LHP Everett Catlett
Age: 21
B: Left T: Left
HT: 6/7 WT: 230
Hometown: Manassas, VA
2024 Stats: 16 G, 77.2 IP, 69 H, 29 ER, 35 BB, 84 SO, 3.36 ERA, 1.339 WHIP
Georgetown left-hander put on a show in the Big East this year making him one of the more intriguing mid-major arms in the 2024 MLB Draft. He posted a 1.80 ERA in conference play and was 7th all-time in strikeouts per 9, 7th most in strikeouts in a season, and 7th most in wins in a season. It was a massive breakout year for Catlett, who hadn’t really pitched since 2021 due to injuries, which had him missing the entire season in 2022, and then he pitched out of the bullpen in 2023. He’s a low mileage arm who turns 22 in July and could be a cheaper senior sign even though he entered the transfer portal.
Cartlett is a towering presence on the mound thanks to his tall, large frame. The 6’7, 230lb lefty has a major league pitcher’s body with long, tapering legs. The frame makes you wonder if he might be able to gain some more strength in the future. He has a deceptive three-quarters release that really throws hitters off. He’s got a solid four-pitch mix that includes a fastball, changeup, slider, and curveball. He does a decent job mixing up his pitching, but can lack some confidence in certain pitches at times.
His best two pitches would have to be his fastball and slider. When it is on, Catlett’s fastball plays well up in the zone, given his unique delivery, which has the ball coming at hitters from a different angle, making it look like it is rising. According to D1 Baseball, his arm-side run gave it -20 inches of horizontal break with modest riding life (15-16 inches of induced vertical break). In the outing i saw him, he was sitting around 90-93 mph, topping out at 94 mph. This season, others have had him at 93-94 mph, topping out around 95-96. Catlett’s outpitch was his slider, which sat around 83-86 mph with tight spin. He wasn’t afraid to throw it to rights and lefties and was getting some swing-and-miss. It grades as an average pitch but flashes above average occasionally.
Catlett also has a curveball and a changeup. The change-up is still a work in progress, but he has some feel for it. It is pretty firm (86-89 mph) so it lacks some deception off his fastball. It lacks a bit of depth, and that, combined with the firmness, made it easy for hitters to sit on the pitch and hit him pretty hard. The curveball looked pretty good (79-82 mph) and graded about average. He could spin it pretty well, giving hitters a different look from his fastball and slider. He needs to improve his command of the pitch quite a bit.
Catlett struggles with command, especially late into games. He was able to work around those issues in the first three innings when I saw him, but he didn’t have the same luck in the fourth inning and was eventually pulled. Once he loses confidence in his slider and curveball, he has a tendency to go very fastball and changeup heavy. If he can make some progress with the command of his secondaries, there is a repertoire that teams might love to try and build on. Given his age and low mileage on his arm to date, he could find himself as a solid, cheap senior sign on day two or three. Entering the transfer portal might give him some additional leverage.