Iowa baseball: Three early predictions for 2020 roster

The Hawkeyes will be losing several key players from their roster next season.

The Iowa baseball team will have to account for the loss of several players next season. Starting first with Cole McDonald. The senior pitcher from New Hampton, Iowa tossed 89.0 innings with 83 strikeouts to just 29 walks to the tune of a 3.54 ERA this season.

Mitchell Boe will be moving on as well. The senior from Naperville, Illinois primarily played the middle infield in his Hawkeye career and hit 0.257 this season with one home run with 19 RBI’s. Sticking with the senior theme, Tanner Wetrich (SS) and Chris Whalen (LF) will also be graduating.

Wetrich batted 0.263 with an OPS of 0.825 to go along with seven home runs and 28 RBI’s in 2019 while Whalen hit 0.288 with one home run and 21 RBI’s in 2019.

Add to that, the Hawkeyes have several MLB draft-eligible juniors. Key contributors like Zeb Adreon, Justin Jenkins, Grant Judkins, Ben Norman, Austin Martin, and the aforementioned Leonard are all eligible to enter their names into the draft if they so choose to.

Just a quick recap:

• Zeb Adreon: 0.299 batting average, 0.850 OPS, 2 home runs, 24 RBI’s
• Justin Jenkins: 0.260 batting average, 0.699 OPS, 1 home runs, 6 RBI’s
• Grant Judkins: 82.2 innings pitched, 65 strikeouts, 31 walks, 2.72 ERA (15 starts)
• Ben Norman: 0.251 batting average, 0.731 OPS, 6 home runs, 34 RBI’s
• Austin Martin: 0.294 batting average, 0.765 OPS, 2 home runs, 30 RBI’s
• Grant Leonard: 34.2 innings pitched, 3.37 ERA, 14 saves (school record)

The only guys that I could see putting their name in for consideration would be Adreon, Judkins, and Norman. They would likely go in the later rounds and could still choose to come back to Iowa if they feel they can improve their draft stock.