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As a perennial top-25 team and contender for the College World Series, Arkansas consistently produces - and brings in - talented players.
That makes the MLB Draft a huge event for the Razorbacks every year, as head coach Dave Van Horn learns not only where his current players are heading, but also which of his signees he has to worry about skipping college.
It may be slightly different because the coronavirus pandemic has shortened it to just five rounds, but if the various prospect lists are any indication, this year's draft will still be important for Arkansas.
In addition to the three Razorbacks - Heston Kjerstad, Casey Martin and Casey Opitz - expected to be among the 160 selections, several members of their touted 2020 signing class could get drafted.
As seen below, six signees are pretty much considered consensus top-200 draft prospects, with all of them ranked in the top 100 by at least one outlet. Whether they actually get picked or not will likely depend on their signability - meaning how confident teams are that they'll be able to get a deal done.
None of them are projected first-round picks, but getting selected in the top 66 picks - the first and second rounds, plus competitive balance rounds A and B - would still come with a slot value of more than $1 million.
In fact, the only player connected to the Razorbacks currently projected to get drafted in the first round is Kjerstad. A lock to go in the first 15 picks, he is a likely top-10 pick.
HawgBeat examined nine mock drafts by various experts and six of them - most notably MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo and ESPN's Kiley McDaniel - have Kjerstad pegged as the No. 7 overall pick to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The other three have him going 9th to the Colorado Rockies (Ray Butler of Prospects365), 11th to the Chicago White Sox (Mike Axisa of CBS Sports) and 12th to the Cincinnati Reds (Keith Law of The Athletic).
Those picks have a slot value range of $4.37 million to $5.43 million.
Even though he's considered a top-30 prospect by Baseball America and MLB Pipeline, Martin appeared in only one of those nine first-round mock drafts. Baseball Prospect Journal's Dan Zielinski III has him going 24th to the Tampa Bay Rays.
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