Hayden Cantrelle

The coronavirus shutdown came at an extremely inopportune time for Cantrelle. After two strong seasons at Louisiana-Lafayette, he looked lost at the plate this spring and was batting .136/.320/.237 through 17 games. There are reasons to write that off as a rough month in an otherwise solid college career. After looking overmatched in the Cape Cod League in 2018, he showed a much better approach and a more controlled swing when he returned to the Cape in 2019. Playing both middle infield spots for Harwich, he finished ninth in the league with a .315 batting average. The switch-hitting Cantrelle is a top-of-the-order table setter. He is undersized at 5-foot-11, 175 pounds, but he shows double-digit home run power from the left side. His righthanded swing is generally more of a contact-oriented approach. He enchances his offensive game as a plus runner with excellent basestealing instincts. He stole 28 bases in 32 tries as a sophomore and 19 in 21 attempts in the Cape last summer. Cantrelle projects as an average shortstop defensively and an above-average defender at second. He has average arm strength and is accurate with his throws. Cantrelle’s awful spring clouds his status, but he has a lengthy resume of success and teams like his baseball IQ. He lacks flashy tools, but a team who relies strongly on a player’s Cape Cod League performance could be enticed in the fourth or fifth rounds.