San Diego Padres 2020 MLB Draft scouting profile: Mick Abel

We continue preparing for the San Diego Padres 2020 MLB Draft by looking at a high school starting pitcher who may have the most upside of anyone.

The San Diego Padres pick eighth in the upcoming 2020 MLB Draft and will try to continue to build on one of the best farm systems in all of baseball.

In case you’ve missed some of the previous installments of this series looking at the top names in the upcoming MLB Draft, you can find them here.

We stay in the high school ranks and we’ll take a look at right-handed starting pitcher Mick Abel.

As I mentioned in the article on Austin Hendrick, projecting high school players and how they will produce five years down the road is almost an impossible task.

And that’s even more true with pitchers.

Abel has one of the highest upsides in the upcoming draft because he throws hard and already has an above average offspeed pitch.

His fastball sits in the mid-90s and has been clocked as high as 97 MPH. Some believe he could even reach triple-digits one day once he adds some muscle in his very projectable 6-foot-5 frame.

But many consider his upper 80s slider to be his best pitch. A GIF from The Pitching Ninja shows you how devastating of a pitch it can be.

He also throws a change-up and a curveball that many believe will be above-average pitches for him one day. Whether or not that’s true could determine if he becomes a top of the rotation starter or an elite closer.

But that appears to be the ceiling and the floor for him.

You can see from the video that he has a very easy delivery that is repeatable, and that’s why many don’t worry too much about his future.

The only real knock on Abel is that he can lose command of his pitches at times, which is pretty normal for any high school kid.

In the couple of videos I watched it seemed like he didn’t have a great feel for his pitches at times and it was almost like the ball was stuck in his hand when coming out leaving the ball to either spike in the dirt or sail high.

Still, that’s something that can be fixed.

As far as comparisons go, some people say he reminds them of Stephen Strasburg because of his delivery and velocity.

The Jesuit High School (Tigard, Or.) product is committed to play college ball at Oregon State, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen.

Most mocks that I’ve looked at have him going in the top 15 with some having him as high as five.

I don’t think the Padres get a shot at him as I certainly don’t see him making it past the Seattle Mariners at six. But I think he goes even higher with a team like the Miami Marlins taking him at three.

The Marlins could use someone with top of the rotation upside like Abel and they have the time to develop him before they start contending again.