In the fourth round of the 2020 MLB Draft Thursday, the Colorado Rockies selected junior shortstop Jack Blomgren with the 140th overall pick.
The Rockies acquired a two-way shortstop with a knack for getting on-base and dynamic infielding capabilities. Blomgren started almost as soon as his freshman campaign began and though he struggled offensively his freshman season, Blomgren’s career .276 batting average, .399 on-base percentage, and .956 fielding percentage signal the sort of consistency that professional teams seek in prospective captains of their infields.
Blomgren did not attract draft attention out of high school, but his characteristic work-ethic and competitive fire drove him to make the developments necessary to hear his name called in this year’s shortened draft.
“My mindset going into every at-bat is putting the team first and competing for my teammates behind me that are cheering me on,” Blomgren told The Daily during the 2020 season. “Everything I’ve put in, prepared for, is for the guys behind me, and that’s what’s so important for this whole team and for me especially.”
The fact that Blomgren speaks of setting up for the guys behind him makes sense given his tendency to hit singles, but his growing ability to drive in runs himself is perhaps his most interesting development during his time in Ann Arbor.
While Blomgren notched only 13 extra-base hits in 2019, he drove in 47 runs, which put him only 17 runs batted in behind the team’s leader Jimmy Kerr. Kerr accrued 31 extra-base hits, but the lack of distance between the two players’ RBI numbers suggests that Blomgren can provide teams with clutch hits, a valuable commodity for MLB teams.
With Blomgren’s timely hitting and stellar defense harking back to age-old pillars of a good baseball player, combined with his propensity to get on base meshing with the modern style of the game, the Rockies used their fifth round pick to select a shortstop built for success.