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Draft  | Story | 9/8/2026

What Profiles Are Valued Most at Top of Draft

Tyler Henninger
The landscape of the MLB Draft continues to evolve each and every year. What teams value at the top of the draft can change based on the strength of a particular class, shifts in player development philosophy, and, perhaps most importantly, the way organizations evaluate risk and upside. Some trends are subtle, while others become impossible to ignore when viewed across multiple years.

For this study, I set out to answer one question: What player profiles do teams value at the top of the draft?

To answer it, I analyzed the Top-100 picks from each of the last six drafts (2021-2026). That gives us 600 total selections to examine and provides a large enough sample to identify both the profiles that have remained consistently popular and those that have gained or lost significant ground.



The data was broken down by position, handedness and level to create individual player profiles. While the draft is never going to fit neatly into a handful of categories, the results revealed some clear trends.

So, let’s get into it.

The Steady Market of College Right-Handers

If there is one profile that has proven to be a constant at the top of the draft, it is the right-handed college pitcher profile. It is by far the most prevalent profile in the six-year sample, accounting for 123 of the 595 picks in the dataset, or 20.7% of all selections. Those players have also received approximately $240.1 million in signing bonuses, representing 16.5% of the total bonus pool given to Top-100 picks in the sample. 


The profile has shown remarkable consistency. It produced between 18 and 23 selections in every draft from 2021 through 2026. The yearly totals were 22, 19, 18, 19, 22 and 23, respectively. That level of stability stands out in a draft landscape where other profiles have experienced significant swings. There has not been a dramatic spike or collapse in the market for college right-handers. Instead, teams have consistently found value in the profile. In 2026, that trend reached its highest point of the six-year sample, with 23 right-handed college pitchers selected among the Top-100. The takeaway is fairly straightforward in whatever else changes in the draft, teams continue to trust college right-handed pitching.

The Value of Prep Shortstops

If college right-handers represent consistency, prep shortstops represent premium upside. Prep shortstops are not just being selected, they are being valued significantly. 

The prep shortstop demographic produced 71 selections over the six-year sample, accounting for 11.9% of Top-100 selections. But that does not tell the whole story. When you look at the financial side they are clearly highly valued. The group signed for approximately $240.5 million in bonuses or 16.3% of total bonus money given out. That gap between volume of picks and financial value is significant. The trend was especially obvious in 2025, when prep shortstops made up 16 of the Top-100 selections and signed for approximately $66.4 million in bonuses, or about 25% of Top-100 bonus money given out that year. 


The left-handed hitting prep shortstops profile is particularly interesting. It ranks sixth among all profiles in total selections, with 35 picks, but ranks second in total bonus money, generating approximately $130.3 million over the six-year period. That works out to an average bonus of roughly $3.72 million per player.

This suggests teams are not simply taking prep shortstops frequently. When they do take them, they are often willing to invest heavily, especially when they hit left-handed. 

Teams Are Showing More Interest in College Outfielders

A profile seeing significant growth in recent years is the college outfielder. College outfielders combined for 117 selections over the six-year sample, accounting for nearly 20% of Top-100 picks. But unlike the steady market for college right-handers, the college outfield market appears to be growing. Within the Top-100 picks, teams selected eight of them in 2021, 17 in 2022, 13 in 2023, nine in 2024, 17 in 2025 and 19 in 2026.



Right-handed hitting college outfielders have gained interest, increasing from just two selections in 2021 to five in 2026, but the biggest driver for this booming profile has been the left-handed hitting college outfielders. That profile type went from just six selections in 2021 to 14 in 2026. It represents one of the clearest profile-specific upward trends in recent years.

The financial growth has followed the same trajectory. Left-handed hitting college outfielders received approximately 6.2% of total Top-100 bonus money given in 2021 compared to 10.6% of Top-100 bonus money given in 2026.

Prep Right-Handed Outfielders Are Near Extinction
Perhaps no profile has experienced a sharper decline than the prep right-handed hitting outfielder profile. That group of players produced five Top-100 selections in 2021 and four in 2022. From there, however, the profile essentially disappeared with just one selection in 2023, one in 2024 and zero in both 2025 and 2026. 

What is particularly interesting is that this is not simply a decline in prep outfielders across the board. The left-handed hitting prep outfielder has remained a relatively healthy presence in the Top-100. That creates a notable handedness preference. That distinction is important because it points toward handedness playing a larger role in how teams evaluate similar player types.

College Left-Handed Pitching on the Decline?

The right-handed college pitcher has remained remarkably stable. The same cannot be said for the left-handed college pitcher. College lefties produced 12 selections in 2021 and actually increased to 13 in 2022. Since then, however, the profile has experienced a significant decline. It fell to just five selections in 2023 and reached only six in 2026. That makes the group one of the more notable declining profiles in the dataset.

The comparison with college right-handers is what makes the trend particularly interesting. College pitching as a whole has not disappeared from the top of the draft. In fact, right-handed college pitching has remained one of the most stable profiles in the entire study. Instead, the decline appears to be more specific to left-handed college pitching.

Handedness Matters

Perhaps the most interesting takeaway from the entire study is that the positional trends are only part of the story.
Handedness matters.

Left-handed hitting college outfielders are being highly regarded, while right-handed hitting prep outfielders have virtually disappeared. Left-handed college pitchers are declining, but right-handed college pitchers are as steady as ever. 

Those trends are not random variations in position. They suggest that teams are placing different values on similar player types based, at least in part, on handedness. The financial data reinforces that idea. That does not mean being a left-handed hitter automatically makes a player more valuable. There are obviously more variables involved in evaluating a draft prospect, but when looking at 600 selections across six drafts the patterns become difficult to ignore.

Final Takeaways

So to answer the original question: What player profiles do teams value at the top of the draft?

The clearest answer is that college right-handed pitchers have been the most common profile by volume, while prep shortstops, particularly left-handed hitters, have commanded the greatest financial premium. 

Profile
 Total Selections Total Bonus AVG Bonus*
College RHP 123 $240.1 mil $2.0 mil
Prep LHH SS 35 $130.3 mil $3.7 mil
College LHH OF 56 $115.2 mil $2.1 mil
Prep RHP 46 $112.0 mil $2.5 mil
Prep RHH SS  36 $110.3 mil $3.1 mil

*average bonus excludes unsigned players 
 
The bigger takeaway is that there is no single profile dominating the top of the draft. Different player profile types offer different forms of value. College right-handed pitchers provide consistency. Prep shortstops provide upside and command a financial commitment. College outfielders, particularly left-handed hitters, are becoming increasingly prominent. Meanwhile, several other profiles have seen their presence at the top of the draft decline significantly.

That is ultimately what makes looking at the draft through the lens of profiles so interesting. Individual draft classes can create noise. A particularly strong group of shortstops, pitchers, or outfielders can dramatically influence a single year’s numbers. But when those selections are combined across six drafts, broader organizational preferences begin to emerge.

The question now is whether these trends represent a real long-term shift in how teams evaluate players or simply the natural ups and downs of talent from one draft class to the next. Either way, the data offers a fascinating snapshot of how teams have approached the top of the MLB Draft over the last six years and perhaps a glimpse at where the draft is headed next.
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