Derek Curiel

An extremely well known prep bat for years, Curiel elected to head to LSU and quickly established himself as a force at the top of that lineup as a freshman, a true table setter and one of the better pure contact hitters in all of college baseball.

At the plate Curiel rarely ever swings and misses. He boasted an in-zone whiff rate at 5 percent throughout the 2025 season, an elite rate, walking and getting on base at a high clip. It's a patient approach, and Curiel will rarely expand the zone showing great feel for the strike zone. It's top of the class bat to ball skills from the left side, and Curiel is as good a bet as anyone to hit for a high average at the next level. The main flaw with Curiel's profile has always been the power up to this point, there's not a ton of twitch and torque at the plate and the swing is relatively stiff with little feel to lift the ball. Most thought the power would take a step forward in 2026, but early on the impact is still very much the same. Curiel is still struggling to get the baseball into the air and hit it hard consistently, something that's been reflected in his limited extra base hits up to this point. There is still plenty of time for these issues to improve, but with what we've seen so far it's really hard to dream on more than fringe-average power output.

While less toolsy on the defensive side, Curiel has a chance to develop into a solid center fielder further down the line. He takes great routes to the ball and figures to be servicable there long term. Curiel is one of the higher floor college bats in the class, a guy who could end up being a first round pick and hit his way quickly through the minor leagues.