2025 Cleveland Guardians Prospect Scouting Report: #17 RHP Chase Mobley

The Guardians invested big money into the 10th round pick - what do they see?

Bio

• Age (2025 season): 19

• Acquired: Draft (2024, Round 10)

• 2024 Level: High school

• Height: 6’6

• Weight: 200

• Throws: RIght

First impression

Tall, lanky and projectable body. Big arm speed and big stuff. High ceiling, high risk of all high risks types in terms of future projection.

2025 Scouting Grades

• Fastball: 60

• Curveball: 50

• Slider: 50

• Changeup: 55

• Command: 35

• Overall: 46

• Risk: Extreme

• ETA: 2029

What Makes Mobley Fun

What’s not to love about a tall high school right hander with a very projectable frame that can already hit 101 and has the arm speed to pull off a deceptive changeup? The fun part about Mobley is the upside, and he has so much of it. His fastball sits in the mid-90s and can touch 101, and has arm side run and sink to it. His changeup falls off the table with armside run as well, pairing well off his fastball and his natural arm speed sells it very well. He has a late, tight bullet type slider. Curveball has flashed as average too. The type of arm you dream on to be a top of the rotation type of a big high leverage reliever.

What Could Hold Mobley Back

If you somehow have been living under a rock, like, forever, high school pitchers are just about the riskiest demographic developmentally (save for maybe catchers). And if you’ve avoided living under the rock but still aren’t paying attention, Cleveland hasn’t exactly been a hotbed for high school pitcher development. CC Sabathia, Sam Hentges and Triston McKenzie are about their most recent success cases here. Mobley has steps to make in terms of control and command, first and foremost. His delivery has a lot of effort and some violence. He gets great hip hinge into his lower body, but his short, inverted arm swing looks like it’s a bit delayed and could cause timing issues. His arm speed might make up for how late it looks, but could be an injury concern at some point.

Key Metric

$1.8M - Mobley shattered the record for the highest bonus received by a 10th round pick, beating his now org mate Jacob Zibin (who has yet to throw a professional pitch I might add).This was a very strategic pick by Cleveland, saving money this late in the draft when most people thought Mobley would end up at Florida State.

Intangibles

Mobley has had to overcome and handle losses at home at a young age, and managed to work hard to achieve becoming a draft pick to chase a big future.

Future

Under old rules, we’d likely never see Mobley in 2025 outside of the Arizona complex leagues. But new roster rules make it so Cleveland has to be a bit more ‘aggressive’ than usual. Alex Clemmey spent all of his 2024 season with Cleveland in Lynchburg. Mobley may not go right to Lynchburg to start 2025, but as long as he’s healthy, he’s a good bet to pitch there for a decent time in 2025. Cleveland will be as cautious as they can with Mobley and the progression path for a pitcher like this often takes time. With health, in five years we could be talking about Mobley as an exciting, top of the rotation prospect or at least a high leverage relife arm, and at worst, one of the high school arms that unfortunately can’t deliver on potential.

Role/Risk

45/Extreme - Big, top of the rotation/backend bullpen arm with high risk error bars