Dodgers: 2016 Draft – One Year Later

3rd Round — Jordan Sheffield — P

Most people know only of Walker Buehler when they think of former Vanderbilt players in the Dodgers’ organization, but the team got another solid one last year with Sheffield. Six slots after Smith was selected, Sheffield was added on as another solid arm that will hopefully develop into a major league caliber starter.

At 5’10, he isn’t your prototypical pro guy, but that shouldn’t be any issue when you look at the work he has done thus far. In 16 starts, he has a 3.47 ERA and has just been a measure of consistency amongst the Dodgers’ minor league pitchers. While his inning limit has been monitored, they have started to stretch him out a bit more, and the results have been good. In his last start, the Tennessee native threw six innings of shutout baseball, his best professional start ever.

Sheffield also has a younger brother, Justus, who is one of the top prospects in the Yankees’ minor league system. Baseball, more so than any other sport, loves lineage and their father was drafted in the 3rd round in 1985 so that is a good sign that he will continue to get chances until proven that he can’t do it.

Side note: It will be interesting to see which of the brothers develops into the better major leaguer. Justus is a lefty and was a High School draftee, and Jordan is a righty and is a little more experience. Both are exceptional pitchers that have the ingredients to get to the next level. I guess we will have to wait and see who will be Top Sheff.