The Dodgers’ front office had to wait, and wait, and wait, during the first day of the MLB Draft on Saturday, not making their first selection until the second round at 40th overall.
Their third base coach, on the other hand, was up and celebrating before the first round had even been complete.
In a year the Dodgers had far fewer draft picks than normal –– having been docked four of their top-six-round selections because of luxury tax and free-agent signing penalties –– the biggest draft day story surrounding the team centered on third base coach Dino Ebel, who for the second year in a row saw one of his sons get taken in the first round.
This time, it was 17-year-old shortstop Trey Ebel, a product of Corona High School, who went 25th overall.
And, familiarly, it was the Milwaukee Brewers who snagged him, going 2-for-2 on the Ebel boys the last couple of years after taking Dino’s older son, Brady, 32nd overall last summer.
“It was more emotional this year than last year, I think because you know you got both sons [drafted and in the same organization],” said Ebel, who has decades of coaching experience and has been on the Dodgers’ staff since 2019. “They worked so hard to get to this point, and to have the same team, the Milwaukee Brewers, it’s just really a dream come true for me and the family.”
Ebel said he knew the Brewers were interested in Trey leading up to the draft.
But unlike last year, when Brady received a call from the Brewers front office well before his official selection, Trey’s phone call didn’t arrive until they were a couple picks away.
It made for an emotional scene at the Ebel household, where most of the family had gathered for a watch party before Dino hustled over to Dodger Stadium for that night’s game. It also made for a memorable moment at Brady’s single-A affiliate in Wilson, N.C., where the older brother broke into an immediate celebration while watching the draft on the stadium scoreboard during pregame catch play.
“Just a proud day,” Ebel said. “Proud moment for both Brady and Trey.”
For the Dodgers, it was a quiet day –– with one big surprise.
Given the team’s draft limitations (they only had two Day 1 picks, in the second and fourth rounds, and by far the smallest signing bonus pool in the league, thanks to going over the luxury tax last year and signing two free agents this winter with qualifying offers: Edwin Díaz and Kyle Tucker) the conventional wisdom was that the club would draft a college player at No. 40, and not risk blowing their limited draft budget on a high school talent that require more money to be convinced to turn pro.
Instead, the Dodgers did the exact opposite, taking 6-foot-5 slugger Bo Lowrance out of Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, S.C.
Lowrance is an intriguing prospect; a lanky shortstop/third baseman with a highly-touted left-handed swing capable of both contact and power. While most scouting publications pegged him in the No. 40 range, others were much higher on his potential (he was the No. 7 ranked prospect by Fangraphs, and No. 21 by MLB Pipeline).
Now, the Dodgers will likely have to reward him as such, to ensure he turns pro rather than fulfill a commitment to the University of Virginia.
His No. 40 pick comes with a $2.5 million slot value. If the Dodgers end up signing him for that much, it would account for almost two-thirds of their total $3.9 million bonus pool.
“Normally, when we are preparing the night before the draft, we’re talking a lot of strategy and bonus pool manipulation and those types of things, to try to optimize,” Dodgers amateur scouting director Zach Fitzpatrick said.
But this year, given the significantly reduced resources the Dodgers were working with, “we kind of were staring at each other last night and were like, ‘Is there any strategy, or just take the best player?’”
In the end, they went the latter route. They had eyed Lowrance throughout the pre-draft process. They had hoped he might fall all the way to them at No. 40.
“Bo was definitely our main target coming into the day,” Fitzpatrick said. “Probably would have said there’s a pretty low chance we would be able to acquire him, had you asked me in the morning. But as the picks start coming off the board and realizing there’s a little bit more opportunity to get him, our excitement level climbed.”
Lowrance also sounded energized by his Dodgers selection –– especially since he has modeled his own long-limbed, left-handed swing after that of Freddie Freeman.
“A big thing I’ve watched for years is his approach, how he uses the whole field,” Lowrance said. “That’s somebody I’m always trying to emulate.”
Now, he’ll get the chance to do so as a member of the same organization.
