Angels 2020 MLB Draft primer

The 2020 MLB Draft is a two-day event, beginning Wednesday night at 4 p.m. PT. This year’s draft has been shortened to just five rounds, down from 40.

The Angels’ first-round selection is 10th overall, the same slot they picked outfielder Jo Adell, their current top prospect, back in 2017. Here’s everything you need to know heading into the 2020 draft, including news, profiles of potential draftees, and how to watch.

Angels picks

• 1st round (10th overall)
• 3rd round (82nd)
• 4th round (111th)
• 5th round (141st)

The Angels have four picks in this five-round draft. They forfeited their second-round pick for signing free agent Anthony Rendon, who declined a qualifying offer with Washington.

That first-round pick has a recommended slot value of $4,739,900, and the Angels have a total draft pool of $6,397,100. The draft pool can only be used to sign picks in the five rounds, unlike most years when signing bonus amounts over $125,000 for later picks would count against the pool. The signing deadline for draft picks is August 1.

Undrafted free agents in 2020 can sign for a maximum of $20,000, with no limit to the number of undrafted free agents teams can sign.

Mock drafts

Eight different players have been projected to the Angels with their 10th pick in various mock drafts, but the two players linked to them most often are Louisville left-handed pitcher Reid Detmers and Tennessee high school outfielder Robert Hassell III.

The Angels have drafted position players in the first round in each of the last five years. Their last pitcher selected first was Sean Newcomb in 2014.

Related news

This is an odd draft anyway since there has been no amateur baseball played since mid-March. Teams have been allowed to contact players but could not visit them in person.

Complicating matters is that the Angels have aggressively furloughed team employees and issued pay cuts, limiting their scouting capacity at a critical time of the year, and putting a lot of the onus on director of amateur scouting Matt Swanson.

From Jeff Fletcher in the Orange County Register on Monday:

With the area scouts furloughed more than a week ago, Swanson and his nine cross-checkers have been handling the final decisions on their draft rankings and the actual selections.

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There will be just two days of the period in which non-drafted players can sign before the Angels will furlough their cross-checkers, leaving Swanson to finish that process on his own.

From Maria Torres in the Los Angeles Times Tuesday:

“We are confident that the Angels have the information and personnel to have a successful draft,” team spokeswoman Marie Garvey said in a statement.

Television coverage

Wednesday’s broadcast of the draft will begin at 4 p.m. PT, televised by MLB Network and ESPN. Thursday begins at 2 p.m., on MLB Network and ESPN2. Live streaming of the draft is available on both MLB.com and Watch ESPN.

Twenty-three players were outfitted by MLB with phones and will join the broadcasts remotely, meaning there’s an excellent chance the Angels’ first-round pick will be featured.

The first 37 picks — the first round plus Competitive Balance Round A — come Wednesday night, with the final 123 picks, Rounds 2-5, are on Thursday.