Unexpected News : san diego padres announces sudden Departure as……

SBNation Story

The Wolfpack have now had at least one player selected in the top three rounds of the draft in five of the last six years, with seven total players being selected during that span. That could move to eight with Eli Serrano still on the board in this year’s draft and the third round slated to begin at 2:00pm Monday.

Cozart will now head to a Guardians organization that has 24-year-old Bo Naylor (Cleveland’s 2018 1st round pick) in place as the starter at the MLB level. Naylor has regressed with the bat in his second year, though, and as Patrick Bailey showed with the Giants, just because there’s a high-profile youngster ahead of you it doesn’t mean there’s not an opportunity to force your way into the gig.

Aside from Naylor’s presence, there is only one catcher listed in Cleveland’s Top 40 prospects heading into the draft, with that being 2023 4th round pick Cooper Ingle (Asheville native) from Clemson. Cozart is a much better defensive catcher than Ingle and with much more pop in the bat. Cleveland also spent their 2023 1st round pick on a high school catcher (Ralphy Velazquez), but quickly moved him to 1B.

Essentially, this is a good organizational fit for Cozart.

Over his three years with the Wolfpack, Cozart appeared in 163 games, hitting a combined .284/.393/.524, 13.5 BB%, 16.5 K%, 2-3 SB, with 29 2B, 3 3B, 33 HR, 123 R, and 120 RBI. He saved his best season for last, hitting .300/.430/.604, 18.2 BB%, 17.4 K%, with 19 HR in 2024 while helping to lead the Pack to the College World Series. Cozart was a 2024 Buster Posey Award (nation’s best catcher) finalist while earning 2nd Team All-American honors from Perfect Game and 3rd Team All-American honors from Baseball America and D1 Baseball.