2021 Mets Draft profile: Rowdey Jordan

Raised in Auburn, Alabama, Rowdey Jordan lettered four times at the city’s eponymously named high school, three times in baseball and once in football. In his four seasons with he Tigers, he hit a cumulative .409/.504/.705 in 117 games, slugging 21 home runs and stealing 46 games. His senior season was particularly good- he hit .406/.562/.745 with 8 home runs and 25 stolen bases- and that led to him being recruited by various baseball schools, but in the end, he passed them up to attend Mississippi State University.

He played for the Terre Haute Rex in the Prospect League that summer and then hit the ground running at MSU, hitting .321/.390/.518 in 57 games with the Bulldogs, earning Freshman All-American honors and being named to the NCAA Tallahassee Regional All-Tournament Team. He played supplementary summer baseball between his freshman and sophomore years once again, playing for the Victoria HarbourCats of the West Coast League, and once again had an excellent season upon returning to Mississippi State. In 2019, he hit .290/.370/.420 in 67 games, getting named MVP of the NCAA Starkville Regional after going 7-13 with five RBI. He played for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the Cape Cod League following the 2019 season, but had trouble in the competitive wood bat league, hitting .128/.233/.154 in 28 games. Jordan seemed on his way to putting those struggles behind him in 2020, but COVID-19 put a stop to that after 16 games. After going undrafted in the 2020 MLB Draft, Jordan returned to MSU, where he was the table setter for the eventual 2021 NCAA College World Series Champions. Appearing in 68 games, he hit .323/.417/.546 with a career high 10 home runs, leading the SEC with 22 doubles. For his four-year career at Mississippi State, Jordan hit a cumulative .311/.393/.481 in 208 games with 23 home runs, 25 bases in 29 attempts, 90 walks, and 140 strikeouts, ending his Bulldog career as one of the top hitters in program history.

The switch-hitting Jordan is not exactly what scouts and evaluators would call toolsy from an offensive standpoint. At 5’10”, 185-pounds, he does not currently possess much raw power and is unlikely to bulk up to the point where he does. Swinging with a slight leg kick and a very linear bat path, Jordan shows average or slightly better bat speed from both sides of the plate but does not project to have a difference making bat. He is an efficient base stealer and knows how to run the bases, but his speed is average or slightly above average at best. At the plate, what makes Jordan an efficient hitter is his ability to grind out at bats, fight off tough pitches, put himself in favorable counts, and wear down pitches until he is able to get pitches he can drive.

Defensively, Jordan is a solid outfielder thanks to his quick-twitch athleticism and should be able to stick in center field for the foreseeable future. He is rangy and is able to cover a lot of ground. He reads the ball well off the bat and takes efficient routes. His arm is about average for the position and is quick and accurate to the infield.

Despite the lack of individual standout tools, Jordan has always been a productive bat and reliable defender and as a player is greater than the sum of his individual part.