The Arizona Diamondbacks and the 2026 MLB Draft, Part 5: Postmortem

The BLUF

The Arizona Diamondbacks raised a number of eyebrows with their draft day selections. One thing that went largely as expected though, is that Arizona still selected a number of “undersized talents”, selecting four players that measured in under six feet in height.

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The Selections

The following are the selections made by Arizona, including the selection number, overall position number, pre-draft ranking (via Baseball America) and how much they signed for. The draft bonus pool applies only to the first ten rounds in the draft. Any unspent funds from the first ten rounds are eligible to be spread around later rounds, allowing for a larger signing bonus than the established cap of $150,000.

1. 15 — Ryder Helfrick, C, Arkansas (7) – $5.24 million

CB-A. 31 — Blake Bryant, RHP, Citizens Christian HS (41) – $2.75 million

1. 53 — Carson Kerce, SS, Georgia Tech (120) – $1.9 million

2. 88 — Brayden Dowd, OF, Florida State (177) – $775,000

3. 116 — Josh McDevitt, RHP, Missouri (195) – $550,000

4. 148 — LJ Mercurius, RHP, Oklahoma (164) – $450,000

5. 177 — Micah Worley, LHP, SUNY Stony Brook (333) – $325,000

6. 206 — Carson Turnquist, RHP, Cal Poly (319) – $270,000

7. 236 — Paul Schoenfeld, OF, West Virginia (NR) – $50,000

8. 266 — Chris Katz, 1B, Mercer (359) – $25,000

9. 296 — Mason Steele, RHP, Alabama-Birmingham (NR) – $196,500

10. 326 — Cody Boshell, 1B, Bishop Snyder HS (275) – $750,000

11. 356 — Caleb Jameson, LHP, Georgia (NR) – $150,000

12. 386 — Jack Spanier, SS, Minnesota (NR)$150,000

13. 416 — Brannon Westmoreland, RHP, Arkansas-Little Rock (NR) – $150,000

14. 446 — Andrew Evans, RHP, Southern Illinois (NR) – $150,000

15. 476 — Joseph Jasso, RHP, Cal St Fullerton (NR) – $100,000

16. 506 — Rylan Alaniz, SS, Trinity HS (NR) – Did not sign

17. 536 — Jake Duer, OF, Texas A&M (NR) – $20,000

18. 566 — Weber Neels, C, Minnesota (NR) – $20,000

19. 596 — Andrew Wertz, RHP, Northeastern (NR) – $40,000

This has the Diamondbacks signing 20 of their 21 selections. The lone holdout is their 17th round pick — Rylan Alaniz, a high school shortstop coming out of Trinity High School in Texas. Alaniz is committed to Texas State University. As a late round selection (any selection after the 10th round), Alaniz is capped at $150,000 for a signing bonus. However, the Diamondbacks, even after heaping a pile of cash on 11th round pick Cody Boshell, still have approximately $470,000 that they can sweeten the signing bonus with. As Arizona cannot use that $470,000 elsewhere, the Diamondbacks can offer up to $620,000 to try an entice Alaniz from Texas State. Alaniz has three more days before the signing deadline to change his mind, but it seems at this point the young man intends to honor his commitment and try his luck again in the draft in three years’ time, as indicated by him on his Instagram feed.

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Key Picks

Best Overall Pick: Blake Bryant – RHP, Citizens Christian HS (GA)
The Diamondbacks took a big swing with their second selection, opting for a prep arm, usually the most volatile category of prospects. In many ways, this appears to be a continuation of Arizona’s gradual move to adding arms to the system that have MLB potential. Arizona’s farm system has been devoid of quality pitching for quite some time. The organization’s best pitching prospects of the last few seasons have failed to make the last adjustments needed to make the step up to the Majors. Meanwhile, most of the pitchers having an impact are those recently acquired via trades. Bryant features a loud four-pitch mix to build on. He has been up to 96 mph and typically sits in the low 90s, with solid armside life for his fastball. He did a nice job holding that velocity consistently while dominating Georgia competition this spring, and he has the arm speed and physical projection to imagine upper-90s velocity in the near future. Bryant complements the fastball with a low-80s slider and a curveball in the mid-to-upper 70s. Both offerings have great spin and he is able to adjust the shape to give each multiple looks. Bryant’s final pitch is a mid-80s changeup that currently rates as a fringe offering. His feel for when to throw the pitch and his ability to land it are both advanced, giving every indication that professional coaching will shape the pitch into at least an average if not better offering.

Best Day 2 Selection: Micah Worley – LHP, SUNY Stony Brook
Worley cuts an imposing figure on the mound, standing 6’5” and weighing a solid 220 lbs. Worley’s calling card is his ability to control his pitches. The left-hander recorded 93 strikeouts against only 31 walks in 69.1 innings. Currently, Worley works at 92-94 mph and has the ability to touch 98 with above-average run and carry through the top of the zone. Worley pairs his fastball with a short mid-80s slider that ran a 43% whiff rate in 2026, a high-70s curveball with vertical depth and a seldom-used changeup. Worley will need to work on his secondaries to remain a starter in the long-term. However, the soon-to-be 23-year-old pitches with a loose, easy delivery with well-above-average extension (thanks to his imposing height) and great arm speed. The markers are all there that the necessary refinement can come, along with potentially more workload velocity.

Quickest to Majors: Brayden Dowd – OF, Florida State
Hailing from the powerful SEC, Dowd has a very advanced and polished approach. Dowd profiles as a fourth outfielder sort who bats from the left side. He is not a burner. He doesn’t hit the ball with any sort of remarkable power. What he does bring is one of the more polished college bats in the draft. Of course, Mike Hazen has gone down this path many times before, only to see the best-laid plans get turned aside by injuries. Dowd is another one of those “model picks” for Mike Haze, coming in at 5’10” and 180 pounds. Across his three college seasons (two at USC and one at FSU), Dowd is a .314/.438/.493 hitter with 21 home runs, 34 doubles, a 14.2% strikeout rate and 17% walk rate. Yes, the young man walks substantially more than he strikes out, the sort of hitting profile Mike Hazen has targeted often in his tenure as GM. In 2026, Dowd had a 96% contact rate against fastballs 93 mph or harder. Dowd will use the entire field effectively and has a bit of pull-side power but there are questions about how much impact he’ll have with a wood bat. He lacks of stature and his struggles in the wood-bat league are key reasons Dowd fell as far as he did in the draft. Dowd is not a burner on the bases, but will take the extra base and likes to steal bases when not expected. Despite his lack of top-grade speed, Dowd has played capably in both center and left, though he likely profiles to the corners as he advances towards the Majors. Dowd’s ascension through the ranks will depend largely on his ability to start tapping into his power a bit more with a wood bat. Should he find some more in-game power, a debut as early as late 2028 is not out of the question.

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Most Exciting Tool to Watch: Ryder Helfrick’s power tool. Helfrick made his name as a glove-first catcher with advanced skills behind the plate, both defensively and with calling his own games at Arkansas. Helfrick’s bat has always been enough to warrant leaving him in the lineup, especially given his ability to shut down the opposition’s running game. Helfrick nudged his batting average just over .300 as a sophomore in 2025 but has a power-over-hit offensive profile with a career .274/.402/.542 line with 36 home runs in 154 games. At 6’1”, 210 pounds, Helfrick is powerfully built and swings with both intent and high-level bat speed. He’s not the sort of player who tends to shorten up in two-strike counts, and that is evidenced both by the towering home runs he hits when he connects and the career 21.7% strikeout rate he’s posted when he doesn’t. He’s a boom-bust sort at the plate who will need to work on his plate discipline somewhat if he intends to move trough the system. While Helfrick rates as a 50-grade power prospect, it is a true 50-grade in-game power score, not one that scouts need to dream on as a potential power somewhere down the road. If he can control the strikeouts while continuing to make loud, fully-extended contact, Helfrick possess the sort of profile that makes for a solid middle-of-the-order bat.

Biggest Gamble Taken: Blake Bryant with the second selection made in the draft. Not terribly unlike last season, Mike Hazen elected to roll the dice and select a pitcher that many did not slot so highly on draft boards, despite ranking in the top-50 prospects on most prospect evaluation sites. Taken so early, Bryant was able to command a hefty bonus, but still came in under slot value, already ameliorating some of the risk. Prep arms are always volatile picks and Arizona spending big on one with their second selection in a draft with so many other, more seasoned college arms available in the same projected talent tier, Mike Hazen is gambling on Arizona’s ability to develop pitching. Pitching development is not exactly something this organization does well – at least not so far. It seems Hazen and his people are hoping to change that narrative and are taking the sorts of risks necessary to do so.

Final Thoughts

The Diamondbacks continued some existing trends and then also raised some eyebrows with some aggressive reaches in the middle rounds. Tellingly, the team paid full slot value on only two of their bonus-slot selections, first selection Ryder Helfrick and the 10th round selection, Mason Steele. They were able to turn the cash savings into a signing of big-power prep prospect Cody Boshell in the 11th round. That selection itself was something of a departure for Mike Hazen. Despite profile of Dowd as a polished bat with some power concerns, the other bats taken by Hazen in this year’s draft seem to have one thing in common, he started adding more raw power to the pipeline. Only Boshell rates a 60-grade on potential power, but there are multiple 50-grade power bats that were selected. Helfrick leads the way among them, showing the potential to tap into that power with ease. The team still has a fair number of players considered to be undersized in their pool of draftees, with unsigned Alaniz among them. Hazen also picked up where he left off last season by aggressively targeting a polished pitcher with the second selection. While Bryant was unlikely the best player available, he was quite possibly the best arm that Hazen could target with that pick. Given how difficult it is to find starting caliber pitchers after the first or second round, this is probably the best Hazen could do to add a potential impact arm to Arizona’s pipeline.

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The Diamondbacks managed to sign 20 of 21 selections. The failed signing was a late-round selection and did not eat into their available draft bonus pool money. While the $470,000 in unspent bonus money might have been able to convince a slightly higher rated prospect than those taken in the first 10 rounds, it is not a certainty. The Diamondbacks acquired themselves an exciting lottery ticket with the 11th round selection of Boshell and have also boosted multiple pipeline deficiencies, despite drafting for need not being the best strategy. The organization has added another potential impact starter with mid-rotation upside. Other arms taken in the draft have elevated the power pitching floor of the organization while continuing to focus on pitchers who can fill the zone. Greater power has been added to the system, power that will slot everywhere from the Complex to A+ ball once everyone is sorted. And of course, for the team that regularly carries three backstops on the 26-man roster, the team managed to add arguably the best pure catcher in this year’s draft.

Some of the selections made over the two days of the draft will get some additional coverage in a few weeks, as they make their debuts on the Diamondbacks’ top-30 prospects list, to be assembled once the trade deadline passes in nine days.