Cleveland Guardians 2024 MLB Draft 4th Round Pick: LHP Rafe Schlesinger

The Cleveland Guardians selected Rafe Schlesinger in the 4th Round (113th overall).

Rafe Schlesinger- LHP Miami

Age: 21.5

Ht: 6’3

Wt: 200

Rankings:

• BA- 148

• MLB- 147

• WH- Round 4-5

Analysis:

Rafe Schlesinger is a former reliever turned starter in his third and final season at Miami. The New York native showed significant improvement this spring going from an upper-80s to low-90s fastball to sitting in the low-90s (92-93) and touching 97 mph with his heater. He is a pitch-to-contact pitcher with sidearm action with run on his fastball and natural sweeping action on his mid-80s slider. He pairs these with a little used mid-80s change-up. Schlesinger generates natural deception from his side arm action creating a low approach angle and arm side run. There's potential for a backend starter here if he adds more strength and his secondaries step up another level. However, his outcome could be a leverage reliever with ground ball tendencies and the potential for an uptick in his velocity.

Pre-draft writeup: High-side arm lefty that can run it to 93 as a college starter. That may tick down as a starter at the next level, but appears to have an above average slider and the fastball metrics are strong. Reminds some of Carson Palmquist, who was at Miami last year. Has a good track record of missing bats, (9.6 K/9 on the Cape in ‘23) and limited walks there too, and his strikeouts are in the 9/9 range. Could be a pen arm with his delivery and lack of a third pitch, but an interesting arm to track early on day two.

Future Projection:

Fastball- 50

Slider- 50

Changeup- 45

Command- 45