A’s select Myles Naylor with 39th overall pick
The high schooler is committed to Texas Tech but could add some raw power to the A’s system.
With the 39th overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, the Oakland Athletics selected Myles Naylor, an 18-year-old third baseman out of St. Joan of Arc secondary school in Mississauga, Ontario. MLB Pipeline had him 64th in their pre-draft rankings, while Keith Law at The Athletic and Fangraphs did have him ranked in their top 100s.
Scouting Report
After taking the son of a former big leaguer, Oakland took the younger brother of two current Cleveland Guardians: Josh and Bo Naylor (they’re also the cousins of top A’s prospect Denzel Clarke). He wasn’t taken as high as his brothers (12th and 29th) but he still carries a lot of the same potential. Myles will look to complete the major league trio by powering his way through the A’s system with a strong right-handed swing. As a high schooler, he definitely has a lot to work on at the plate but he’ll have plenty of time to do so with the A’s amidst another rebuild. Defensively, he’s mostly played shortstop but will likely move to third, especially as his body continues to fill out.
He’s currently committed to play college ball at Texas Tech University but the A’s will hope to pry him away from the program by taking him in the first round, much higher than he was projected.
Here’s MLB Pipeline’s report on Naylor:
Scouting grades: Hit: 45 | Power: 55 | Run: 45 | Arm: 55 | Field: 55 | Overall: 50
It’s time for the third and final Naylor brother to come through the Draft pipeline. Oldest brother Josh went No. 12 overall in 2015 and middle brother Bo went No. 29 in 2018. Whether Myles can make the Naylors just the second brother trio to all be first-round picks, joining the Drews, remains to be seen, though the Canadian prepster is definitely on radars after a solid summer, especially at the Area Code Games.
Many scouts see Naylor, the lone right-handed hitter among the brothers, as somewhere between Josh’s raw power and Bo’s pure hitting ability when they were coming out. The youngest Naylor has a good swing, showing both strength and bat speed to go along with good extension and follow-through. There’s raw power, particularly to his pull side, that has yet to show up in games and he can struggle with breaking stuff, leading to some swing-and-miss. There’s a little less polish here than there was with Josh and Bo in their Draft years.
An average runner now who likely will slow down as he matures, Naylor has played shortstop in high school, but will move to third base at the next level, where his hands and strong arm should work just fine. The Texas Tech recruit is getting the chance this spring to really emerge from his brothers’ formidable shadows.
Analysis
After using the sixth overall pick on an elite contact hitter with questionable power in Jacob Wilson, Oakland balanced out their draft portfolio with a power bat in Naylor. The infielder will join Max Muncy and Henry Bolte as recent top high school picks in the A’s system who possess a lot of raw power but have clear swing-and-miss issues to work out.
I was a bit surprised they didn’t go with Jake Gelof, the brother of top A’s prospect Zack Gelof, but regardless, it seems the front office is putting a premium on makeup as the system is getting packed with major league family members. It’s hard to evaluate the pick since Naylor wasn’t ranked this high by prospect evaluators but he’ll probably rank, appropriately, somewhere in the teens of the A’s farm system.