Reggie Crawford

Between his talent, limited track record on the mound and medical history, Crawford is one of the biggest wild cards in the draft. Crawford was one of the first of many pitchers in this class to have Tommy John surgery, having the operation last fall that kept him out of action the entire 2022 season. That left him with just eight innings on his resume with Connecticut, plus brief looks last summer in the Cape Cod League and with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team. When he was healthy, Crawford sat in the mid 90s, touched 99 and flashed a plus slider in the mid 80s. Scouts haven’t had much of an opportunity to see him throw a changeup, with command and durability questions that add considerable reliever risk. Crawford had been a two-way player who also played first base, hitting .309/.362/.546 with 14 home runs for the Huskies in 2020 and 2021. He’s strongly built, with some scouts giving him well above-average raw power, though his high-octane stuff from the left side has teams preferring him on the mound. Given how many college pitchers have been hurt this year, teams looking for college arms are going to have to tolerate some medical risk, which has a lot of scouts projecting Crawford to go by the second round.