The official Atlanta Braves Twitter account announced second round draft pick Greyson Jenista officially signed late Thursday afternoon.
As usual the Atlanta Braves did almost nothing draft prognosticators predicted. Until draft day Nolan Gorman was the name on almost every mock draft; suddenly Carter Stewart appeared.
Like Stewart, Jenista’s name didn’t appear on any mocks I saw. Although he seemed to appear out of nowhere, Jenista’s the real deal.
Accompanied by Area Supervisor Nate Dion and Director of Amateur Scouting Brian Bridges, @greysonjenista officially becomes a member of the #Braves organization.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) June 7, 2018
Welcome to Braves Country, Greyson! #ChopOn pic.twitter.com/7AE5qEq36U
Greyson Jenista
BA Rank 29 MLBPipeline Rank #58
Pipeline Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 55 | Run: 55 | Arm: 55 | Field: 50 | Overall: 50
In Jenista’s senior year at Desoto (KS) High School, Perfect Game ranked #244 nationally, the tenth at first base while Prep Baseball Report ranked No. him #186 nationally and #6 at first base. Yet no one drafted him and he moved on to Wichita State.
During his three years at Wichita State, he consistently slugged over .470 and never failed to hit .300.
Scouts started to pay attention in 2017, his second year in the Cape Cod league. Playing for the Cotuit Kettleers, Jenista hit .310/.391/.401/.796 with three homers and four doubles in 142 AB.
He followed that up with a string senior campaign when he struck out a a15% rate while walking at a 19% clip
| SEASON | G | AB | HR | BB | SO | Avg | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 2016 | 57 | 172 | 5 | 31 | 27 | .326 | .431 | .471 | .902 |
| 2017 | 58 | 228 | 9 | 32 | 46 | .320 | .413 | .509 | .922 |
| 2018 | 56 | 204 | 9 | 50 | 41 | .309 | .446 | .475 | .921 |
| Total | 171 | 604 | 23 | 113 | 114 | .318 | .430 | .487 | .917 |
(Statistics from The Baseball Cube)
In the link above. MLB Pipeline characterized Jenista’s bat like this.
. . . exceptional hand-eye coordination . . .repeatedly barrel balls. . .can get fooled by breaking balls . . . swing presently is geared more to line drives, but his size and strength create plenty of raw power. . . a patient hitter who’s not afraid to work deep counts and will take walks
What about defense?
Jenista played 81 games at first Wichita as well as 24 games in right during his first two seasons and 32 in center his senior year.
I characterized him as a slow runner on draft day even though he grades at 55 for speed and was taken to task in comments.
Jenista’s a big man, an inch shorter and 20 pounds heavier than Freddie Freeman. His current speed may grade 55 in bursts but like Freddie he’s no speedster nor is he a center fielder.
Here’s part of BA’s scouting report, you decide what they mean.
"At 6-foot-4, 220-pounds most scouts believe that Jenista will be a corner player. . .with a high-maintenance body. He currently runs well for his size (with) occasional above-average run times, but evaluators believe that will back up (to) a 40 or 45-grade runner."