Jake
Eddington

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-hander touched 96 with his fastball, while pitching more in the 92-94 mph range. It was an incomplete look of just one-plus inning as he departed the game due to back spasms in the top of the second after he walked the first two hitters he faced. His fastball is a higher spin offering (2500+ rpm) and carries well to the plate with plenty of life. His control on this look was below average. It’s likely much due to a well across body landing that produces an off-line and tough to repeat delivery. Eddington is super athletic and is able to manage it at times, but there’s just too much extra going on for a pitcher to overcome and consistently find the zone with this type of delivery. Older, more physically mature professional pitchers will intentionally land in this manner to create more life/angle on their pitches and deception, but 21 year old (Eddington will be 22 on draft day) prospects are generally much better off with on-line direction to the plate. He flashed one average slider at 83 mph, and others ranged from 80-82. He struck out one hitter on a firm 88 mph changeup with good late bottom and some arm side action. He has thrown limited innings since 2020 as his senior year of high school was canceled due to covid and he pitched just 21 innings as a true freshman at Alabama in 2021. He then sat out all of the 2022 season while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Overall, his latest start against SIU-Edwardsville was not the look of a potential top three round pitcher, but there’s little doubt Eddington is athletic with a very quick arm and has the feel to spin the baseball. There just aren’t many like him in the collegiate ranks. Despite his early season struggles (13 BB, 10 SO in 12.1 innings), Eddington remains a Day Two prospect, albeit at this point more fifth round territory than the third.

A transfer from Alabama, Eddington is another on this list who is coming off a successful Tommy John surgery. Showing elite arm speed this fall, the athletic 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-hander has shown a fastball up to 97 while pitching more in the 93-94 mph range. His slider is consistently at least average with all the ingredients to become a plus offering in the future. It’s a true, small, sharp breaking slider in the upper-80s. At this point he has shown more control than command in the strike zone, but with TJ now well behind him this should improve as he continues to move forward.