White Sox Select Jayson Gonzalez in the 17th round (515th overall)

Jayson Gonzalez is a senior coming out of Vanderbilt University, and now, he’s the White Sox’s 17th round selection.

He has almost been exclusively a third baseman, but did have a handful of games at shortstop. Over his career at Vanderbilt, in three seasons, he slashed .271/.368/.439 in 130 games. He also participated in some summer league action where he slashed .266/.362/.456.

So he does not have great bat-to-ball skills, but walked enough in college to make up for it. Coming off his 2019 season, and then no college ball at all in 2020, his season was a disappointment. It was his first full season starting, so it is possible he just saw opposing pitchers too much.

His batting average fell about 70 points and obviously the OBP did too. What did improve was his power. He had a career-high nine homers and a slugging percentage just under .500. He is playing in the toughest conference in college baseball, though he might have been on the best team, so he avoided top-10 picks and star pitchers Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter.

But it is good to see a power jump even if everything else did not look as good. He may have an extra year of eligibility left, but NCAA made all of that very confusing. He was not rated as a prospect.