2026 MLB Draft Preview: How will Dodgers add to their top farm system with limited picks and money?

Jared Massey 07/10/2026 MLB Draft Leave A Comment

The 2026 MLB Draft is tomorrow, so now is a good time to look back at what the Dodgers have done to try to get an idea of what to expect. The festivities start on Saturday at 10 AM PST and will be broadcast on MLB.com as well as MLB network and their other streaming services. Be sure to check back here after each pick for analysis and information.

The Dodgers have just three selections in the first seven rounds, with their first pick coming in at number 40. Why so low? Because they won the World Series (meaning they pick 30th) and then having that pick drop 10 spots for exceeding the second surcharge threshold of the Competitive Balance Tax. And why only three picks through Round 7? For signing Edwin Diaz and Kyle Tucker, of course. They lost their 2nd-, 3rd-, 5th- and 6th-rounders as a penalty.

Because of the loss of picks, the Dodgers have the lowest bonus pool to draw from in this year’s draft at just $3.95 million. That likely means they won’t have the resources to sign high school prospects for above-slot bonuses later in the draft as they’ve done in previous years with guys like Aidan West and Chase Harlan.

So, what will the Dodgers do with their limited picks and bonus money? The answer seems simple enough: get the most value at each selection. Now, determining value is the hard part. The Dodgers have displayed some trends in recent years, favoring certain archetypes of players.

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In 2023 and 2024, for example, they took speedy, up-the-middle prep hitters in Kendall George and Kellon Lindsey with their top picks. They went for power bats with their second selections in those years by drafting Jake Gelof and Chase Harlan.

Last year was a bit of a surprise. They selected Zach Root with their first pick, just the third time the current front office had taken a college pitcher as their top choice in their 10 year history and the first since 2020 with Bobby Miller.

Another question worth asking is “what has worked for them recently?” The terrifying truth is not much. Currently there are four players who were drafted in the last five years (since the draft was changed to 20 rounds) on the Dodgers’ roster: Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski, Dalton Rushing and Alex Freeland. 

Sheehan and Wrobleski were taken in 2021, a year in which the Dodgers spent their first 14 picks on pitchers. Fun fact: the player they selected who broke that streak of arms was Mike Sirota, who declined to sign and headed to Northeastern. Rushing and Freeland were the Dodgers’ first two picks in 2022.

So the obvious answer for what works is college pitching and hitting. Root and Davalan have seen success in their first year in pro ball as well. But what about high schoolers? Sure, guys like George and Harlan have broken out a bit this year but the Dodgers have struggled to find value from the prep ranks.

The Dodgers most valuable high school draft pick since 2015 has been Gavin Lux, who’s produced a total of 7.2 bWAR in his six year major league career. And, for a team that had so much success drafting high school pitching under Logan White, that demographic has become almost non-existent in the last decade. They have drafted and debuted just one prep arm in that time: Dustin May.

With all that info out of the way, let’s look forward to this year. Nearly every mock draft I’ve seen has had the Dodgers connected to hitters. I wouldn’t rule out a college pitcher but a high school pitcher seems like it’s a bridge too far.

One name I’ve seen repeatedly is Will Brick, a high school catcher from Tennessee. The Dodgers have had some success taking catchers early, namely Smith and Rushing, and drafting a catcher would shore up one of the only glaring holes in their farm system. Brick has a very strong arm and good power projection but didn’t hit like a top prospect this spring.

A couple personal favorites of mine come from the high school ranks. Shortstop Tyler Spangler went to school in Northern California but didn’t play much this spring due to injury. He’s healthy now and offers an intriguing blend of size, athleticism, hitting ability and the chance to stick at shortstop despite being a bigger-bodied infielder at 6’3 and 195 lbs.

Cole Prosek is an infielder out of Mississippi that likely plays third base in pro ball but has dabbled a bit behind the plate. He’s already 19 and doesn’t offer much projection, but the pure hit tool and power potential are exciting and he could move quicker than usual for a high school pick.

There’s a good chance Spangler and Prosek don’t make it to the Dodgers, with Prosek connected to teams in the late 20s and early 30s, while Spangler is a real wild card given his injury this spring and his strong commitment to Stanford. 

Another approach could be looking for comparable players to recent high draft picks such as George, Lindsey, Davalan and Root. Want an up-the-middle prep hitter with blazing speed? Luke Williams out of Pennsylvania checks those boxes. An undersized lefty hitting outfielder who was born in Canada? Here’s Carter Beck from Indiana State. How about a college lefty with strong production and some funk in his delivery? I present to you Ethan Kleinschmit from Oregon State.

What are the experts saying on the eve of the draft? Last year, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN connected the Dodgers to Davalan, Aidan West and Mason Ligenza just before the draft. Now, he’s reporting that the Dodgers are looking at college players and gave them RHP Taylor Rabe out of Mississippi in his final mock draft. He also mentioned Brick and Prosek but said, “I’m hearing almost entirely college players for slot at this pick.”

While he didn’t mention any later round targets, a few names I like for later in the draft include Arkansas RHP Carson Wiggins, UCLA 3B Roman Martin, South Carolina lefty Jake McCoy, UCLA RHP Cal Randall and NC State INF Sherman Johnson. It’s doubtful the Dodgers target high schoolers in the mid to late rounds given their miniscule bonus pool.

Now it’s simply time to wait and see. Will the Dodgers pop a college arm for the second year in a row? Will they take another high school bat? Shock the world with a prep arm? We’ll all find out together tomorrow.

About Jared Massey

Former co-host along with Dustin Nosler of the Award-eligible Dugout Blues podcast. Founder of the Greg Miller Marching and Chowder Society. Certified Prospect Hugger.
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