On Guardians message boards there has been some chatter about how too many of Guardians' hitters are left-handed. Well, from my vantage point, that is by design. Unfortunately, it appears that our draft strategy and our analytics for our major league team don't align. Sometimes at Columbus and Akron they can, and do, field teams with 7 LHH on the field, regardless of the handedness of the opposing pitcher. Almost all of our top hitting prospects from the US are LHH. Our switch hitters are generally Latin American players (e.g., Jaison Chourio, Angel Genao and Angel Martienz). In fact, only 1 of the top 12 switch hitters in the top 100 prospects in baseball in 2025 was obtained in the draft. The rest were international signees.
So, my thought was to look at what switch hitters there were in the 2025 draft and would any of them be fits for the Guardians at their draft slots. So let's take a look, using MLB's top 200 list and some digging I have been doing on my own. The prospect ranking is listed first with each guy. Anyone above 27 or between 27 and 60 is probably going to be gone before we would ever consider drafting a switch hitter in the first and second round, respectively..
5. Eli Willits SS HS - He is gone well before the Guardians draft.
36. Cam Bodine - C - College - Bodine is, for me, a dark horse to be picked by the Guardians at #27. While I would not hate that pick it would immediately signal tha 2024 2nd round pick, college catcher Jacob Cozart was possibly already being looked at as a failed pick and that the Guardians had concerns about the long-term viability of Cooper Ingle at catcher. Nevertheless, if things fall a particular way, Bodine would be a great choice as an offensive-minded switch hitting catcher, albeit with a similar hitting profile to Ingle.
92. Taityn Gray C/OF HS - Gray will likely be gone before the Guardians select at #101 and I can't imagine them popping him at any of our 2nd round picks but Gray, a favorite at the scouting combine, has huge power but, at 6'4", is raw as a catcher and may end up in the OF. If that is the way the Guardians' brain trust is leaning, it is hard for me to believe they will pick him earlier than the 6th round when they already have a young, failed catcher, Ralphy Valezquez, in their farm system as one of their better prospects.
96 - Ethan Moore SS/2B - HS - I don't see us popping a HS MIFer this early. Our MIFers seem to come more from Latin America so I don't see him as a good fit.
106 - Josiah Hartshorn - OF - HS - I don't see us popping at HS OF this early but he might be interesting as a 3rd day pick
136 - Mason Pike - SS/RHP - HS - He is likely to want to hit and pitch to start his career in professional ball as he is almost guaranteed to get a chance to do that at Oregon.
152 - Drew Faurot - 2B - Florida State - While Faurot would be a good 3rd day pick by the Guardians, he likely will be gone before that and his tools don't really make me think he would be a good Day 2 pick for the Guardians.
Other switch hitters I have found on the web who are names I wouldn't mind hearing on day 3 are:
Blaine Bullard, OF, HS
Lucas Steele 1B/OF Auburn
CJ Hughes, SS, HS
So that's all I have right now. There is no source that I have (or am willing to pay for) that can give me a more comprehensive list of switch hitters available in the draft this year. I still like the idea of taking the best switch hitter available on the 3rd day, providing we know we can sign him and have the money left over to do that. Remember, we want to spread our excess money around this year so I wouldn't want it to be a lot over slot on day 3 but certainly $250,000 is not out of the question if one of the guys above are available.
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