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2023 MLB mock draft: Kiley McDaniel predicts the first 40 picks

Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire

The 2023 MLB draft is just a few weeks away, and it's time for my second mock draft projecting the first 40 picks of this year's event.

This is usually the time when my mock drafts are most accurate -- teams have been in meetings for a couple of weeks, settling where they stand on players and communicating it to agents. The draft ecosystem is finding equilibrium. From here until the draft, plenty of what I hear is recycled rumors or intentional nonsense as teams coordinate messaging to suit their ends.

So even though you'll get another version of this mock just before the draft (Watch: Sunday, July 9, at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN), this version could well be as accurate as my mocks get (and I'd wager that's true for the other ones you might read as well). Ahead of the final game of an electric Men's College World Series -- one that has featured all of the players I expect to go in the top three picks -- let's jump into it.