2024 MLB Draft Profile: Josh Hartle
Draft Profile: Josh Hartle (Wake Forest)
Height: 6'4
Weight: 195
Bats/Throws: Left/Left
Josh Hartle, a prominent feature in the Wake Forest weekend rotation in 2023 behind Rhett Lowder, will feature in what is poised to be college baseball’s best rotation alongside incoming Wake Forest transfer Chase Burns.
Hartle’s evolution in his arsenal thanks to his time in the Wake Forest pitching lab has been highly impressive. Hartle features a four-pitch mix containing a fastball, curveball (a tad slurve-y at times), cutter, and changeup. Hartle’s fastball, curveball, and cutter are the best offerings in his arsenal.
Hartle’s fastball is in the low to mid-90s with evident sink when entering the zone, though his velocity has continued to tick up at Wake Forest from his days in high school, and he can still reach up to 95–96 miles per hour when adding some more strength to his physical profile. He shows an impressive ability to locate his fastball, which is needed given his lower velocity levels.
Hartle’s curveball is among the best off-speed pitches in college baseball. It has an impressive level of 2D movement and disappears into the bottom half of the zone with its level of drop. He generated astonishing whiff and chase rates when he used it. It is among the most useful off-speed pitches in the sport and has been able to use it to generate extremely high levels of swing and miss in putaway situations. It is a hard curveball, and Hartle throws it with tightness to a very effective level with an impressive feel for a college pitcher.
Hartle’s cutter also plays off as an effective secondary pitch. He also generated substantive whiff and chase rates with this pitch, showing its ability to miss bats thanks to its sharp movement profile and even more active late movement relative to his fastball. This addition to his pitch arsenal has helped as it keeps hitters guessing when it comes to sequencing on his fastball in the lower 90s. He can tunnel this, in addition to his changeup at times (albeit seldomly for his changeup), to help keep hitters off balance.
There are brief moments where his cutter can get exposed due to lower velocity with it and his fastball. If he throws that cutter and it comes flat out of his hand, it can lead to hard contact when Hartle has the occasional bad location on a pitch.
Hartle’s biggest compliment in addition to his pitch mix is his overall command. He had a 5.8 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a BB/9 ratio of 2.1, both of which show an outstanding command for a college pitcher. Hartle limits his levels of exposure on the basepaths with his command and has an arsenal that generates an eye-popping 12.3 K/9 ratio considering he does not have a fastball that lives in the high 90s.
Hartle is an example of someone who pitches to execution. His skill set and repertoire are somewhat of a lost art in today’s game. He knows how to tunnel his pitches better than most college pitchers. He knows how to mix his pitches. His stuff played well in accordance to his command his first two years at Wake, but if the fastball is not being located and executed, which may be an issues at higher levels, it may lead to some exposure on his actual abilities. I like his profile, but I wonder what his ceiling will be as a prospect.
