Lucas Elissalt Scouting Report

Lucas Elissalt Scouting Report

Physical description

He’s listed at 6’4”, 190 lbs. I’d guess he’s a bit lighter than that, but it seems right. RHP who stands on the 1st base side of the rubber. When he starts, he’s at about a 45-degree angle facing the 3rd base dugout, his hands waist high. When it’s time to deliver the ball, he completes his turn towards 3rd, drops his hands just below his waist before bringing them almost chin level and delivering. Statcast has him with a 4-Seam, sinker, cutter, changeup, slider, and curveball though only his 4-seam, slider, curveball, changeup have more than a handful of pitches.

Fastballs — 45

Throws primarily a 4-Seam, but has also registered a sinker and cutter. He’s averaging 91.3 MPH with his 4S and has touched 94. His 4-Seam is the pitch he’s thrown by far the most often at 51%. It has a .277 BA against, but the xBA is 49 points lower, so he’s been somewhat unlucky with it.

Curveball — 55

Ultimately his best pitch from a CSW%/Whiff% perspective. He’s able to spin it quite well, averaging just over 2700 RPMs, he gets 61” of drop on it. It’s easy to see why it gets many whiffs.

Slider — 50

Another high whiff pitch for Elissalt. From a movement perspective, it looks pretty similar to Sawyer Gipson-Long’s slider. Unlike his curveball, he gets below average spin on it. Because it’s below average, that could help out with tricking the hitters. He getting 38” of drop and 3” of glove side movement, both of which are slightly off from average. But he’s also throwing it 2 MPH slower than would be average.

Changeup — 45

He’s currently averaging less than 1000 RPMs on his changeup and has a 14.3 Whiff%. He’s only thrown 25 of them, but hitters haven’t made good contact against it.

Command — 55

I think this could be Lucas’s best tool. He’s not only controlling the ball, but he’s pretty consistently hitting his spots and locating the ball to get quality strikes. Especially as a 20-year old. He’s shown very few times where he hasn’t been able to hit his spots in the few times I’ve watched him. That isn’t to say that he hasn’t, but I’ve come away impressed by him far more often than not. 

Overall Outlook

I am pretty high on Lucas Elissalt. His starts have progressively been better and he gets lots of whiffs on both his curveball and slider. His command is really good. That was one of the first things I noticed. He worked the edge of the zone and hit his spots repeatedly. I think if he can add velocity to his fastball, he has a chance to contribute to the major league club. I don’t even think he needs to sit 96+, but if he can sit 94 and touch 96 he could be close to a middle of the rotation starter.