Blue Jays Select College Flamethrower With No. 39 Overall Pick in First 2026 Mock Draft

Welcome to the 2026 MLB Consensus Draft Board. This is the fifth version of the board, which started in 2022 as a top 30. Since then, it’s expanded to around 150 players on an annual basis, and it's featured on eight different team sites. So what is the Consensus Board? How is it made? How should it be used?

The concept is loosely based on Arif Hasan’s NFL Consensus Board. It’s meant to be a tool for folks getting interested in the MLB Draft. As I was learning about the draft, I struggled to navigate wildly varied rankings and evaluations of players. The Consensus Board takes every major publicly available board and combines them into a consensus ranking, eliminating some of the noise and variance of an extremely challenging evaluation process. We’ve found this process to be useful in ranking players in appropriate ranges through around the first five rounds of the draft.

On the board, you’ll find player names, handedness, listed height and weight, age, and a write-up, walking through their strengths and opportunities as a prospect. As we go through the cycle, these will be updated with tweaks, final college stats, etc. Every time a major outlet (Baseball America, ESPN, The Athletic, etc.) releases an updated list, the consensus ranking shifts. As such, the board is a lagging reflection of what the industry thinks of the class and its key players. The final Consensus Board will incorporate at least 10 other boards as inputs.

New MLB Mock Draft Board Features

There are a few important features to point out to help you navigate the board. There’s a search bar to help you find players of interest. If you click ‘expand,’ the board will focus on the write-up you are engaged with, in addition to one immediately above it and one immediately below it. Additionally, you’ll find the logo of your team next to their draft slots to help understand where they are picking. There will be a player slotted there, based on their consensus ranking. Rather than using that ranking as an indicator of who the team might actually pick, it’s more useful to use it as a proxy for what caliber of talent is available at that slot. We’ll dig in deeper to team-specific mock drafts later in the cycle. The last important note is that this year, the board features ‘push’ updates. It updates automatically every hour. The board is typically updated with new write-ups five days per week, so check back regularly for updates.

At #39, the Blue Jays Select: Cade Townsend, RHP, Ole' Miss

Cade Townsend was a solid prep prospect ahead of the 2024 draft, cracking T200 and T300 lists, but he made it to campus at Ole Miss. After splitting time between starting and relieving in his freshman season, he entered 2026 strictly as a starter. It was an explosive start to his season. In his first 35 innings pitched, he managed a 2.32 FIP, striking out over 32% of hitters and walking just 4.8%. Unfortunately, he left his fifth start with shoulder discomfort, missing some time on the shelf.

It's an appealing fastball that sits 93-95 mph but can grab 98 mph. It has good carry and plays best at the top of the strike zone. It's supplemented by a nasty curveball, a hammer with a ton of drop that he imparts upwards of 3,000 rpm of spin onto with consistency. Rounding out Townsend's arsenal is a cutter that sits in the high 80s, a slider and a changeup with good fade.

The missed time and smaller frame might give some teams pause, but if he returns strong down the stretch, he's one of the biggest up arrow college arms in the class.

Check out our 2026 mock draft board, updated regularly, and with detailed player write-ups!