MLB draft: USC players and roster facing challenges

Not much has been normal about college baseball the past two months, but this week’s MLB Draft will only exacerbate the unique challenges facing the sport since the onset of COVID-19.

Take USC’s Jamal O’Guinn for example. Any other year, O’Guinn would be getting ready to be drafted, and would be a lock to be selected in any of the typical 40 rounds.

But that won’t be the case this year. Given the economic uncertainty facing the sport in the wake of the coronavirus, MLB decided to reduce the draft to five rounds. Complicating matters, players looking to fall back on undrafted free agency will be capped at a $20,000 signing bonus if they do so.

Which means the typical roster churn at this time of year will not happen.

“If he goes undrafted, he’s going to come back to college,” USC head coach Jason Gill said. “He knows the value of a USC degree over trying to get paid a minimum amount of money and trying to make your way through the minor leagues. It’s not easy to do.”

O’Guinn went undrafted out of high school in 2017. His numbers improved from his freshman to sophomore year, but he took a jump as a junior.

In USC’s abridged 15-game season, O’Guinn batted .378 with a .533 on-base percentage and .511 slugging. The batting average, which ranked seventh in the Pac-12, was 97 points higher than when he was a sophomore.

O’Guinn also batted in seven runs and scored 11 more in his limited junior season.

“Just growing up and maturing a little bit,” Gill said. “He was already a highly talented guy.”

The question for O’Guinn is where he plays at the next level.

He’s played some outfield and infield in his career at USC. Though he focused entirely on third base during his junior season, O’Guinn has played first and both corner outfield spots.

“I think he’s capable of both. I think that’s one of the things that’s really intriguing is he can play multiple positions on the field,” Gill said. “He has the speed to play the outfield and power and all that. He has the arm strength to play right or third. You’re getting options there in the one guy.”

Another player who could bring some versatility with him to the minor leagues is Ben Wanger. The redshirt senior pitched in relief and played first base for USC after transferring from Yale. Wanger led the team in batting average with a .410 clip and did not allow an earned run in 6 ⅓ innings out of the bullpen.

He isn’t projected by many to be drafted, but could get some interest in post-draft free agency as teams wonder where he is best suited to play at the next level.

“I’ve had that question from scouts,” Gill said. “I only had 15 games with him, so it’s not like I have a long history of what he can or can’t do. I think on the mound right away he would probably have a better chance immediately. But there are some tools in there offensively. He’s got power that is in there and hasn’t come out all the way yet. Just an interesting young man.”

The NCAA has allowed schools to decide if it will allow seniors to return for another year of eligibility following the early-season cancellation of the 2019 campaign.

With a smaller draft, fewer players will leave school early, and fewer high school seniors will eschew college for the minor leagues. With only 35 spots allowed on a roster and only 27 scholarships available, it makes the math of trying to figure out the roster a complicated endeavor.

It’s made for an unorthodox start for Gill’s tenure, given his first season at USC was cut short before conference play could even begin.

“It’s been odd,” he said. “This is the first spring that I’ve been not on a baseball field since I was 15, 16. I don’t even know.”

But despite the adversity facing the sport at large, Gill believes the wave of returning talent will be good for the quality of the game in 2021.

“College baseball got better, top to bottom,” Gill said. “I think the quality of player rises for sure. I think it’s unfortunate, just like everything else this pandemic has affected. There were some young men that have worked their tails off to get themselves in a position to get drafted out of college and get out and compete for their dream job. It’s an unfortunate, but our sport at our level got better.”