One of the most interesting prospects in the 2020 MLB Draft is a pitcher that barely pitched last year. This player signed with Florida State out of high school, but elected to go the JUCO route, attending San Jacinto in spite of being academically qualified for D1.
Last year as a freshman he played mostly third base and hit .291/.446/.378 while throwing just seven innings- due to the fact he was needed to play third and the fact San Jacinto is a powerhouse JUCO program with a deep staff of arms. Of course that’s part of the reason the Headland, Alabama native picked going to JUCO over a free ride from the Seminoles.
As mentioned, San Jacinto pitching last year was stacked. Six pitchers, including Nationals top draft pick Jackson Rutledge, were picked in the 2019 MLB Draft. That follows four, three, three, one, and four pitchers being drafted from the Gators program in each of the previous five seasons. That’s just arms drafted, and just arms taken out of San Jacinto rather than guys who played there and went the D1 route only to be drafted there. It’s no wonder this prospect chose JUCO over the ACC, as San Jacinto has been churning out a quantity of drafted arms like a premier SEC program for more than half a decade.
This prospect, Chase Wilkerson, likely won’t get to pitch as much as most other pitching prospects for the 2020 draft this spring either - the Gators still need him in the field and are still stacked with arms. However it is expected that he pitches more as a sophomore, likely out of the bullpen in a key relief role.
Wilkerson has a fastball that sits 90-92, and has hit 93 MPH. But what really draws attention is the breaking balls. It’s his nasty slider, a pitch that has recently reached 3098 RPM, that drew me in initially- a pitch that can be seen below.
As if that slider wasn’t enough, here’s a look at his plus curve too.
Wilkerson is a guy with a lot of room to grow as a pitcher, combining his athletic 6’0”, 181 frame and the fact he’s still fairly inexperienced in terms of in game pitching. Those two factors, along with his arsenal and the SanJac pedigree, make teams line up for looks.
In terms of results, last year couldn’t have gone much better despite the limited action. Wilkerson allowed just one hit and three walks over his seven innings of work with 13 punchouts.
Most others aren’t on him yet because they haven’t seen him pitch, nor have they had many reports on a pitcher that saw very limited work but I expect that to change by the conclusion of fall ball. I’ve been watching from afar for a few months myself because when the coaches responsible for SanJac’s pitching talent rave about a pitcher, you need to listen.
With a fastball that plays and two plus breakers, this kid has the makings of a starter’s arsenal if he can progress with the change, a pitch he hasn’t really needed to use much in short relief stints considering the quality of his other offerings. Even if he can’t establish the change as a fourth legit pitch, this kid has everything you could ask for in a modern day late inning reliever.
And he’s still only a college sophomore, headed to Auburn if he doesn’t end up signing in the 2020 draft.