MLB Draft 2019: Washington Nationals select 3B Drew Mendoza with 94th overall pick in 3rd Round

Surveying the class of prospects for the 2019 MLB Draft over the weekend, Washington Nationals’ Assistant GM and VP of Scouting Ops Kris Kline said there was some starting pitching at the top of the draft, but overall it was a position player-heavy group.

“You build a championship team through the middle with catching, shortstops, center fielder, front-line pitching,” Kline explained, in an interview with MASN’s Dan Kolko on Sunday.

“But those guys are hard to find, they’re not always there, and in this particular draft, there’s not a lot of pitching. You have a couple, two or three very talented high school pitchers, you have a couple — just a handful of college pitchers, and it kind of goes in cycles. Sometimes those years are there for you, sometimes they’re not. This year it’s still a very good draft, but it’s mostly position players, a combination of college guys and high school guys.”

With their top pick, at No. 17 overall in the first round, the Nationals selected the top pitcher on the board, 20-year-old righty Jackson Rutledge, the top JUCO player in the country and, a pitcher, “... considered the No. 3 pitching prospect in the Draft by MLBPipeline.com,” and, “... the No. 4 pitcher and the second-best right-handed pitching prospect,” by Baseball America,” going into this year’s draft.

With their second pick of the draft, No. 94 overall in the 3rd Round, the Nationals selected Florida State third baseman, Drew Mendoza, a 6’5’’, 230 lb. left-handed hitting infielder who might end up over at first base according to the commentary on the pick.

“It is power and more power, it’s definitely there,” MLB’s Jonathan Mayo said on MLB.com’s coverage of today’s selections.

“Left-handed, he’s got home run pop that’s going to work at the next level. He draws walks, which helps, but there’s a lot of swing and miss. He kind of had an up and down year this year, this is a guy that was a solid high school prospect, but he had a strong commitment to Florida State.”

Mendoza put up a .320/.482/.631 line for the Seminoles, with 12 doubles, 16 home runs, 65 walks, and 67 Ks in 60 games this season.