5 Pitching Prospects Who Stood Out Over MiLB Opening Weekend

Chase Burns, RHP, Reds

This was the most anticipated start of the weekend, as it featured the No. 2 pick in last July’s draft. Burns spent two seasons at Tennessee before transferring to Wake Forest prior to his draft spring. Assigned to High-A Dayton to open 2025, he faced a talented West Michigan lineup featuring the likes of Max Clark, Kevin McGonigle and Josue Briceño. Burns retired the first seven batters in order and struck out six over four innings of work. He struck out the side in order in the second inning and logged three clean innings. 

More impressive was Burns’ raw stuff and his ability to command it throughout the start. He showed strong fastball command, dotting the pitch to both sides of the plate while executing at both the top and bottom of the zone. From a pure stuff perspective, Burns’ fastball is elite. He sat 98 mph on Friday, touching 100 while getting an average of 17-18 inches of vertical break and pure cut. His fastball comps well to Tyler Glasnow, Robert Suarez and some of the best heaters in baseball today.

Burns’ primary secondary was his high-80s-to-low-90s slider, which sat 88 mph and touched 91 during the start. What’s truly outlier is the amount of horizontal break Burns gets from a slider in that velocity band. Throughout the start, Burns averaged over seven inches of horizontal movement, equating to what one scout described as “a left turn at 90 mph”. He also threw six curveballs in the low-to-mid 80s with “death ball” type of shape and two low-90s changeups. 

Burns was electric throughout this start, toying with the talented West Michigan lineup and showing he’s too advanced for High-A. 

Charlee Soto, RHP, Twins

Things started off rocky for Soto in his professional debut last year, as he struggled over three months of the season, pitching to a 6.58 ERA. Something clicked, however, heading into July, and Soto ripped off a run of seven solid starts with a 3.67 ERA. It was a slight improvement in command that strapped rocket boosters onto Soto heading into 2025. And in his first start of the young season, he did not disappoint. 

In his High-A debut, Soto tossed four scoreless innings, allowing two hits, three walks and striking out five. Soto ran into some trouble in the first inning, as he allowed three of the first four batters to reach base. He got out of it by inducing a ground ball on a swinging bunt for an unusual 2-3 double play. In the second inning, Soto once again wasn’t sharp with his command, yielding a pair of two-out walks. He was able to get out of the inning unscathed, however, striking out Yophery Rodriguez on three swinging strikes. After the pair of walks, Soto kicked into gear retiring the next seven batters in order to close out his start. 

Soto generated 11 swinging strikes over 62 pitches for a rate of 17.7% on the day. He mixed four-seamers, two-seamers, sliders and changeups, with the majority of his usage (78%) split between four-seamers and sliders. Soto sat 98-99 mph and was up into the triple digits with average shape and a good plane of approach. His slider is an upper-80s pure gyro ball that was up to 89 with tight spin.

The fastball was the more dominant offering of the two, accounting for the majority of his swings and misses. He threw his sinker seven times, and it sat in the high 90s with true sink. Soto also mixed in a changeup that flashed above-average, showing good vertical separation off his fastball. It was an effective pitch generating two whiffs. 

Soto has a very intriguing arsenal but will need to prove he can command his mix effectively. Things are certainly trending in the right direction for him to open 2025. 

Manuel Rodriguez, RHP, Brewers

Going toe-to-toe with Soto was Rodriguez, a young righthander signed by the Brewers in 2022 out of Mexico for $40,000. He’s been a steady performer over the last three seasons, reaching Low-A at 18 years old and beginning 2025 with High-A Wisconsin. Rodriguez ranks 28th in the Brewers’ system and exhibits some of the best strike-throwing ability in the organization. He got the start on Friday against Cedar Rapids and made headlines by striking out 11 over 4.1 innings of work. 

Eight of the first ten batters Rodriguez faced went down via the strikeout. He struck out the side in both the first and the third innings and worked into the fifth. His lone run allowed was unearned, as a fielding error by Hedbert Perez allowed Kyle DeBarge to cross the plate. Rodriguez generated 21 swinging strikes, showing excellent command of his primarily four-pitch mix.

Despite well below-average stuff, Rodriguez has found success with a combination of command and deception. He showed four pitches in a four-seam fastball, cutter, sweeper and changeup, the latter of which he threw only one time. Rodriguez’s fastball has true cut-ride shape but shows only pedestrian ride while sitting 88-89 and touching 90 mph at peak. His cutter sits in the 81-83 mph range with ride and heavy horizontal break and the sweeper sits in the high 70s with over a foot of sweep. The latter was his best bat-missing pitch during this start, but he used the cutter with more regularity. 

Rodriguez has starter traits, but the extreme lack of fastball velocity makes it a question as to whether or not he can succeed at the highest levels. 

Caden Scarborough, RHP, Rangers

Scarborough is one name I regret excluding from my 20 breakout pitching prospects article from last week. Throughout the offseason, we had received drips and drabs of information on 20-year-old righthander as a name to keep an eye on heading into 2025. Drafted in the 2023 sixth round out of the Florida high school ranks, Scarborough signed out of his DBU commitment for $515,000. He saw limited time in his professional debut in 2024, making just six total appearances spanning 10.1 innings.

Scarborough got the start Opening Day at Kannapolis, tossing three innings and allowing one run on one hit and three walks while striking out four. His command was shaky, but his stuff looked electric. He also showcased buttery-smooth mechanics with an outlier 5-foot-3 release height on his fastball. Scarborough sat down the first seven batters he faced in order, including a first inning in which he struck out Nick McLain, Caleb Bonemer and Braden Montgomery in order. He ran into some trouble in the third after losing his feel for the zone for a stretch but was able to limit the damage.

Scarborough sat 94-96 mph, touching 97 on his two-seam fastball. The pitch has a unique combination of armside run, velocity and flat vertical approach angle, making it a tough pitch for hitters to barrel. He used the fastball to an extreme on Friday, throwing it over 80% of the time. His primary secondary was a low-80s sweeper. It featured over 18 inches of sweep on average and missed bats in its limited usage. Scarborough threw one changeup during the start in the mid 80s. 

Scarborough is still extremely raw, leaving the potential for a wide variety of outcomes. Despite the risk associated with this archetype, Scarborough has remaining projection and low-hanging optimization (pitch usage) that could see him flourish in the coming years. 

Braylon Doughty, RHP, Guardians

One of the most touted prep pitchers in the 2024 draft class, Doughty made his highly-anticipated professional debut Friday at Fayetteville. Signed for just a shade under $2.6 million out of a commitment to Oklahoma State, he was a part of a trio of prep pitchers the Guardians targeted with some of their savings from the No. 1 overall selection of Travis Bazzana.

Doughty had an up-and-down debut, allowing five hits and two earned runs while walking none and striking out five. He threw nearly 75% strikes and was up to 94 mph on his fastball. Things started off very shaky, as he allowed the first three batters to reach before a wild pitch plated a run. Afterwards, Doughty seemed to lock in, striking out the next three batters to limit the damage. He ran into trouble again in the second inning, allowing a single followed by an RBI triple. He once again settled in and retired six of the next seven batters he faced, three via strikeout. 

Doughty used just two pitches throughout the start, mixing his four-seam fastball and hard two-plane breaking curveball nearly one-to-one. Doughty’s fastball sat 91-92 mph and touched 94 at peak with above-average ride and moderate cut out of above-average extension and a higher release point. The pitch did generate a fair amount of whiffs, and he showed pinpoint control at points. Dating back to his prep days, Doughty’s ability to spin a breaking ball has been his bread and butter. This still looks to be the case, as his curveball sat 81-83 mph with over 10 inches of drop, 10 inches of sweep and average raw spin rates in the 2800-2900 rpm range. The pitch had a 36% chase rate and 33% whiff rate, both very good numbers when you consider the 48% usage rate of the pitch on the day.

Doughty is still very early in his professional development, but he shows key indicators that portend success. He commands his arsenal, has solid fastball shape and shows innate feel for spin. It’s too early to tell where this will end up, but he has multiple starter traits.