Michael Knorr

Knorr spent three seasons with Cal State Fullerton, where he pitched as a starter and reliever, but struggled to miss bats and never posted an ERA lower than 5.90 in a single season. That changed with Coastal Carolina this spring, as the 6-foot-5, 245-pound righthander made some delivery changes, saw his velocity jump and posted a 3.39 ERA over 69 innings and 13 starts, while striking out 86 batters (30.1 K%) and walking 13 (4.5 BB%). After sitting in the 90-93 mph range a year ago, Knorr has averaged 94 mph this spring and touched 99, with solid carry. There’s more power to his breaking stuff as well, and his low-80s slider will get into the mid and upper 80s at times, with short- and tight-breaking action. The slider was his go-to breaking ball in 2022 and he generated whiffs around 50% of the time, though he also regularly used a mid-80s changeup and a slower, more top-down mid-70s curveball. Knorr used an overhead windup a year ago, but with Coastal Carolina, has switched to a stretch-only delivery and his arm action is noticeably shorter as well. He’s been a good strike thrower throughout his career, and now those strikes have come with better bat-missing stuff.