2024 MLB Draft Profile: Dakota Jordan
Draft Profile: Dakota Jordan (Mississippi State)
Height: 6'0
Weight: 220
Bats/Throws: Right/Right
Dakota Jordan, coming off a solid freshman year at Mississippi State, is poised to repeat his success to further build an already very high draft stock for the upcoming 2024 MLB Draft.
First, Jordan has shown an ability to damage break or soft pitches.
He crushed sliders, posting an average over .350 with an astounding hard hit rate of over 77 percent against RHP, including a max exit velocity of 119 MPH. He also in a limited sample size hit over .430 against curveballs, with a hard-hit rate of over 77 percent. He whiffed against both pitches often, with a rate over 40 percent for the curveball and over 30 percent for the slider, with chase rates around 25 percent. A discernable ability to make contact is not quite as evident, but the quality of his contact against break is very high.
Especially against break and glove-side movement, Jordan has shown the ability to shorten his swing to be more compact and prioritize contact when behind in counts.
If you’re wondering why I do not have many clips of Jordan obliterating fastballs, it is because there are not many.
Jordan struggles with velocity. While the quality of contact would indicate Jordan will have some semblance of positive regression in 2024, the reality is he hit under .240 against them with a whiff rate approaching 25 percent.
Against LHP, he had a sub .200 average against the fastball with a whiff rate of nearly 30 percent, which is concerning.
He did fare better against RHP, posting an average of over .260 and a hard-hit rate of around 60 percent, but there is a discernable drop off in his quality of contact against velocity.
In addition, he really struggled against top velocity, not even posting a single hit against a pitch over 95 MPH.
Jordan has above-average speed, which helps him on the basepaths and the field. I consider him to be average defensively, but I do not have concerns about his ability to handle a corner outfield position, which is where he likely belongs with an average arm, and his plus speed can make up for some of the difference in the aggregate, and I think he can get better defensively.
Conclusion
Jordan has a really unique profile. His ability to crush break pitches is certainly a positive and a unique trait, and will likely improve his viability as a professional.
His struggles against fastballs, especially top-tier fastballs, are a concern, though. He needs to show improvement against velocity in 2024. He does have the potential to have 80-level in-game raw power somewhere, but that is limited until he can improve against velocity.
His bat speed is evident based on his quality of contact.
There is an element of swing-and-miss in his game, but to me, that is to be expected with his projection. He will lean more into his in-game power and quality of contact, and MLB front offices will like his ability to lift the ball and generate hard contact.
Jordan has room for projection, and while he has some work cut out for him as a hitter, he can really do some damage, which is what I like about his game. I would like to see him lean more into a power-first approach, it is where he can really make a difference in both his future and the fortunes of Mississippi State as a team in 2024.
