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He had a whopping 44.9% strikeout rate in his seven High-A games, then made 11 Double-A starts and fanned 32.9% of those opponents. But when he reached Triple-A for a six-start stint to close out the season, his strikeout rate dipped significantly, with the more advanced batters keying in on heaters that would’ve blown by bats at the lower levels.Wednesday was Cavalli’s sixth Triple-A start of the 2022 season, and his numbers are quite similar to the ones he put up at the end of last year, with a strikeout rate around 20% and a walk rate around 10%. He has increased his use of his secondary pitches, which in part accounts for the decrease in strikeouts, but which has also brought down his BABIP. He’s shown the ability to locate his breaking ball and off-speed stuff, though not yet to a convincing level of reliability. While he struck out Jeter Downs twice in the first four innings last night, he also served up a mid-80s slider that stayed flat and hovered over the middle of the plate, which Downs launched out of the park, but foul. Cavalli won’t get away with those kinds of mistakes as he continues to progress.The narrative around Cavalli has remained roughly the same since he was drafted in 2020: an undeniably intimidating arm attached to a violent delivery and a checkered injury record. Of course, when you’re hitting the high-90s with your fastball as consistently as Cavalli does, there being some violence in your delivery is not altogether unexpected, but it’s particularly concerning when paired with the injuries that plagued his college career, though those maladies have yet to re-emerge such that they’ve had an impact on his professional development.
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Topic: Follow the Prospects: Cade Cavalli, RHP (Read 11423 times)
