Law has him at #82
Bradfield’s full-season debut went pretty much as expected, as he continued to play elite defense in center and show 80 speed, but he hasn’t made any changes at the plate to try to drive the ball more consistently. He’s one of the best defensive centerfielders in the minors, with huge range thanks to his speed and good reads off the bat, and that and his speed give him a pretty clear floor as a fourth outfielder. That’s buttressed by his high-contact approach; he whiffed only 15 percent of the time he swung last year, according to data from Synergy Sports, and chased pitches out of the zone only 17 percent of the time. He’s still got an overly complicated swing that results in a lot of groundballs, although the Orioles are working with him to try to get him to hit more line drives to the outfield, even just over the infielders’ heads, and let his legs do their thing. He’s slight and not likely to ever hit for more than below-average power, but he’s strong enough to ambush the occasional pitch and pull it out to right. He started 2024 slowly but improved as the season went on, finishing with a month in Double A where he hit .287/.395/.396, which I think is probably his best-case scenario in the majors. Add defense that could be +15 runs in a full season in center and you’ve got a 5-WAR player. He just has to keep progressing at the plate, mechanically and in production, to get there.
Top 100 MLB prospects 2025: Keith Law’s rankings, with Roman Anthony at No. 1 - The Athletic
