Rank History
| Year | Team | Position | Team Rank | OFP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | CIN | OF | 25 | 40 |
Grades Update: Nov 2020
| OFP | Role | Hit | Power | Field | Arm | Run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 40 | 50 | 45 | 50 | 40 | 55 |
Nov 2020 Report
Evaluator: Justin Lada
Age: 23 yr
Height: 5-11
Weight: 200 lbs
Hits/Throws: R/R
Acquired: 2019 Draft - Round 8
RuleV: 2022
Physical Description: Athletic build. Short, well built and already filled out. Similar body type to Khris Davis, but a tad more athletic. A multi-sport athlete in high school.
Hit: Slightly closed stance. Brief toe tap as his timing mechanism. Active hands pre-load. Was a moderate leg kick, short strider in college. Closed stance and stride helps with hip hinge, showing backside to the pitcher before he clears his hips through and hands. Clears hips ahead of hands pretty well but it looks like his hands can get a little too far out front against breaking stuff. Shows some issues with recognizing breaking pitches. Little less wasted hand motion as a pro in 2019 than in college where his hands got very loopy with the bat. Quick to the ball with the bat and a solid amount of plate coverage in zone. Despite potential issues tracking off-speed stuff in a brief pro debut, shows a good idea of the strike zone. Mostly flat bat path but allows him to make contact to all fields. Good use of hands, average bat speed and control of the strike zone. Grade: 50
Power: Contact oriented approach yields modest power. Has shown power to the opposite field and lets the ball travel deep when he makes hard contact to the opposite field. Bat path is fairly flat and needs more loft if he's going to tap into above average raw power. Having the leg kick/stride in college and back to the toe tap now could be the difference in him trying to tap into power. His swing looks a lot more consistent with the toe tap than it did the leg kick. The strength on his follow-through is there for power, but lacks the loft and approach for power. Could do more to be more rotational to get into raw pop. Grade: 45
Field: Reads and routes in centerfield are average. Uses speed well to make up on routes occasionally. Probably best suited defensively as a corner but should be able to handle center with his speed. Grade: 50
Arm: Not many chances with the arm, but showed more air under throws than you'd like. Fielders were more prone to cut his throws rather than let them go through, but that could have been more of a situation than the throw. Throws didn't show carry through on a line. Arm likely exposed in CF or RF; would be ok in LF. Grade: 40
Run: Clocks around 4.25 from home-to-first, giving him above-average speed. Doesn't take big strides but takes efficient steps and stays off his heels. Runs with front forward when stealing but can be more straight up at other times. Aggressive runner that lacks instincts: prone to running into outs - caught stealing 50% of the time in 2019. Grade: 55
Overall: Average hit tool with solid strike zone recognition and above average speed are Cotton's best tools. He can hit the ball hard, but underlying potentially above average raw power will be the separator in his role. Has above average speed but hasn't effectively used it yet. Average tools across the board with good speed give him a fourth outfielder profile. Potential to carry a good average if breaking ball recognition improves and some swing changes to add more loft could unlock more power that could elevate him to an average regular. Swing was much better with toe tap than leg kick, so he may need a new adjustment and change in swing plane/bat path to get to the power. If the power never grows better than below average despite extension in swing and ability to drive the ball to the opposite field, there's enough there to carve out a role as a bench outfielder at the major league level.
OFP: 40
Role: 40 - Below-Average Player: Bench/Platoon
Risk: High
