2024 Bowman Draft: Which players are most likely to debut? Part 2
Now that the hobby is heavy into Bowman Draft season I thought I’d take a look at the players in the product who will most likely make their debut sometime during the 2025 season. A player's big league debut often comes with a value increase for collectors so that date can often be equally as important as their product debut. This will be a two part series.
Jac Caglianone 1B/SP, Kansas City Royals
Going forward I’m sure that every time a highly ranked two way player that becomes draft eligible or available for international signings will get hit with the label the “next Shohei Ohtani”. I tend to agree with MLB Pipeline when the authors said it might be unfair to Caglianone to refer to him as that. that said of the recent two way players to be drafted, I feel like Caglianone has the chance to make it to the MLB being able to do both. As a hitter, Caglianone has all the traits to be a middle of the order bat with all fields power coupled with a good batting eye that should allow for above average or better counting stats. That alone makes him a top level chase for collectors. As a pitcher Caglianone profiles more as a solid number 3 starter vs an ace. Caglianone ended up hitting mostly in the Arizona fall league so perhaps the Royals have made the choice to have him focus on that aspect of his game. Should that be the case it would accelerate his chances of making his debut and getting his post call up value bump sometime in mid 2025 potentially on the earlier side too. Right now Caglianone base chrome autos are selling for $315-330 making him the most valuable chase auto to date in 2024 Draft. Collectors should keep an eye out during spring training because those values may go up if Caglianone breaks camp with the Royals.
Chase Burns SP Cincinnati Reds
Chase Burns was the top ranked pitcher heading into the Draft with some buzz about going first overall. He ended up going one pick later to the Reds. While he’ll get comparisons to Skenes exciting collectors I don’t he’ll hit those heights. That's not a shot at Burns as falling just short of that bar is still very impressive and could lead to a positive hobby impact as well. Burns has three above average pitches with his slider grading out as his best. Where he falls a little short of Skenes is that while he can crank his fastball up to triple digits it’s often gets hit a bit too hard per MLB pipeline. Beyond that the Reds were aggressive in promoting Rhett Louder their first round pick last year. As long as Burns stays healthy there is a good chance he makes his debut around the same time Louder did in 2024. It's always important for collectors to remember that being a pitcher depresses value. Even so, Burns base chrome autos are checking in at a respectable $75-100 range on 130 point. One factor that works in his favor is that Reds players tend to have a robust collectors market. Even with the risk aversion in the hobby that comes when chasing pitchers, I would expect those values to jump up should Burns even come close to reaching the heights that Paul Skenes did.
