Jared Kelley

A man among boys in the high school class, Kelley is the most MLB-ready prep pitcher thanks to his current stuff and physicality. Standing 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, Kelley runs his fastball up into the 97-99 mph range with shocking ease. He looks like he’s playing catch on the mound with a loose, fluid delivery and little to no head whack in his finish. Because of the ease of his entire operation, Kelley locates his premium stuff in a way that’s beyond his years, with some scouts projecting him to have future plus command. He pairs that fastball with a plus, low-80s changeup he throws with good arm speed. The pitch is a swing-and-miss offering with excellent diving life, and Kelley shows good feel to spot it where he wants in or out of the strike zone. The biggest question with Kelley is his breaking ball. Over the summer he showed a slider in the low 80s that was inconsistent and far from the wipeout projection teams want to see out of a top high school pitcher. While Kelley didn’t get a full spring season, scouts still saw signs of improvement from his breaking ball and gave it a chance for it to become average or above-average. Kelley will battle the stigma and spotty track record that comes with being a hard-throwing high school righty, while also competing in one of the strongest college pitching classes in recent memory. Still, he does several things at an exceptionally high level that are impossible to teach, and has No. 2 starter upside. Kelley is committed to Texas.