MLB Draft 2020: Oakland A’s select Stevie Emanuels with No. 157 overall pick

The Oakland A’s selected Stevie Emanuels in the 5th round of the 2020 MLB Draft on Thursday, with the No. 157 overall pick. The 21-year-old is a right-handed pitcher from University of Washington.

Here’s a scouting report on Emanuels from MLB Pipeline:

Scouting grades: Fastball: 55 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 45 | Overall: 40

The best right-hander to come out of the University of Washington was Tim Lincecum, a first-round pick of the Giants in 2006. Emanuels won’t enter into those kinds of conversations, but after two years as a reliever and a solid Cape Cod League performance, followed by a move to the rotation this spring, he was opening eyes before the season shut down.

Long and athletic, the 6-foot-5 Emanuels has an ideal pitcher’s frame, though he doesn’t always take full advantage of it. He throws his low-90s fastball, one that will touch 95 mph, with a loose arm and the ball jumps out of his hand, getting on the hitter in a hurry to create a lot of late swings. That happens even though he’s a bit of a short-strider with his delivery and finishes a bit upright. He’ll sometimes show two distinct breaking balls, but they often blend into an average pitch that is more slider than curve. He’ll mix in an average changeup as well.

Emanuels tends to be around the strike zone, though he doesn’t have pinpoint command. It’s possible there’s more in the tank velocity-wise as he adds weight and strength. A team taking him would likely send him out as a starter to see if what he showed this spring is for real, knowing that everything would tick up a bit if he ended up back in the bullpen.

Baseball America offers a similar report, with Emanuels’ fastball as high as 96 mph, and his breaking ball around 77-85. They agree that scouts were encouraged by his strong but brief taste of starting this year before the season was cut short, and that he’ll likely get the chance to build on it in the pros. FanGraphs is on the same page too: “Durable frame, starter look, flashes above average stuff and some feel.”

Emanuels’ college stats, competing in the Pac-12, via Baseball Cube:

• 2018: 4.37 ERA, 45⅓ ip, 32 Ks, 28 BB, 2 HR, 58 hits
• 2019: 2.35 ERA, 53⅔ ip, 65 Ks, 22 BB, 3 HR, 43 hits
• 2020: 0.79 ERA, 22⅔ ip, 38 Ks, 9 BB, 0 HR, 17 hits

Here’s where Emanuels ranked on the major pre-draft boards:

• MLB Pipeline: No. 163
• Baseball America: No. 104
• ESPN: No. 132
• FanGraphs: No. 200

Some video of Emanuels:

For more videos from Prospect Pipeline, click here and click here.

Thus concludes the A’s 2020 draft. Click here to see our tracker with all five picks.