2025 Cleveland Guardians Prospect Scouting Report: #32 LHP Rafe Schlesinger

How will Cleveland deploy the funky Miami lefthanded pitcher?

Bio

• Age (2024 season): 22

• Acquired: 2024 Draft (Round 4)

• 2024 Level: College/Single-A

• Height: 6’3

• Weight: 200

• Throws: Left

First impression

Lanky, wiry type build. Slingshot delivery from the left side with a low release height and approach angle. You want to see some Chris Sale here, but lacks some of that stuff, and isn’t quite as crossbody.

2025 Scouting Grades

• Fastball: 50

• Slider: 50

• Changeup: 40

• Command: 40

• Overall: 40

• Risk: Moderate

• ETA: 2027

What Makes Schlesinger Fun

If you love the low sidearm type sliders with good sweeping, sliders and unique fastball traits, Schleingers is your type of arm. There’s a lot of arms and legs in the delivery with a low release height and approach coming from the first base side. That has given his fastball metrics a nice boost to what can be slightly average velo. It can be a sneaky type fastball that gets carry up and can be hard to pick up. His slider has nice, tight break with a very horizontal profile to it. It should be his best pitch and the one that will get the most whiffs. It would be great to see Schlesinger succeed as a starter but he might profile best as a near side-arm reliever..

What Could Hold Schlesinger Back

The fastball works best up in the zone and in college he hasn’t shown enough consistent ability to hold it late into games, which gives quite a bit of relief risk, even though the uniqueness of the angle helps it play up. But he has to use it up in the zone more. He has some room for growth on the changeup to go, so he really has a two pitch mix right now and fringe command. That is essentially what could hold him back as a starter. As a reliever, these two things could get better. So it’s a matter of his expected role.

Key Metric

-4.72 - Schlesinger has a shallow approach angle, meaning it cross the plate and unexpectedly shallower angle that helps it play up despite velocity. It’s a similar type of trait that Cleveland likes in pitchers like Logan Allen and Tugboat use to make up for velocities that are very average and fringe average times.

Intangibles

Schlesinger has overcome some things personally and also has played in the Cape, so there’s a lot of things that fit their approach when drafting players.

Future

It’s very likely Cleveland continues to develop Schlesinger like a starter, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t just based on potential value and maximizing options with a player like this. He’s likely to spend more of 2025 at Lake County until he proves he’ll keep the walks in check and find some improvement in his changeup. If Cleveland can help him break the mold from some of those issues, then he could be a nice starter somewhere in the back of the rotation. But without those improvements, even gradually, he could be in a better shape. ,

Role/RIsk

40 - Eventual lefty reliever that cold have some dominance in the bullpen with a two pitch mix and some control data to back it up.