Guardians predicted to draft ‘divisive’ infielder who could fly through minors

In a little more than a month, members of the Cleveland Guardians’ front office will head to Philadelphia to take part in the MLB Draft. While the draft is obviously important to every team in baseball, it means a little more for the small-market Guardians, who are among baseball’s best at taking advantage of their minor league pipeline. 

Just look at their current MLB roster, where former first round picks Gavin Williams, Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana are entrenched as key contributors. 

While all three of those players have had different paths to get to the big leagues, they were all relatively “safe” picks given they had spent time in college and didn’t have some of the same question marks as some other players available. Normally, that kind of thinking is the Guardians’ M.O. 

But one MLB pundit seems to think the Guardians could go away from that approach this year. 

Last weekend, CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa unveiled his latest mock draft and had the Guardians taking Texas A&M second baseman Chris Hacopian, who he described as one of the “more divisive players in the draft class.”

Chris Hacopian is an intriguing draft prospect for the Guardians to consider 

Hacopian just finished up his third college season, where he slashed .319/.403/.583 with 11 home runs and 41 RBI in 41 games. The Aggies posted a great 41-16 record this season, but were just knocked out of the College World Series in their home regional via back-to-back losses to USC. 

While those are good stats (he was named first-team All-SEC), they’re a bit of a step down from the total she had during the first two years of his college career during his time at Maryland. 

In total, he recorded a 1.054 OPS with 40 home runs and 144 RBI across 148 games in his college career. That extensive college career could potentially lead to him flying through the minor league ranks in a similar vein to Bazzana, who had three years of collegiate ball under his belt before the Guardians drafted him.

But he also has some serious red flags, as Axisa pointed out. 

“He's one of the best and most decorated college hitters of the 2020s, but there are concerns about his power potential (he hits a lot of ground balls for a potential first rounder) and long-term defensive home (likely first base or left field),” he wrote. 

Those defensive question marks were also evident in MLB Pipeline's write-up about him. While they ranked him as the No. 10 prospect in this year’s draft, they also highlighted his shaky defense. 

He started his career at third base before shifting to shortstop during his final year with Maryland. He played primarily at second base during his lone year in College Station, which could end up being his long-term home in the pros. 

The Guardians dipped into Texas A&M’s talent pool last year when they selected Jace LaViolette in the first round after his stock took a bit of a hit. Could they do that again this season?

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