Baseball America has posted an updated mock with various shifts from their previous mock, and now has the New York Mets taking Junior College starting pitcher Jackson Rutledge with the 12th pick in this year’s draft. Previous mocks had the Mets taking Kentucky left-handed pitcher Zack Thompson, and Texas Christian lefty Nick Lodolo.
Jonathan Mayo, of MLB.com, released his own mock yesterday and had the Mets taking Zack Thompson with the 12th pick, and Rutledge going 9th to the Braves, who have a compensation pick for not being able to sign Carter Stewart in last years draft.
Lodolo has moved up the ranks in recent projections up to 7th to the Reds after having an impressive spring, including out-pitching another top draft prospect Alek Manoah last Friday. The two are considered the top two pitching prospects in this years draft, and at the top of the Big 12 in ERA and strikeouts per nine innings.
Injury concerns have probably affected Thompson’s draft stock, especially since the concerns are about his pitching elbow. Pitching 124 pitches in his last start on Sunday probably has not help alleviate concerns for teams drafting in the early-to-mid first round. Thompson did miss over a month with an elbow injury last spring.
As for Rutledge, the big right-hander has done nothing but impress this spring. Drafting Rutledge 12 would make him the Junior College player this century, according to Baseball America.
The 6′ 8″ 260-pound pitcher has pitched to a 0.88 ERA over 88.2 innings in 13 starts this season. He’s struck out 134 (13.67 K/9) batters and walked 30 (3.06 BB/9) alongside his impressive ERA. Rutledge has gone full octane this season. Noted earlier this season as regularly throwing in the mid-90’s, Rutledge is now regularly throwing in the upper 90’s, and deep into games, according to scouts.
Now noted as potentially having four plus-pitch upside, his current repertoire showcases a fastball, curveball, change, and slider. The slider being his most recent pitch, as he used to throw a more slurvy curve that wasn’t getting the results he wanted. Scouts now say the pitch flashes plus.
Rutledge is also noted as a very hard worker, making changes in both his pre and post-game routine, making changes in his diet, and really hammering in modern analytics into his practice. Carlos Collazo, in a piece with Baseball America, details how Rutledge worked at Premier Pitching Performance (P3) with now Mariners bullpen coach Brian DeLunas. Working first in training, and later as an intern after tearing his hip labrum, he learned how to run the Rapsodo machines and track the data produced by them. After getting healthy, already knowing the technology, he used them to optimize his own pitches.
Rutledge has, perhaps, the most low-effort delivery for someone who throws as hard as he does. While working out of a three-quarters arm slot, he also only pulls his arms to the end of his torso in his windup, and still produces enough power to get the speed and break that he wants.
Certainly, it wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to see the Mets go with a big, hard-throwing, potentially fast-moving college arm in the first round, especially one with the stuff that Rutledge has displayed.
