submitted by Jared Pinder
When The Baltimore Orioles selected Hudson Haskin in the second round in the 2020 MLB draft out of Tulane University, there wasn’t much information about him available to the average fan. Outside of playing in a small school in Division I baseball, there weren’t many looks at him. He hit for a great average in college and while he had tools like a solid glove, he only played two years and never hit for that much power. He also had a pretty unique swing that was based on contact rather than power.
However, this year, Haskin has been great for the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds and has had a breakout campaign. He batted, .276/.377/.415, with five home runs and 13 doubles, which was good enough to get a promotion to High-A Aberdeen. In Aberdeen he has gotten off to a slow start but with his history he should pick it up.
Haskins also plays great defense in center and has a great ability to steal bases as he had 17 this year in Delmarva.
The one downside of Haskin is his lack of power; he only has five home runs this year and a below average .415 slugging percentage. He does have 13 doubles this year and that is fine, but he had a below – average .138 ISO in Low-A.
While Power won’t be his strength and his game is predicated on making contact and playing good defense with running the bases well, how much value can you have when you simply aren’t hitting for power?
Back to the positive side, Haskin has a great ability to put the barrel on the baseball and get on base. His .377 OBP speaks to that and that is with a slump he had in the month of June. He also had a high BABIP of .362 which shows how good he is of just putting the ball in play. Haskin’s ability to get on base is just impressive and it is another tool in his shed.
This type of player is defiantly valuable; he gets on base too much not to be, but just how valuable he will be? I think that is definitetly the biggest question due to his lack of power. I don’t think he will ever hit for a ton of power, but I do think he will have enough to be respectful; this isn’t Nick Madrigal we are talking about. His extra-base hit ability is impressive and I think he could add some home run power as he matures.
In conclusion, Haskins gets on base and has solid base stealing ability when he does. When you add this with his defense in center and his improving ability to hit the ball hard and in play, he has the potential to be a very valuable player.
Haskin is a player who is breaking out in a big way and showing that he has become a rising star and has become one of the O’s most underrated prospects this year.
