Red Sox select Will Dalton with their eight round pick

It took until the eighth round, but the Red Sox have finally taken their first outfielder of the draft. I suppose you don’t need any more outfielders when you have Jarren Duran coming up, am I right? (I am not.) Anyway, with their eighth selection in this 2019 draft the Red Sox picked Will Dalton out of the University of Florida. Dalton was ranked as the number 232 prospect on Baseball America’s list and as the number 45 college hitter for Fangraphs among those with a future value grade of 35 or lower.

Dalton is actually coming off a bit of a down year after he made second team all-SEC in 2018. The big difference in his game from 2018 to 2019 was the power, and scouts are worried that a change in his stance will continue to hurt him moving forward. Dalton is a corner outfielder, so he’s going to need his power to play up at least some what to make his profile work. The good news is he cut down on his strikeouts in 2019, though scouts still see potential for swing and miss in his game.