Jared Horn

A high-profile pitching prospect out of high school in 2016, Horn was ranked No. 32 on the BA 500 out of Vintage (Napa, Calif.) High. At that stage, he compared physically to Gerrit Cole—although his stuff wasn’t at quite that level—with a mid-90s fastball and feel for secondaries. After falling to the 20th round because of questions about his signability, Horn made it to California, where he immediately entered the starting rotation. He struggled with his control as a freshman and sophomore, but this spring Horn has put together a career year. He’s posted a team-best 1.82 ERA through his first 11 starts and 69.1 innings, striking out 56 batters while posting the lowest walk rate of his career. Now standing at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, Horn has a fantastic pitcher’s body, with the physicality and strength to hold innings over a full professional season. Horn’s fastball normally sits in the low 90s, and he pairs that with a big, 12-to-6 curveball that has good depth but needs to be sharpened for the future. He also has an average slider and a changeup that he throws infrequently, but the latter features solid sinking life. After missing the first month of the season because of an appendectomy, he’s shown flashes of the high-end stuff that made him such a highly touted prospect in high school. The baseball community will be rooting for Horn wherever he winds up this June, as the 20-year-old went through a heart-breaking ordeal as a sophomore. A drunk driver hit the car Horn was driving and sent it across the center divide into oncoming traffic. Four of Horn’s family members were killed in the wreck.