{"id":395399,"date":"2026-07-12T05:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T05:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/395399\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T05:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T05:48:16","slug":"dodgers-top-draft-pick-bo-lowrance-inspired-by-freddie-freeman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/395399\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ top draft pick Bo Lowrance inspired by Freddie Freeman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bo Lowrance models his game after Freddie Freeman<\/a>. So, it\u2019s fitting that the Dodgers<\/a> selected the 6-foot-5, 200-pound high school infielder \u2014 ranked the No. 21 overall prospect by MLB.com \u2014 with the 40th pick in the MLB amateur draft on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously a first baseman, and I\u2019m on the left side, so defensively a little different,\u201d Lowrance said of Freeman during a conference call with media. \u201cBut he\u2019s still unbelievably athletic, and a big thing that I\u2019ve watched for years is his approach and how he uses the whole field. \u2026 [Freeman is] somebody that I\u2019m always trying to emulate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowrance hit .435 with 12 home runs last season at Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, S.C.<\/p>\n

A left-handed batter and right-handed thrower like Freeman, Lowrance is expected to develop as a shortstop \u2014 noting former Dodger Corey Seager<\/a> has a \u201csuper smooth\u201d defense at 6-4 he hopes to replicate \u2014 with a potential role at third, depending on how the prep star grows into his frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, definitely want to be a shortstop,\u201d Lowrance said. \u201cI believe I\u2019m capable of it. I think I have the glove skills and the athleticism. I think it\u2019s just going to turn into who I want to become at the plate in terms of my overall size and frame. Like, if I ultimately put on a bunch of weight and kind of grow out of the shortstop position, then maybe that\u2019s where that\u2019ll change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowrance hit it off with the Dodgers\u2019 front office in June at the draft combine in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

And even though the Dodgers didn\u2019t exactly see the Freeman comparison Lowrance mentioned, they would be thrilled if he turned out anything like the 10-time All-Star.<\/p>\n

\u201cBo was definitely our main target coming into the day,\u201d Dodgers amateur scouting director Zach Fitzpatrick said. \u201cProbably would have said there\u2019s a pretty low chance we were able to acquire him, had you asked me in the morning. So as the picks start coming off the board and realizing there\u2019s a little bit more opportunity to get him, our excitement level climbed. And then to actually be able to call his name was a home run for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in communication with them for a while,\u201d Lowrance added. \u201cI\u2019ve loved their scouting staff. I have a great relationship with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers entered the draft with the smallest bonus pool at $3,951,900; the White Sox had the most cash to work with, boasting $20,489,500.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick, though, said the Dodgers\u2019 strategy centered around taking the best player available.<\/p>\n

The approach carried over into the Dodgers\u2019 second and final pick on the day \u2014 Florida right-handed pitcher Russell Sandefer at No. 132.<\/p>\n

Sandefer posted a 3-2 record as a junior in 2026 with a 4.42 ERA over 19 games and 12 starts. The Dodgers were intrigued by his repertoire and heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we dove into Russell throughout the spring, kind of all departments \u2014 from scouting and what we saw at the park to our player development group and our analytics group \u2014 kind of flagged Russell as very intriguing and then having a lot of upside left,\u201d Fitzpatrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA starter at Florida, threw a lot of strikes; there\u2019s obviously velocity, there\u2019s a deep mix, and he performed and had some pretty stellar outings along the way that helped us believe in his upside and different ways we can help him access it more consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowrance was happy to be part of the Dodgers\u2019 draft class.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a whole wave of emotions,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m extremely grateful, first off, and couldn\u2019t be more excited. I mean, yeah, I\u2019ve said it already: It\u2019s the best team in baseball, and nobody else that I want to be a part of.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t have drawn it up any better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bo Lowrance models his game after Freddie Freeman. So, it\u2019s fitting that the Dodgers selected the 6-foot-5, 200-pound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[21236,158958,57482,217,426,57121,553,4203,423,36435,48,52,51,47,50,49,158957,18158,158959,40391,81700],"class_list":["post-395399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-approach","tag-bo-lowrance","tag-corey-seager","tag-day","tag-dodgers","tag-draft","tag-florida","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-game","tag-home-run-last-season","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lowrance","tag-no","tag-pitcher-russell-sandefer","tag-russell","tag-shortstop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}