MLB Mock Draft: Red Sox Nab Elite Hit Tool With No. 20 Overall Pick

Welcome to the 2026 MLB Consensus Draft Board. This is the fifth version of the board, which started in 2022 as a top thirty. Since then, it’s expanded to around 150 players on an annual basis, featuring at eight different team sites. So what is the Consensus Board? How is it made? How should it be used?

The concept is loosely based on Arif Hasan’s NFL Consensus Board. It’s meant to be a tool for folks getting interested in the MLB Draft. As I was learning about the draft, I struggled to navigate wildly varied rankings and evaluations of players. The Consensus Board takes every major publicly available board and combines them into a consensus ranking, eliminating some of the noise and variance of an extremely challenging evaluation process. We’ve found this process to be useful in ranking players in appropriate ranges through around the first five rounds of the draft.

On the board, you’ll find player names, handedness, listed height and weight, age, and a write-up, walking through their strengths and opportunities as a prospect. As we go through the cycle, these will be updated with tweaks, final college stats, etc. Every time a major outlet (Baseball America, ESPN, The Athletic, etc.) releases an updated list, the consensus ranking shifts. As such, the board is a lagging reflection of what the industry thinks of the class and its key players. The final Consensus Board will incorporate at least 10 other boards as inputs.

New MLB Mock Draft Board Features

There are a few important features to point out to help you navigate the board. There’s a search bar to help you find players of interest. If you click ‘expand’ the board will focus on the writeup you are engaged with, in addition to one immediately above it and one immediately below it. Additionally, you’ll find the logo of your team next to their draft slots to help understand where they are picking. There will be a player slotted there, based on their consensus ranking. Rather than using that ranking as an indicator of who they might actually pick, it’s more useful to use it as a proxy for what caliber of talent is available at that slot. We’ll dig in deeper to team-specific mock drafts later in the cycle. The last important note is that this year the board features ‘push’ updates. It updates automatically every hour. The board is typically updated with new write-ups five days per week, so check back regularly for updates.

At No. 20, the Boston Red Sox Select: Derek Curiel, OF, LSU

Curiel was a highly touted prep prospect out of Southern California ahead of the 2024 draft but found his way to campus in Baton Rouge as one of the most anticipated freshmen in the country. Fast forward to 2026, and he's draft eligible as a sophomore with one of the best hit tools in the entire draft class.

Curiel has a direct, smooth, left-handed swing. It's elite bat to ball skills, as Curiel ran an 88% overall contact rate (95% in zone) in 2025, while rarely chasing and taking plenty of walks. While he finds the barrel often, the questions around Curiel's profile center around his power projection. He managed 7 home runs as a freshman and his top end EVs are not the portent of significant power as a pro.

Curiel is an above average runner with good range who should stick in center field as a pro, with a fringe average arm. If he can develop more power, this becomes a much more interesting profile. Right now, it's a table setting, top of the lineup type with strong on-base skills and an outstanding hit tool.

Check out our 2026 mock draft board, updated regularly, and with detailed player write-ups!