As we are just two-and-a-half weeks out from the 2016 MLB Draft, potential marriages between draftees and MLB teams are starting to become a little bit more clear. The White Sox, who hold the tenth overall selection, are often a team attached to college pitchers. However, this year major pundits like ESPN’s Keith Law and MLB.com’s Jim Callis have both linked the White Sox to one prep outfielder, namely, Blake Rutherford. Rutherford, a left-handed hitting outfielder from Chaminade Prep High School, is one of the prized jewels in the talent-abundant Southern California region.
Sources have told FutureSox that the link between the White Sox and the Simi Valley product is more than just blind speculation. During the last week of April, Rutherford’s Eagles traveled to Notre Dame High School for a premier series of two of the nation’s best prep prospects. Rutherford heads up the 2016 draft class while Hunter Greene, a two-way player pitching for Notre Dame High School is projected to be one of the top picks next year in the 2017 draft.
While there were plenty of executives in attendance according to the Los Angeles Times, the White Sox were enamored enough with Rutherford to send their top executive in VP Kenny Williams to watch the 19-year-old outfielder get challenged against top prep talent. With the White Sox former General Manager watching, Rutherford struck out looking in his first at-bat. However, Rutherford bounced back and made many an executive’s trip worth it with one swing when he took an inside fastball from Greene and blasted it deep into the parking lot beyond the right field fence.
While it is customary for any given team’s top scouts to see most if not all of the prospects slated around their top selection, when the White Sox sent their top executive to see Blake Rutherford, the first-rounder-to-be did not disappoint.
Follow us on Twitter @FutureSox to read our upcoming profiles on Rutherford as well as the other draft prospects who could become future White Sox.
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