Gabriel Hughes

Hughes began his career at Gonzaga as a hitter and pitcher, but it quickly became clear his future was on the mound. In his first season as a full-time starter in 2021, Hughes posted a 3.23 ERA over 61.1 innings and 10 starts, while striking out 67 batters, but showing erratic control and walking 30. During his draft year in 2022, Hughes has made impressive steps forward with his command, and in a poor college pitching class, he’s worked himself into a position to perhaps be the first college pitcher selected. Hughes has a fantastic pitcher’s frame at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, with plenty of strength and he’ll also still be just 20 years old on draft day. He primarily works off of a fastball/slider combination and after sitting 91-93 a year ago, in 2022 Hughes has averaged 93-94 mph with his fastball and touched 97 at peak. Scouts noted that his fastball command specifically looked better this spring (which helped him cut his walk rate significantly year over year) and the pitch has gotten close to a 40% whiff rate when he locates it up in the zone. His slider flashes wipeout potential at best but hasn’t consistently been a plus pitch this spring. It’s a low-80s offering that will get into the mid 80s, with 2,300 rpm spin and a whiff rate north of 40%. He did a nice job landing the pitch to his glove side this spring and showed some ability to manipulate the pitch to use it as an early-count strike stealer and expand the zone as a swing-and-miss offering. Hughes didn’t use his changeup as frequently as a secondary, but it was successful as a bat-misser and as a pitch to induce ground balls. It sits in the low 80s and features some slight fading action, but he will yank and spike the pitch at times. Hughes’ combination of size, youth, stuff and performance this spring allows him to check plenty of boxes as a potential No. 4 starter and he should benefit from a down college pitching class on draft day as well.