Former Vols baseball star Drew Gilbert reaches important new milestone
Former Tennessee Vols baseball outfielder Drew Gilbert is having quite the start to his pro career. Gilbert was selected in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft by the Houston Astros. The Minnesota native was recently promoted from High A to Double-A by the Astros thanks to his torrid start in 2023. Gilbert is […]
Former Tennessee Vols baseball outfielder Drew Gilbert is having quite the start to his pro career.
Gilbert was selected in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft by the Houston Astros.
The Minnesota native was recently promoted from High A to Double-A by the Astros thanks to his torrid start in 2023. Gilbert is hitting .346 with six home runs and a 1.027 OPS through 28 games (21 games in High and 7 games in Double-A) so far this season.
As a result of Gilbert's hot start to the season, he was recently added to MLB.com's top 100 prospects list.
Gilbert is now listed as the No. 96 overall prospect in MLB.
Here's the MLB.com scouting report on Gilbert.
From MLB.com: Gilbert is extremely aggressive in all phases of the game, yet his superb hand-eye coordination enables him to repeatedly barrel balls and produce high exit velocities. His left-handed stroke can get long because he hunts home runs, and while he rarely strikes out, he does make more ground-ball contact than desired. He's not physical but does have enough bat speed and strength to provide 15-20 homers per season without selling out for power.
Gilbert has solid-to-plus speed and uses it to steal and take extra bases. His quickness and instincts allow him to cover ground in center field, where he shows the plus arm strength that produced fastballs clocked up to 93 mph during infrequent college pitching appearances. A fiery competitor with a lot of emotion, he's destined to become a fan favorite but needs to play more under control at times.
If Gilbert's hot start continues, it won't be long before he's promoted to Triple-A. And if he performs well after he moves up to Triple-A, it wouldn't be a surprise if Gilbert gets called up to the big leagues late in the season (depending on Houston's needs).
