Phillies 2020 Draft: Matt Klentak talks adapting, four picks

Round 4: RHP Carson Ragsdale, a ‘really good athlete’

"“The fact that he possesses the athleticism that he does and the fact that he’s shown earlier this season the ability to command the baseball was really exciting.”"

Selected 116th overall, Ragsdale has undergone Tommy John surgery but came back strong with an above-average breaking ball. He was one of the tallest players in the draft, listed at 6-foot-8.

In four games this year prior to the pandemic, Ragsdale had a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings with 37 strikeouts and seven walks. He throws in the low 90s with an above-average curve and a developing changeup. In his previous two seasons as a reliever, Ragsdale walked 21 batters in 31 1/3 innings.

Klentak says that while what Ragsdale did this year was a small sample size, his performance was “exceptional.”

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“Obviously, 19 innings is not the largest sample. I’m not trying to draw any huge conclusions from that,” he continued. “This kid is a really good athlete. He’s 6-foot-8 and sometimes the guys with the ‘long levers’ do have a tough time repeating, getting to the same release point, and commanding the baseball. Sometimes that never develops at all, but sometimes it develops later for these guys that are really tall like that.”

The Phillies general manager went on to say that Ragsdale’s athleticism and the fact that he’s shown earlier this season the “ability to command the baseball” was “really exciting.”

And, the Phillies have no concerns that Ragsdale recently underwent Tommy John surgery.

“It’s a grind coming back from a surgery like that,” Klentak says. “I think his college program took very good care of him [and] brought him back the right way.”

“His size, physicality, athleticism, projection, and ability to spin the baseball, we thought that was a pretty good pick in the fourth round,” he continued.

“We’ll see. He’s had some adversity in his career, but that’s why he gets to the fourth round and doesn’t go in the top few rounds.”