Draft Prospect Series: Patrick Bailey

Patrick Bailey is a 21-year-old catcher coming out of his third season at North Carolina State University. Bailey is currently the highest-rated catching prospect in the 2020 MLB draft, and is placed 17th overall on MLB Pipeline’s prospect rankings. He performs well offensively with the ability to hit from both sides of the plate, making him one of the most versatile players early in the draft.

In 2020 Bailey continued to surge on the contact form, but struggled to hit for power, really causing scouts to question the kind of player he was before the season was prematurely ended. Bailey posted a .296 average along with a .685 slugging percentage in the NCAA regular season with no home runs in 54 at bats. This comes as a concern after he managed to hit 13 home runs in his freshman year (2018), which set a North Carolina State freshman home run record. Although his stock is still high, a lack of power could have negatively affected where he will be drafted later today.

2020 is not Bailey’s first draft experience having turned down the Twins back in 2017, where he was selected in the 37th round. He instead honored his commitment to play with North Carolina State, and was eventually named to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team in 2018 and 2019. Nonetheless, Bailey is expected to be a no doubt first-round pick this time around.

Heading into this draft, Bailey does not seem likely to be picked up by the Blue Jays. The birds already have lots of depth behind the plate through all levels of their organization with names like Reese McGuire, Danny Jansen, Caleb Joseph, Alejandro Kirk, and several other high profile players. Many mock drafts have seen Patrick Bailey picked up by the Chicago White Sox or the Los Angeles Angels in the mid-late selection of the first round. After highly touted catching prospects have been selected high up in the last few drafts (Bart, Rutschman), it seems the catching position is lacking in the 2020 draft, leading to Bailey being an unlikely selection for Toronto with the fifth pick.