2 The Bigs

By Chris Corso:: Jan 8, 2024

When looking at the MLB 2023 Draft there aren’t many more “complete baseball players” out there than Enrique Bradfield Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles.

What do we consider a complete baseball player at 2thebigs.com you might ask?

Can you hit? Can you run? Can you play the field? Are you a winner?

Bradfield Jr. is all of those things: He hits for average. he’s the fastest player in the country, and plays one of the best Centerfield’s I’ve seen for a college prospect. That’s why Bradfield Jr. was selected by Baltimore with the 17^th overall pick in the 2023 Draft out of Vanderbilt.

At 19-years-old Bradfield hit .336 for Vanderbilt during his freshmen season, and stole 47 bases! In 2022 he hit .317 and stole another 46. During his senior year, he hit .279 and stole 37 bases. He became the leading base stealer in the nation over the last three seasons in college baseball. In three NCAA seasons, he amassed 224 hits and slashed 15 homers.

He’s not a power hitter (yet), but who cares? Today’s game is missing your prototypical lead-off hitter, and that’s exactly what Bradfield Jr. is. One can even compare his (highest) ceiling to the likes of Kenny Lofton. His head coach at Vanderbilt Tim Corbin calls him a “winning player in every way.”

Enrique had an extremely interesting start in his pro-debut. Given, the sample-size is only 110 at-bats, but check this out:

This is why we love his numbers. If he can put up these statistics with that small of a hard-hit rate, imagine what he can do if he can put on some muscle and develop his strength.

Bradfield Jr.’s numbers caught my eye when I was opening a box of the 2023 Bowman Draft for the holidays. I was able to land an /99 image-variation autograph of Bradfield Jr. Once I started looking into his numbers, I was blown away and started watching highlights. Bradfield Jr. will have to develop his game in the minors over the next season to build a path to the major leagues. Trust me when I tell you that the MLB will welcome his skills.

The Orioles farm system is stacked. We’ve mentioned this plenty of times already. Given the new Bowman Draft set is still fresh on the market for only a few weeks now, I would recommend a HOLD for his market. If you pull a Bradfield, stash it. If you’re looking to add, give it a few weeks until the prices come down.