Just as I was trying to figure out who to write up next, Baseball America popped out their 5th mock draft, this time with a new name as the Phillies pick. It doesn’t sound like there’s sourcing for this or actual rumors of Phillies interest so much as there is “It’s the 36th pick. Who the hell knows? But this seems to be the type of player the Phillies might roll the dice on.” So, what the heck. It’s pick 36, who the hell knows what’ll happen.
Caden is a 21 year old 6’3″ 200 lbs Center Fielder from Texas A&M. He’s a left handed hitter with a pretty enticing mix of tools. In a common theme of recent profiles none of those tools is hitting (spoiler, I guess). In High School Sorrell was a Shortstop and his first 2 years in College he split time between the corner OF positions. He has a cannon for an arm, so RF is a solid fall back option if the can’t stick in Center in the pros. He’s a plus runner and should work fine in Center early in his career, but he has that Mike Trout Linebacker-ish frame that will probably eventually grow him out of Center and off into a corner with more average speed, but for now, at least, Sorrell can really get on his horse.
As a hitter Sorrell has a swing geared to hit home runs. He probably has 70 grade raw power and is eventually going to be fun to watch in home run derbies (albeit perhaps minor league ones). Same as I wrote about for Lebron earlier this week, his game power is just grade 55 or 60 because of his contact issues. He’s recorded exit velocities of 114 mph and better, which would be elite among MLB hitters. The first video below is Sorrell just committing extreme violence on baseballs. It’s a surprisingly quiet, lightning fast swing. Almost entirely rotational with no real stride and a small toe tap for timing. He has a 24% K rate and known struggles against non-Fastballs, I think there may be an Adolis Garcia/Jo Adell type ceiling here. He may not have quite the arm of Garcia and not quite the range of Adell, but the hitting issues look similar and I could see a .230/.295/.435 line regularly getting put out here. It’s probably a 2-3 WAR player, who may occasionally be worth 4 or 5 WAR, but is also probably going to have sub 1 WAR seasons when fans will be frustrated with him.
Look at pick 36, I’ll be thrilled with any player that makes the show and puts up a positive WAR. Even if it’s barely positive, and at least massive homers are fun. While I’m not sure there’s a star ceiling, Sorrell has dealt with some injuries in College and 2026 was his first fully healthy season, so if you’re looking for a silver lining, maybe there’s still a little ceiling to come with health letting him play and see more breaking balls.
