RHP Jay Woolfolk
Age: 21
B: Right T: Right
HT: 6/0 WT: 200
Hometown: Chesterfield, VA
2024 Stats: 23 G, 59 IP, 62 H, 39 ER, 37 BB, 64 SO, 5.95 ERA, 1.678 WHIP (CWS Stats Pending)
When you look at the final statistics for Jay Woolfolk, they aren’t the kind of numbers you want to see. But for Woolfolk, this was the first year he transitioned to becoming a starting pitcher after spending time in the bullpen for Virginia. A dual-sport athlete for the Cavaliers, Woolfolk quit football to focus solely on his baseball career. Despite his struggles, he found a ton of success this postseason, throwing up 8 IP, 2 ER, 7 K in the NCAA Regionals against Mississippi State and 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 7 K in the NCAA Super Regionals against Kansas State.
He’s got an athletic build, which comes from his football days as a quarterback with the UVA football team. He has a similar stature to Marcus Stroman but just a bit taller. Repeats his delivery well with a short arm slot. He’d fall off to the right a bit as he pitched deeper into games. Has a unique short windup when pitching with no one on base. Basically pitches mostly out of the stretch. Just an absolute gamer and pitches with a ton of controlled emotion.
Woolfolk saw his fastball working into the upper-90s (up to 97 mph) when he was in the bullpen, and many were hoping to see that velo increase as a starter. Most of the year, he sat at around 89-92 mph, occasionally bumping it up to 93 mph as a starter. He has some good riding life, two-seam action that runs in out righties, and plays well up in the zone at times. His main secondary is a tight, short slider with great bite to it, and he lives in the mid-80s. He can bump it up to the high-80s, and it acts more like a cutter. He also throws a changeup, but the pitch is a work in progress, and he goes to it a lot less.
Woolfolk’s command and control are probably the biggest downside to his game. The ride on his fastball and bite to his slider will generate quite a bit of whiff, but he runs into command issues with both pitches, especially late into games. Even when he’s around the zone, he can sometimes catch too much of the plate, which leads to him getting hit hard. But when he’s on, he’s absolutely nasty. If he can find a way to get his fastball back up to the high-90s to pair with his really good slider, Woolfolk could have the makings of a power arm in the bullpen. There is some starter upside if he can flesh out some of his command and control issues and make some progress on his changeup.