Donny Everett | RHP
Background
The 18-year-old Everett attends Clarksville High School in Tennessee and is committed to Vanderbilt. He made the jump from interesting prospect to high-end prospect at the World Wood Bat Championships last August, where he was the hardest thrower in the tournament and performed well against other elite prep players.
Scouting Report
Listed at 6-foot-2 and 220 lbs., Everett is a big boy and pretty close to maxed out physically, which is fine because he already sits 92-95 mph. He regularly touched 97-98 last summer and has reportedly hit 100 a few times this spring. Everett’s secondary pitches lag behind his fastball, with his hard low-80s slider showing more MLB readiness than his mid-80s changeup. You wouldn’t necessarily guess it from his size, but Everett is a really good athlete, which is why most expect him to be able to tone down his high-effort delivery and improve his location going forward. With that big durable frame and a good feel for pitching, Everett has all the look of a future workhorse.
Miscellany
Keith Law (subs. req’d), Baseball America, and MLB.com ranked Everett as the 17th, 27th, and 31st best prospect in the draft class in their latest rankings, respectively. For what it’s worth, Law said he’s heard the Yankees have been “heavy” on Everett this spring in his chat last week (subs. req’d). The Yankees pick 16th and 30th this year, and it has historically been tough to buy kids away from Vanderbilt, so they’d probably have to take Everett with the 16th pick and pay him accordingly. (Slot for the 16th pick is $2.54M.) Everett’s not just an arm strength high schooler, he has the ability to do more than throw hard, but he’ll need quite a bit of refinement going forward.