2024 MLB Draft superlatives: Top potential steals, most interesting pick, famous relatives and more from Day 2

Major League Baseball’s amateur draft, which began on Sunday night when the Cleveland Guardians selected Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana with the No. 1 pick, resumed and moved closer to completion on Monday. Teams made their selections beginning in the third round and concluding after the 10th round. The draft will pick up again on Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET, and will continue until after the end of the 20th round.

CBS Sports has been analyzing the draft all summer long. Why stop now? Below, you can find a recap of five notable Day selections presented in the form of superlatives. (Do note that this is not meant to be an exhaustive examination of the seco selections.)

With that fine print out of the way, let’s get to it.

1. The biggest potential position player steal: Dakota Jordan, OF, San Francisco Giants

Jordan had to wait until pick No. 116 to hear his name called, or more than a swing and a drive away from where he was expected to go entering the summer. To wit, I ranked him 28th in the top 30 because I had a hunch some team or another was going to be blinded by his upside and completely ignore the red flags in his profile. Clearly, I was wrong. 

Jordan has immense physicality. He’s strong enough to post extreme exit velocity readings, and fast enough that he should make an impact on the basepaths and in the outfield. See him at his best and he looks like a superstar. Alas, Jordan’s loud tools lack the necessary usability to reach such lofty heights. He struck out in 31% of his trips to the plate during conference play, a troubling figure that doesn’t bode well for his chances of making it to The Show. My historical research revealed just one player who K’d around that often and then had any kind of MLB career: Twins infielder Edouard Julien, a 25-year-old former 18th-round pick with about a season’s worth of big-league at-bats to his name. 

If the Giants can help Jordan maximize his dynamic traits, he could make the rest of the league look foolish. Selfishly, I sure hope they do — not to vindicate my incorrect read, but because a self-actualized Jordan would be one of the most exciting players in the game.

2. The biggest potential pitching steal: Joey Oakie, RHP, Cleveland Guardians

The Guardians and first-year scouting director Ethan Purser entered the day having already netted three of my top 40 prospects on Sunday in second baseman Travis Bazzana (No. 1 overall, No. 2 on my board); right-hander Braylon Doughty (No. 36 overall, No. 30 on my board); and catcher Jacob Cozart (No. 48 overall, No. 37 on my board). They added another with their first pick on Tuesday, popping Oakie from an Iowa high school at No. 84.

I ranked Oakie at No. 42 coming into the draft because he fits the modern pitching archetype. He has a flat release point and a pair of potential plus or better offerings, in his low-to-mid-90s fastball and a slider that has caused some scouts to toss around a plus-plus forecast. (“Plus” is a step up from “average”; “plus-plus” is a step up from “plus,” and a step away from “elite.”) You take a pitcher with those raw traits and put them in the Guardians player development apparatus and you have the makings of a potential mid-rotation starter.

Mind you, this is no slam dunk. Oakie faces all the normal risks associated with right-handed prep arms. The Guardians, for as good as they are at this stuff, are not inoculated against those risks, either. Remember Ethan Hankins? How about Daniel Espino? What of Lenny Torres? There’s a lot of ways this can go wrong. But I still like the pick, and I like the Guardians’ draft overall. How’s that for a perk of picking No. 1?

3. The most interesting pick: L.P. Langevin, RHP, Kansas City Royals

The Royals popped Langevin, a right-hander from University of Louisiana at Lafayette, in the fourth round. If you just glanced at his statistics you might question why — he had a 3.73 ERA and a 3.21 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 23 appearances, only three of them starts. The answer lies in his low-to-mid-90s fastball, which boasts some advanced metrics that can be charitably described as being “bananas.” Langevin missed a ton of bats with his heater, all the while generating an absurd amount of rise and run. The rest of his arsenal isn’t nearly as impressive, but so far as one-trick ponies go, he’s a compelling one.

4. The most “remember them?” pick: Will Taylor, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates

Back in summer 2021, when I ranked Taylor as the 12th best prospect in that year’s class, I warned readers at the time that it would “probably prove to be a misrank.” That’s because Taylor, an outstanding athlete, would either go higher if he indicated he was turning pro, or significantly lower if he instead honored his commitment to play baseball and football at Clemson. He chose the second route. Taylor subsequently suffered a torn ACL on the gridiron that cost him most of the 2022 baseball season. No matter, he posted a .954 OPS for his collegiate career. He did scuffle during an extended stay in last summer’s Cape Cod League, and that helps to explain why he slid all the way to the Pirates at pick No. 145.

5. The most “remember their relative?” pick: Clark Candiotti, RHP, San Diego Padres

The Padres plucked Candiotti, a collegiate senior, with the 135th pick in the draft. You probably recall his father, Tom, a knuckleballer who pitched in parts of 16 big-league seasons from 1983-99. This Candiotti isn’t a master of the butterfly; he is a physical right-hander with a full arsenal who amassed the following numbers this season at Arizona: 3.39 ERA, 4.48 strikeout-to-walk ratio, roughly six innings per start.