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Scouting grades: Fastball: 45 | Slider: 55 | Cutter: 50 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 55 | Overall: 40Hartle was one of the top prep lefties in the 2021 Draft class and entered his junior season at Wake Forest as perhaps the top college pitcher, but his stuff and control backed up and caused him to slip in the '24 Draft. He ended up signing for $850,000 as a Pirates third-rounder before the Guardians acquired him and fellow southpaw Michael Kennedy for Luis Ortiz. The North Carolina native made it to Double-A in his first full pro season and earned High-A Midwest Pitcher of the Year honors after logging a 2.35 ERA with 100 strikeouts and a 1.05 WHIP in 103 1/3 frames for Lake County. He put up solid number at Double-A Akron in 2026 before being traded to the Nationals as part of the four-player return for All-Star lefty Foster Griffin.While he doesn't have overpowering stuff, Hartle throws strikes with a deep repertoire and creates unique angles from his 6-foot-6 frame and horizontal release. His best pitch is a slurvy slider that gets plenty of chase against lefties, and his changeup gets a decent amount of chase and miss but rarely lands for strikes. Hartle has a four-seam and two-seam fastball that each sit in the low 90s, and that velocity has mostly held in his second full season. He often works with his upper-80s cutter in the zone and limits hard contact on the pitch.Hartle repeats his delivery well and throws plenty of strikes. He continues to profile as a potential back-end starter as he heads to his second organization. He's done a great job of preventing hard contact -- and home runs, in particular -- to date, but without velocity gains, that will be difficult against more advanced hitting as he’s seen with a slight uptick in homers allowed in ’26.
I liked him a lot coming out of the draft. There was a bit of time prior to his draft year and even early2 on during it, that he was viewed as a mid-late first rounder
