On Sunday, Stanford junior center fielder Brock Jones went #65 overall to the Tampa Bay Rays, towards the end of the second round, in the 2022 MLB Draft. Jones was projected by various MLB draft scouting services and websites as a top 30 prospect coming into the draft, so he definitely fell. Still, despite his fall, it is fully expected that he’ll sign with the Rays. The only way I could have seen him get drafted and elect to come back for a senior year is if he were to not get drafted until Monday or Tuesday in those later rounds.
This past season, Jones hit 21 home runs for 57 RBIs to go along with a .324 batting average, a .451 on-base percentage, and a .664 slugging percentage. He overall had a really strong season and played a major role in Stanford getting back to the College World Series. However, his season started off slow and that likely is why he fell in the draft. He wasn’t as consistent throughout the year as he would have liked to have been.
“It’s one those things where it’s just, it’s baseball,” Jones said about his struggles from earlier in the year. “And I think it’s honestly something looking back I’m thankful for because you know at some point in your career you go through that and hopefully if you play long enough you’re going to go through that a lot of times, so it’s one of those things where I kinda always sit back I’m thinking you know what, there’s no such thing as losses, there’s only lessons and that’s something I try to live by just in general.
“Yeah, it was hard. It was definitely hard. There was days I’d go after practice and we’d have a punching bag up there and I would just let it eat on that punching bag and there were days some guys would be like hey, can I come up there and hit with you? I’m like, I need this time, bats were thrown, it’s just some of those things that kinda lead into it and kinda what he said, it’s just always trusting the process and I think you can never lose confidence in yourself once that’s over; then you know you’re gonna have trouble finding whatever skillset, whatever time you have in there.”
Despite his early season struggles, Jones did eventually find his groove. When he was on his game, he looked like a legit major league prospect. At 6’0”, 197 pounds, Jones has great speed, a great arm, and a nice blend of power and contact at the plate. He can hit home runs while also getting clutch hits for contact when all is needed is to drive in a run. Due to his speed, he’s a great base runner, leading the team in stolen bases with 16 to go along with a team-high 21 attempts. He is a versatile offensive weapon.
As far as his overall major league potential is concerned, it’s all going to come down to how well he adjusts to major league pitching. From a defensive standpoint, he should be able to make an impact right away and I’ve already touched on his base running abilities. If he’s able to get on base, get comfortable going up against the top pitchers in the game, and remain a threat at the plate, I like his chances to have a successful major league career. He has all the other pieces you want in a center fielder at the next level.
Note: Brock Jones wasn’t the only player with Palo Alto ties to get drafted on Sunday. Outfielder Henry Bolte out of Palo Alto High School went #56 overall to the Oakland Athletics while Oregon short stop Josh Kasevich, who also played at Palo Alto High School, went #60 to the Toronto Blue Jays.
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