Top 2016 draftees who can contribute in bigs soon

It used to be that Major League teams wouldn’t feel any impact from a Draft class for a few years. That’s changed lately, particularly in the past couple of years.

In 2015, ’14 first-round picks Kyle Schwarber and Michael Conforto not only made it up to the Cubs and Mets, they both played a large role in their teams’ push to the playoffs. Carlos Rodon and Aaron Nola were two pitchers who made large contributions to their team’s, albeit not in playoff contention, in their first full season as well.

The 2015 Draft class didn’t want to be outdone. No. 1 pick Dansby Swanson (No. 5 on the Top 100 Prospects list) recently got called up by the Braves to take over at shortstop, while No. 2 pick Alex Bregman beat him to the bigs in Houston by a few weeks. No. 7 pick Andrew Benintendi was helping the Red Sox compete in the American League East until he landed on the disabled list with a knee sprain. No. 8 pick Carson Fulmer has seen time in the White Sox bullpen and should be back when rosters expand on Sept. 1.

With this new trend, it made sense to take a look at the most recent Draft class and who looked like they could follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned quick-to-the-big-leagues prospects. Here’s a list of three pitchers and three hitters who could make Major League contributions sooner rather than later.

The pitchers

Zack Burdi, RHP, White Sox College relievers are often the top choice to get to the big leagues first from a Draft class, though that hasn’t been the case in the past couple of years. It should be for the Class of 2016 as Burdi, the No. 26 overall pick in the Draft, is already in Triple-A. No. 4 on the White Sox Top 30, he hasn’t allowed an earned run …

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