Local talent expected to make splash in MLB Draft
Jul. 15—It seems only fitting that a landmark season for Bakersfield baseball — with three Southwest Yosemite League teams in the Division I section semifinals — would produce two of the area's highest-touted high school prospects in recent years.
Stockdale's Austin Charles and Liberty's Cutter Coffey lead the pack this summer, with both ranked just south of No. 100 by MLB.com.
The shortstop Charles, the unanimous BVarsity All-Area player of the year for 2022, batted .483, slugging .931, with 13 home runs and 57 RBIs as a senior. Many scouts view him as a pitcher, however, in which capacity he had a 1.36 ERA in 13 appearances.
Coffey also pitched and played shortstop at Liberty, leaning more toward a position-player spot at the next level, with 12 home runs and 32 RBIs off a .442 average. He could also convert to third baseman.
Both have appealing college destinations lined up should they decide to stay in school, with Charles committed to UC Santa Barbara and Coffey to Texas.
Coffey's higher marks on some sites — No. 67 on The Athletic, No. 73 on ProspectsLive.com, and so on — give him better odds of going on Day 1 of the draft, beginning 4 p.m. Sunday, which features 83 picks in total.
The rest of Bakersfield's local talent will likely be consigned to the second and third days, which begin Monday and Tuesday morning. The draft is now limited to 20 rounds, reducing the overall number of prospects who are selected.
Last year's MLB Draft picks included Sean Mullen (Stockdale, UCLA, 11th round to Tampa Bay), Jacen Roberson (Garces, Cal State Bakersfield, 16th round to Arizona) and Kris Anglin (Frontier, Howard College, 16th round to Atlanta). All signed with their teams and currently play in the minors.
CSUB is expected to have a presence in this year's draft as well, with the athletic department highlighting Oregon transfer outfielders James Bell and AJ Miller, along with pitcher Benji Caggianelli (who was also a prospect at Bakersfield College last year) and catchers Angel Saldivar and incoming freshman Logun Clark from Taft High.
Bell and Miller both earned second-team All-Big West honors. Bell led qualifying Roadrunners with a .300 batting average; Miller was close behind at .294 and tied a CSUB single-season record with 12 home runs. Miller was previously drafted in the 37th round in 2018 by Oakland.
Caggianelli and Saldivar both had inconsistent seasons. The former weaved in and out of the rotation, after allowing just four earned runs in his first 31 1/3 innings, and finished with a 4.53 ERA. Saldivar batted .324 in his first 23 games, then .143 down the stretch. He had traded off behind the plate with Bailey Seeger early in the year, though Seeger has since transferred to New Mexico.
Clark earned South Sequoia League co-Most Valuable Player honors at Taft in 2022, with a .439 batting average and team-leading .591 on-base percentage.
The draft's shortened length has reduced its unpredictability somewhat, but there's still a possibility for plenty of other players to show up near the tail end of those 20 rounds. Last year's top area high school prospect, third baseman Jacob Tobias of Liberty, went undrafted and played his 2022 season at Arizona State. Former BC, Kansas State and New Mexico Kamron Willman was also considered a possible pick last year and recently made his professional debut in independent ball for the Missoula PaddleHeads.
BC had a down year in 2022, but top players for the Renegades included sophomores Xabi Iparraguirre, a power-hitting catcher who batted .383 and slugged .671, and Jose Ruiz, a consistent shortstop who has averaged over .300 in consecutive years and is headed to UC Santa Barbara next season.
Beyond Bakersfield itself, other collegiate standouts from this past season with local roots included Zach Bushling (Kern Valley/Sierra College/Connecticut), Jalen Smith (Stockdale/UC Davis/UC San Diego), Jackson Vaughan (Bakersfield High/UC Santa Barbara/Delta College/Pacific) and Zach Williams (Liberty/BC/Campbell).
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
