MLB Draft 2020: Indians select RHP Tanner Burns with No. 36 pick

The Cleveland Indians have selected RHP Tanner Burns out of Auburn with the No. 36 pick overall in the competitive balance round of the 2020 MLB Draft. At 21 years old, Burns stands just 6 feet tall but he fills out his frame at 205 pounds.

Immediately following his selection, the commentators on MLB.com called Burns a bulldog, and a max competitor. He was a workhorse, pitching over 180 innings in his college career.

Here’s what MLB Pipeline had to say about him:

“Burns cracked Auburn’s weekend rotation as a freshman and struck out 15 in a game as a sophomore to tie the program record shared by Tim Hudson, Casey Mize and three others.

When he’s 100 percent, Burns can work at 92-97 mph with his fastball and locate it to both sides of the plate. His breaking ball can be a plus pitch at times, combining slider velocity in the low 80s with curveball depth, but it gets slurvy at others. He hasn’t had much need for his changeup, though it has some sink and shows some signs of becoming an average third pitch.”

Here are the grades for his pitches:

Fastball 60

Slider 55

Changeup 50

Control 50

Overall 50

MLB Pipeline had Burns listed as the 28th ranked prospect in the 2020 MLB Draft.