MLB Draft 2024 live updates: Pick order, latest mock draft, rankings and news

A year ago, Kellon Lindsey wasn’t thinking about the MLB Draft. He was too busy learning out routes and defensive alignments. An incoming senior at Hardee High School in Wauchula, Fla., Lindsey was a standout on the gridiron as a quarterback and defensive back. He also starred in baseball, but the two sports shared his attention equally.

But when the football season wrapped in the winter, Lindsey narrowed his focus to baseball and suddenly his game took off. By the mid-spring, he’d gone from a little-known name to a first-round prospect. Now he’s a few weeks away from what was an unimaginable scenario a year ago — having to make a decision between turning pro or going to his dream school, the University of Florida.

Given that Lindsey, a 6-foot-1, 170-pound shortstop, is one of the fastest players in this year’s draft class (he’s been timed at 6.57 in the 60-yard dash), it perhaps isn’t surprising that his rise up the draft rankings has been meteoric. Still, even he has been a bit awed by the company he is suddenly keeping. He says it was surreal this winter to go to workouts and see retired MLB All-Star Gary Sheffield, whose son Noah is also in this draft class and was attending the same workouts. Scouts became a regular feature of Lindsey’s games this spring. He says at first it was a little distracting to see the scouts there, but now he’s gotten used to it.

“I just go out there and play my game every day,” he said at the MLB Draft Combine at Chase Field in Phoenix last month. “I just try to not acknowledge them more than anything, and just do my thing out there.”

Lindsey — who The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked 22nd in his final MLB Draft top 100 — has drawn comparisons to Philadelphia Phillies star Trea Turner for his plus speed, athleticism and build. The biggest question about Lindsey heading into the draft is whether he can add enough strength to get to more than average power. Lindsey says now that he’s solely focused on playing baseball, he’s been able to start adding muscle that will help him reach his power potential.

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