LA Angels: Top Pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski Should Be Target in 2020 Draft

The LA Angels will have the 10th pick in the 2020 draft coming off a down year. Being in the top 10, the Angels can certainly make a draft choice that helps them in the long run and keep moving the organization forward.

Jim Callis from MLBPipeline has recently wrote up a mock draft in which we see the LA Angels taking right-handed pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski from South Carolina. While it has been tough in recent years to predict who the Angels will take in the draft because they usually take someone not too widely known, Jim Callis definitely has a point in this up and coming pitcher.

In a desperate need for starting pitching now, the Angels can certainly draft some for the future. If they get Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg, the contracts will be long-term year deals, which could see young players coming up while they are both still pitching.

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Mlodzinksi seems to be the right choice for the Angels if they want to go the pitching route, Callis also took into consideration that the Angels will only have the 10th pick which is a solid pick in the draft, but other pitchers may be off the board by the time the Angels pick comes around. Callis does mention that Mlodzinski did miss most of the 2019 season due to broken left foot, but he showed enough during that small stretch to prove that he is still worthy of the top ten pick.

Callis also regards him as the best pitching prospect out of the Cape Cod League which should definitely open up some eyes, and hearing that he had the strength to come back after a broken foot shows he has determination. He also mentions that Mlodzinski has a fastball that reaches 99 mph, and that both his slider and changeup look promising as he may need to develop one more pitch should he become a starter.

Of course, as previously mentioned, the Angels like to draft prospects that aren’t too on the radar, and Mlodzinski certainly is coming in at the 10th pick of Jim Callis’s mock draft, but it seems that with his elite skill set and where the Angels have position wise in the draft, it’s not a bad idea to take one of the top guys.

He can certainly help the team in the future rotation should he continue the path of a starter,  and join the ranks of whoever the Angels get this offseason whether it be Cole or Strasburg, in the latter part of their careers in Anaheim.