet with scouts, general managers, and decision-makers in face-to-face meetings.
It's the first event of its kind for the MLB but seems to generally follow a similar format as the NFL Draft Combine and it's an honor to be invited.
Jud Fabian is regarded as one of the top college prospects in the country. Fabian projects as a center fielder at the next level. He can run, throw, and showed some real power in 2021 with 20 home runs. He also has some unprecedented leverage when it comes to the draft.
The MLB Draft can be tricky to predict. High school players who decide to go to a Division I school must be three years removed from high school in order to qualify for the draft. There is a rule that allows players who are 21 years old, or will be 21 within a month of the draft to be selected even if they haven't been out of high school for three years. When a junior or draft-eligible sophomore is taken, they have a bargaining chip during contract negotiations because they have the option to go back to school. When a senior is drafted, they don't have that leverage and generally have to take whatever a club offers.
Fabian, however, graduated high school early and enrolled at Flordia when he was just 17 years old. That makes Fabian eligible for the draft this year but, because of the 2020 season ending early, Fabian is technically still a sophomore. As one of the youngest, if not the youngest, college prospect Fabian could choose to come back to school two more times and if things don't go exactly the way he wants this year, he would have an incredible opportunity back in Gainesville.
“It’s been brought up in a few meetings," Fabian told Gators Territory of his situation and the leverage he'll have this year. "I’ve kind of told everyone if I don’t get drafted or if it doesn’t go my way I can go back and play with my brother for a year, and have that leverage of still being one of the youngest players in the draft.”
Fabian plans to run and go through the entire battery of tests, measurements, and meetings this week in Cary. Tommy Mace will opt out of physical testing, using this week as an opportunity to build relationships.
“Guys have already seen me throw enough. I’m kind of just getting ready and getting prepared to throw for whatever affiliate I get drafted to. I’m kind of going to do meetings and it’s an opportunity to shake and show people of physical I am in person," Mace told Gators Territory. "Trying to just talk to guys that don’t really know me. They can see me on the field and stuff like that but they don’t really know who I am or talk to me outside of the field or know me outside of pitching on the mound. Getting to know them, and talk to them, have them ask me questions to understand my philosophy on pitching or what I’m doing in the offseason if they sign me or why they should sign me.”
Fabian and Mace are sure to be drafted and both high enough to sign and begin their professional careers. The player with the most to gain this week will be Jacob Young.
The third-year sophomore was the most consistent Gator on the team in 2021. Young was second on the team in hitting (.315) while leading the Gators in at-bats (254), runs (56), hits (80), doubles (16), triples (3), threw out six runners from left field and set a school record by hitting successfully in 30 consecutive games.
In the new analytical world of professional baseball, Jacob Young doesn't fit the mold. He's not going to be a 20 home run guy at the next level but he's the kind of player you tell young players to watch when they're at a Florida game. Young does everything you could ask a player to do and then some.
"He’s just really smart. He knows the pitcher’s tendencies and he knows his strengths. He’s not trying to hit home runs," Florida pitcher Jack Leftwich said of Young. "He knows he wants to have a long at-bat and use his speed. I think that’s really tough because he’s not going to have a lot of swings and misses. He plays to his strengths. He’s never trying to do too much.”
Young will have the opportunity to show that he's more than perhaps his analytics will show and has a lot to gain this week.
Mace is already in North Carolina, while Fabian and Young have been training together in Tampa and will head up to Cary on Wednesday before the three-day combine on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
The 2021 MLB Draft will consist of 20 rounds from Sunday, July 11 - Tuesday, July 13.