CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Guardians are putting the finishing touches on a comprehensive year-long scouting effort as they prepare for next week’s MLB Draft, where the organization will have five selections among the first 101 picks.
Paul Gillispie, Guardians senior vice president of scouting, described the extensive preparation that goes into the team’s draft strategy during a recent media session.
“This time last year our scouts were getting to know or starting to get to know the players for this draft,” Gillispie explained. “Our scouts are doing a lot of work, trying to get to know the players on the field, off the field, and trying to cast a really wide net over the course of the last 11 months. Just trying to get to know them as deeply as possible.”
The Guardians’ draft philosophy centers on selecting the best available talent rather than drafting for immediate positional needs — a strategy Gillispie believes is essential in baseball’s player development environment.
“It’s less about the position and more about our assessment of the player and his fit for the Guardians,” said Gillispie.
This approach differs significantly from draft strategies in other major sports, where teams often select players based on immediate roster needs.
“Baseball, especially when you think about the development timeline of amateur players, whether it be high school or college, the approach that you typically see in baseball is to try to take the best group of players that you can bring into the organization, knowing that the development timelines can vary way more than they can in a sport like football or basketball,” Gillispie noted.
Cleveland’s scouting department views this year’s draft class as particularly deep, which makes their five early selections even more important.
“We’re going to have the opportunity to pick five times on night one,” Gillispie said. “It’s a really good opportunity to add talent to the organization.
Gillispie said he thinks the 2025 draft relative to the last handful of years is intriguing.
“It’s a deep draft,” Gillispie said. “When you think about having five picks in the top 101, I think our ability to add some quality talent to the organization is exciting.”
The depth of talent in this year’s class spans across various player categories, according to Gillispie.
“It’s a deep draft and I think it’s a well-balanced draft,” Gillispie said. “When you think about high school position players, high school arms, college arms, college position players, each of those demographics I think there’s going to be a lot of good options everywhere.”
The Guardians hold the 27th overall pick in the first round, followed by selections at 64, 66, and 70. The 66th pick is a compensation selection, while the 70th pick was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Josh Naylor trade.
This year’s draft presents a new challenge for teams, as MLB has compressed the schedule from three days to two. Gillispie acknowledged this will require additional preparation.
“It’s something that we’ve been thinking about and talking about a lot here over the last past couple weeks,” he said. “The biggest thing is, you know, probably going to be a little bit of lack of sleep here. So we probably need to make sure we’re considering that, but I think just making sure that we’re ultra prepared.”
Despite these logistical changes, the Guardians’ fundamental approach remains focused on acquiring the best talent available, regardless of position — especially in the earlier rounds.
“We probably consider positional need maybe a little bit later in the draft when we think about just making sure we have opportunities for players,” Gillispie said. “But overall, I think the goal is just to bring in the best player and the best fits for our organization regardless of where they play.”
Generative AI was used to organize information for this story.
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