Aiden
Kitchings

6-foot-4, 220 pounds. This physical specimen has long been one of our favorite arms in the class ever since we first saw him at LakePoint last summer. He’s battled some serious adversity over the last few months, fracturing his wrist power cleaning. But as the son of an ACC college football coach, toughness is built into the bloodline. Not only did Aiden look highly impressive, it was one of the better outings we’ve seen him throw. While he’s still getting back to timing up the delivery consistently due to being shut down for a period to rehab, it’s an absolute work of art when the mechanics are in sequence. While we have a team full of effortless deliveries, I think Kitchings takes the cake in that department. The body control is very good for his age, he repeats the arm stroke well, the delivery builds easy momentum, and his direction just keeps getting better. People need to remember that this is still nowhere near his ceiling as he continues to grow into his XL frame. The FB is going to be special but the CH won’t be far behind. This is a real chance for a plus FB and A/AVG CH in the future. What impressed me most on the CH is firstly his ability to kill spin, as it’s one of the lowest spin true CH’s in the country for the ‘25 class. The heavy, late fading pitch has nearly identical life to his FB and he can throw it with the same life to the glove side, an even more rare trait. I feel he will be able to front hip LHH with the FB/CH combo, and he shows in the video below his confidence and willingness to throw it off his FB to RHH. There's still so much to be desired with his lead leg block, and he’s only going to get stronger and more explosive with it. You can only imagine the ceiling if he’s able to develop a serviceable breaking ball, but at worst I think he is a dominant setup/closer type at the D1 level with endless velo potential who will have MLB teams all over him soon enough.