By Josh Bookbinder
Calling Hurston Waldrep and “under the radar prospect” might not be fair; he’s a first round pick from an SEC program, he was the 19th ranked prospect by MLB.com going into the 2023 draft, and he showed out on a big stage for Florida in the 2023 men’s College World Series.
However, in an age of Skenes-mania, Waldrep hasn’t been talked about as much as he might normally. He was the 5th pitcher taken in the draft, and Fangraphs’ write-up and future grade of 50 are positive, but hesitant. I don’t think that’s enough hype for a guy that truly could be one of the most interesting pitchers in baseball, and soon.
It’s easy to find a place to start with Waldrep. His high-80’s splitter might be one of the nastiest pitches in baseball soon enough, and all it takes is watching him once to see why. I mentioned his CWS performance for Florida last year; here’s a summary of it, in video format:
If you’re a pitching nerd and that video didn’t fire you up, I don’t know what to tell you.
Most of the strikeouts in that video early come on the splitter. Check out the grip on this thing:
And, in case you weren’t fascinated enough, watch these awesome slow-mo clips from Kiley McDaniel in the second video below:
Goodness.
If you want numbers, here are some cool ones:
As I’ve mentioned in other articles, anything unique is good in pitching. The really high release point, straight up and down movement, and high velocity makes Waldrep’s signature pitch one of the more unique in baseball. Hitters have already been baffled by the different look, which is certainly promising for future success.
That on its own is cool enough, but as we watch the Oral Roberts start, we can see that there is more than just the splitter. The fastball shows 95-98 with cut-ride action, which is a good profile to have. Fangraphs mentions a lack of in-zone whiffs with fastballs pre-draft, but I’m not sure that’s as big a concern as some might make it out to be. Some names that adorn the MLB list of 5 lowest Whiff% fastballs include Shane Bieber and Clayton Kershaw, who are pretty good pitchers. While the majority of low whiff rate fastballs are negative run value pitches, those with electric off-speed stuff are still able to be extremely effective. Fangraphs also doesn’t mention quality of contact, which while we don’t have exact numbers for Waldrep because he’s yet to pitch in the big leagues, seems to be low, considering he only let up 85 hits in over 100 innings.
Concerned about whether the stuff just looked especially nasty because he was facing college hitters? I’ll forgive the disrespect to an awesome Oral Roberts team, and point you to this video from two months later, where Waldrep makes the Greensboro Grasshoppers look like a little league team:
The thing that’s most enticing about that video is that it looks like Waldrep made an adjustment to his pitch mix, or at least his strikeout mix. We don’t have on-screen velocity numbers here so we can’t be sure, but it looks like Waldrep gets a few K’s with all of his pitches here: fastball, splitter, slider, and even a little more vertical curveball. This is a change from his college footage, where he mainly uses the split and heater to rack up K numbers.
Something intangible I really like about Waldrep is the way he moves around the mound. He has a confidence and swagger that is obvious; just watch the hops and struts after his strikeouts in the two videos above. He has an ace-type mojo, which is another reason I think he can be really good at the big league level. So much of pitching is mental, and Waldrep seems to have that next level mentally.
One of the concerns with Waldrep was a lack of consistent command, and the walks that come with that. Despite being third in strikeouts in D1 baseball last year with 156, Waldrep didn’t come close to cracking the top 150 in K/BB ratio thanks to 57 walks. That didn’t change much in his first season in the minors, as he walked 16 in 29.1 innings; however, he prevented runs and struck out hitters at nearly the same rate as his college numbers. The Braves are known for solid pitching development, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Waldrep make a jump going into 2024.
Waldrep flew through the minors in 2023, making stops in A, A+, AA, and AAA. He’s likely to begin the year in AAA Gwinnett this coming spring, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on the Braves by next summer sometime. After all, Alex Anthopoulos did say so in the tweet referenced above. I can’t wait to see what will happen when he faces big-league hitters; hopefully, it’s as good as I think it might be.
Josh Bookbinder is a writer for and co-founder of LowThreeQuarter. See more of his work and others’ work on the site through the links at the top of the page, or explore another recent article linked below.
Follow Hurston Waldrep’s career through the normal baseball channels, and follow him personally on his Twitter linked below.
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