ARLINGTON, Texas — You’ll be forgiven if you missed the 2024 Futures Game — it was just seven innings, as it has been for several years now, and was over in a scant two hours, even with a bunch of mid-inning pitching changes (who doesn’t love those?) to make sure every player got his participation trophy.
At least we didn’t get any one-pitch appearances this year. A.J. Blubaugh of the Astros threw the fewest pitches of anyone in the game, with three, a pair of 94 mph fastballs and a slider at 87.
The 2024 game was not the best showing for the event, although a big reason is so many players who might have participated are now in the majors, from players who were on the original rosters but just promoted (James Wood and Brooks Lee) to those who’ve been in the majors for a while (Wyatt Langford and, uh, the National League’s starting pitcher Tuesday).
Here are the highlights, such as they were, of the 2024 Futures Game — which did feature a huge percentage of the best prospects still in the minors and available to play:
Reds third baseman Cam Collier was the game’s MVP, because he hit a home run, one of just two on the day. The homer was a bomb, leaving the bat at 105.1 mph (the fourth hardest-hit ball of the game), off a 94 mph fastball from Angels right-hander Caden Dana.
Collier struck out against White Sox left-hander Noah Schultz in his other trip to the plate, a good at-bat that turned on a high strike Collier challenged — but that just nicked the top of the zone. As I’ve noted before, though, Collier has gotten much heavier since he was drafted, and he needs to shed some weight to have a chance to stick at third base.
The other homer was the hardest-hit ball of the Futures Game, a 107.3 mph line drive to the opposite field from Atlanta catcher Drake Baldwin, who took a 92.6 mph fastball from Blue Jays righty Fernando Perez out to left-center. Baldwin also had the fifth hardest-hit ball of the day, a lineout to center at 104.5 mph.
Baldwin was my No. 6 prospect in Atlanta’s system coming into the year after he lowered his hands at the plate and started hitting the ball with more authority. Those changes seem to have stuck, and after a slow start he’s been on a tear for about two months between Double A and Triple A.
Red Sox catcher Kyle Teel was the only player to get two hits in the game. One was a double he smoked to the left-center warning track off a right-hander’s changeup (a ball centerfielder Druw Jones probably should have caught). The other was a ball he was lucky to get the bat on at all, as he was way behind a 98 mph fastball from Pittsburgh right-hander Bubba Chandler but hit it down the line well clear of the third baseman.
Tigers outfielder Max Clark led off for the American League squad and had one hit in a few good at-bats, a hard-hit single off a curveball from left-hander Quinn Mathews. Clark generally played well outside of one iffy read on a ball he did catch in center, taking solid at-bats and showing good feel for the barrel, with his one strikeout coming looking on a curveball from a lefty.
Phillies outfielder Justin Crawford singled off a 95 mph fastball, hitting a liner to left at 102 mph, and later got the bat out to 94 mph away to line one to third. He’s starting to fill out now and is hitting the ball harder.
Everybody throws hard, so here’s who looked good among the pitchers beyond just their fastballs.
Miami right-hander Noble Meyer was 90-95 with a plus changeup and above-average slider, walking one guy and striking out two in his inning. He’s got a great body and a good delivery that should allow him to end up with above-average or better control, although he didn’t have that Saturday.
Schultz was probably the most impressive pitcher of the day, coming at hitters from a low three-quarters slot. You could say he looks like Chris Sale, and I think Eury Pérez from the other side. Either way it’s got to be very uncomfortable for left-handed hitters — with 95-97 with life and a very good changeup. He threw two different breaking balls that looked like sliders, a mediocre one at 79-81 and a plus one at 87-88.
Chandler finished the game for the NL and was 96-98 with high spin and a lot of life up in the zone along with a plus changeup at 89-90 with good tumble. He threw a pair of sliders that were more around average but clearly wasn’t going to mess around when he had the fastball/changeup working.
Mets right-hander Brandon Sproat had the top pitch velocity of the day at 99.2, just edging out A’s right-hander Luis Morales (who hit 99.1 but was all over the place). Sproat went four-seamer, two-seamer, slider, with the slider at least a 55 with a ton of depth, generating the two swings-and-misses he got in his 12-pitch inning.
Rangers right-hander Emiliano Teodo started the game and went two innings, sitting 96-98 with a plus slider, although it’s a high-effort delivery and I can’t imagine he’s a starter pitching like this. He looks like a great sinker/slider guy out of the pen.
Reds right-hander Rhett Lowder was 93-94 with a plus changeup and above-average slider, getting some good tailing life on the two-seamer. Lowder has struggled with giving up hard contact since reaching Double A. Hitters there have hit his fastball hard and his changeup — easily his best pitch in college, and I would still say his best pitch now — even harder.
Rays first-baseman Xavier Isaac struck out twice, once on 95 mph up from a right-hander, once on a slider down and in from a right-hander, both times when he had the platoon advantage. He also flew out to right on a slider from a lefty and grounded back up the middle, losing a hit to the glove of Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt. Isaac just looked slow compared to the big stuff coming at him, although he did make one really nice play at first base.
Marlins left-hander Tommy White was 95-96 with a slurvy breaking ball but seemed to lose his release point during his outing, walking three while getting just two outs. To be fair to him, he’s just 19 and in his first full year in pro ball — same as Meyer, but White’s nowhere near that advanced, and his inclusion in the game was a stretch.
Royals outfielder Gavin Cross had a lost year in 2023 after getting a tick-borne infection that cost him a ton of strength. He looks better than he did last year but still isn’t the same guy the Royals drafted in 2022, lacking the same bat speed and seeming to struggle to pick up offspeed stuff.
Mathews did sit 94-95 with a good changeup, but he has a high-effort delivery, and I’m astonished that he’s had such good walk rates in A-ball this year. He has walked 11 percent of batters in his two starts in Double A, but that’s a tiny sample. It’s good stuff, way better than he had at Stanford, and I bet the delivery adds a ton of deception, but whoa, that is not what I expected from a guy who was supposed to be all about pitchability.
I was hoping to see Chase Dollander throw the slider, but the Rockies right-hander, who started for the NL, went one inning and was all fastball, changeup, curveball. The changeup is solid-average to a 55 (on a 20-80 scouting scale), but the curveball is meh. I’ve seen him throw two innings now, once in spring training and once Saturday, and have seen … one slider, which is supposed to be his best pitch.
Padres left-hander Robby Snelling threw four pitches, a sinker at 89 and three four-seamers at 92-93, with more effort to the delivery than I saw from him in March. Perhaps he was amped up for the short outing, but in that case I would have expected more velocity.
Arizona Diamondbacks infielder Deyvison De Los Santos has 27 homers so far this year, playing most of his games in plus-offense environments (Amarillo and Reno are extremely homer-friendly parks). Saturday, he looked very uncomfortable against breaking stuff from right-handers, striking out once on a slider and then grounding out to first on a fastball. He is a very big, very strong kid, but I think the offensive output is more a function of where he’s played than of hitting skill that will translate to the majors.
And least impressive of all was Globe Life Field, where the scoreboard repeatedly had the wrong players’ names, and the pitch velocity was never available to fans at any point during the game. I can’t remember the last time I was at a major-league ballpark for any event and didn’t at least see some velocities. And getting the players’ names right seems especially important in a game that is supposed to be showcasing the future of the sport. I’m hoping they’ll fix that before Tuesday, when a lot more people will be watching.