By Josh Bookbinder
Welcome to Under The Radar, a new miniseries where we’ll take a look at prospects we love who seemingly aren’t getting that love from everyone else. The loose rules are that we’ll do one player from each team, and that player will usually be ranked outside of both Fangraphs and Pipeline’s top 5 for that team. Prospect rankings used for this article are 2023 rankings unless noted otherwise. Enjoy reading!
Blue Jays: Adam Macko (9th Pipeline / 7th Fangraphs)
Macko’s European upbringing is well-documented, as his Slovakian/Irish/Canadian childhood is certainly unique in all of baseball. However, his tools aren’t nearly as well-documented nor well-appreciated.
The lefty has been injury-plagued since his 2019 pro debut, with Pipeline mentioning an elbow strain and meniscus injury in particular in 2022 alone. He’s thrown only 181 innings in 4 professional seasons, which likely contributes to the low rankings. The results on the field have been mixed, including this past season in which he ended with a 4.81 ERA as a 22-year-old in A+. Critics point to inconsistent control as a concern.
So why the excitement on my end? For one, Macko turned it on towards the end of last season, posting a 3.63 ERA in 22 1/3 innings in August and striking out 35 in the process. He limits home runs and has never wavered in strong strikeout numbers, which are good indicators of future success. The Blue Jays obviously believe in him, as they added him to their 40-man ahead of the Rule 5 draft this season. There’s plenty to be excited about here, but none of them are my biggest reason: the eye test.
I know, I know. New-school scouting people just closed their laptop in disgust. However, watch these highlights:
Four quality pitches with stark velocity contrasts, uncomfortable at-bats for hitters, and a pitcher who looks completely smooth, in control, and aggressive. If Macko can look like that a lot more this season and stay on the field, he’s primed to be a meteoric riser, and perhaps might be given a major league look very soon.
Yankees: Brendan Beck (NR Pipeline / 23rd Fangraphs)
If I hadn’t already written about Will Warren, he’d be my pick here. But I thought I could go more under the radar with the Yankees, so I did, and it led me to Beck; that, I am not at all disappointed about, as I think Beck is someone who needs to be highlighted and noted.
Beck’s story is an odd one. After 289 (!) really quality college innings at Stanford, the Yankees picked him up in the 2nd round in 2021, where he quickly lost the 2022 season to Tommy John surgery before ever appearing in the pros. Now, as we move into 2024, Beck is a 25-year-old with only 34 professional innings who has never appeared above A+.
There’s plenty of reason in that story to doubt, even more so when you add in that Fangraphs gives his fastball a 30/30 grade (ouch). However, the Yankees liked Beck a lot at draft and have a long history of finding quality college arms, and I’m not sure it’s fair to penalize him too harshly before we really get a full healthy pro season out of him. When he returned from TJ in late ’23, he made a joke out of his A+ time, allowing just 6 runs in 31 innings.
Beck uses a very high release to compliment an extremely vertical movement-dominated repertoire, and gets a lot of swing and miss on four pitches, all that seem quality (including that 30/30 fastball — maybe reconsider that one, Fangraphs?) and are located surprisingly well for someone coming off of surgery. FV 70-grade command can, in my opinion, make up for poor velocity, and a lot of the concerns about physical things with Beck can be explained by the surgery recovery process. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the high-floor prospect shoot through the Yankees system and have a lot of people startled in 2024.
Orioles: Enrique Bradfield Jr. (6th Pipeline / 9th Fangraphs)
Bradfield is a product of the modern scouting system, which means we’ve known him for a LONG time. As a 2020 high school grad with a full Perfect Game profile, we can see he was well-covered (you don’t earn a 10 grade from Perfect Game without being solidly on their circuit). The thing that pops out from his profile is the same thing that pops out about his game right now: ridiculous speed. A 6.26 60 yard dash in high school is absurd raw speed, but add in an advanced feel for baserunning curated over his time at Vanderbilt and you get the 80 grade that Bradfield unanimously has earned across the board.
Bradfield was a 2023 first-rounder after a strong Vanderbilt career, and showed off why immediately by putting up a .473 OBP, stealing 25 bases in 25 games, and striking out only 16 times over three levels in his pro debut short stint. That’s the report on Bradfield: he’s gonna put the bat on the ball, he’s gonna get on base, and he’s gonna run. The reason he’s so low is that that’s about the whole profile. As to be expected, he’s a rangey defender, but a poor arm limits his ability to be truly top-tier in the outfield.
The reason I like him is that this kind of profile along with this prestige gives Bradfield a really high floor. Billy Hamilton got chance after chance, and Bradfield probably will too. Plus, the Orioles are a young, athletic bunch. I have no doubt Bradfield will find his way onto a major league field at some point or another.
Rays: Colby White (NR Pipeline / 14th Fangraphs)
The Rays and unsung, weird bullpen arms. Name a more iconic duo.
Colby White is a career reliever with one ridiculous tool: a cutting, riding fastball that works in the 93-98 range and generates swings and misses like nobody’s business. Here’s how a conversation about him as a prospect would go:
“How’s his control?” It’s not great. “How are his secondary pitches?” They’re pretty much non-existent, just a mediocre slider. “What about health?” He’s been hurt… a lot. ”Is he a lefty, or young, or projectable?” Actually, he’s a 6’0″ 25-year-old righty. “So how did he make this list?!”
Well, his 2021 results were ridiculous pitching out of the back end of the bullpen, and his 2023 results when he came back from injury were more of the same. His career minor league ERA is 1.74 through over 100 innings, along with a 0.89 WHIP and a 13.6 K/9. Plus, it’s the Rays with a single-tool prospect; if anyone is going to make White into someone to be reckoned with, it’s them.
Just look at these highlights. Tell me that’s not someone who will be completely unknown to the wider baseball world until we look up in late July and he’s trotting out of the bullpen at the Trop sporting a 1.27 ERA and seven PitchingNinja tweets.
Red Sox: Chih-Jung Liu (NA Pipeline / 32nd Fangraphs)
This Red Sox system is rough. There are a few interesting names near the top; Mayer, Rafaela, Anthony, and Teel are all quality position player prospects. However, the depth is really poor, especially on the pitching side, and Boston isn’t a noted pitching development system. Because of that, I went really underground for this pick, and went into the weeds searching for someone who might be a little more interesting and unique.
Liu is a 24 year old out of Taiwan with an interesting story. He was a position player prospect who decided to quit pitching for two years in college, then came back to it and was flashing a fastball up to 98. He was fine in a 2021 pro debut, worse in a heavy-usage 2022 season, and then suddenly there was a shift.
A 5.35 ERA in 114 innings (24 GS/26 G) in 2023 isn’t that impressive, and he still let up a lot of baserunners (1.55 WHIP) mainly by walking the house (4.88 BB/9). However, a jump from a 9.4 K/9 to an 11.4 K/9 is a big change, especially over an IP load this large. He had a couple of really outstanding starts throughout 2023 as well, including a 7-inning no-hitter in May, of which the highlights are below.
Liu has three main pitches, and all of them seem to have something interesting enough about them. His fastball ranges from 93-98 with inconsistent movement. His split-change is his best pitch, an amalgamation of two bad pitches that turned into something more exciting: an 80-82mph vertical drop ball that generates a ton of swings and misses. He also throws an inconsistent depth slider that shows flashes of being really good.
The reason I like Liu is that I think he’s being used wrong. A strikeout-heavy, poor-control pitcher with three potentially impressive pitches needs to be in the bullpen. Simplification of everything for him can be key.
I’m aware of the value of a starting pitcher over a relief pitcher, but as of now Liu profiles as organizational depth if he stays a starter, and I believe he has major league upside as a short inning or swingman-type reliever if his stuff plays up and the strikeout rate stays similar. Keep tabs on him as a prospect despite his advanced age. The Reed Sox might need all the arms they can get over the next year or two.
Bonus Prospect: Orioles’ Mac Horvath (12th Pipeline, 20th Fangraphs)
Horvath is a UNC product who has shown flashes of really impressive tools despite an underdeveloped hit tool. His speed, powerful but erratic arm, and range at a lot of different positions provides him with an impressive amount of versatility, and his power isn’t to be questioned; he hit 42 home runs his last two seasons in college.
The main reason I’m high on Horvath is his ability to stick anywhere defensively. His arm is wild but that can be coached, and the speed and range will play no matter where the Orioles put him. He’s a second round pick who will likely be given a lot of chances, so I feel like his floor is at least a defensive utility player.
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.
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