Jake Gelof Virgina University baseball formerly of Cape Henlope High, photo courtesy of virginasports.com
Jake Gelof ends his collegiate career as Virginia’s all-time home run king, slugging 48 homers in his three seasons with the Cavaliers. He passed E.J. Anderson’s (1995-1998) mark of 37 home runs back in April, on his way to batting .321 on the season with 23 bombs while driving in 90 runs. During his career, Gelof played in 161 games and aside from the home runs, he hit 46 doubles, 7 triples, while batting .329 with a .429 on-base percentage.
That level of production has Gelof listed as MLB.com’s number 35 overall prospect for the 2023 MLB Draft. They have the 6’1” 195lb third baseman described as the following:
“A right-handed-hitting corner infielder, Gelof does not get cheated at the plate. He has an aggressive approach, looking to do damage and tap into his huge raw power, especially to the pull side. Gelof takes big swings, but he showed an ability to get to his power in 2022, limit strikeouts, draw walks and make adjustments, even if some think he’ll be power-over-hit when all is said and done.”
Scouting grades are a metric used to describe a player’s physical tools. In baseball the scale used to measure a player is from 20 (being very poor) to 80 (being Hall of Fame worthy, can’t miss elite). Very rarely do you see players rated on the ends of the spectrum. As an example, baseball’s number 1 prospect currently, Jackson Holliday of the Orioles, is listed as a 65-overall grade.
MLB Pipeline has Gelof’s scouting grades as follows:
Hit: 50
Power: 60
Run: 40
Arm: 55
Field: 50
OVR: 50
Jake will be the second Gelof to enter Major League Baseball in the past three-seasons, as his brother, Zack is currently the Oakland A’s number 3 prospect (MLB Pipeline) and in AAA Las Vegas. For more information on Zack & two other Delaware players on the Las Vegas roster, read Delaware Live’s story here.
Jake and Zack both starred at Cape Henlopen from 2016-2018 with other stars David Erickson, Austin Elliot among others. The Vikings would win the 2018 DIAA State Championship on Caravel by a score of 5-3. Jake drove in two runs in that win.
Both Jake and Zack would then star at Virginia and cement their legacy as top tier MLB prospects.
Jake is mocked to go number 33 overall to the Milwaukee Brewers as a supplementary 1st round pick, according to MLB Pipeline, while Sporting News has Gelof going to the New York Mets at 32 overall.
We will find out for sure when the MLB Entry Draft kicks off Sunday, July 9th. All indications point to Jake Gelof not having to wait very long to find out where he is going. Selfishly, number 17 to the Baltimore Orioles or 27th to the Philadelphia Phillies is where I’d like to see the local standout land so I can go watch him play!
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