MLB Draft Prospect Joseph Contreras Makes Headlines at World Baseball Classic
Joseph Contreras is a 17 year old right-handed pitcher out of Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in the Atlanta area, and on Friday night, he was front and center on the world stage. Contreras was invited by team Brazil to join their pitching staff where he could represent his mother Isabel’s home country. At 17 years old, Contreras is the youngest player rostered by any WBC team in this edition of the showcase.
Before taking the mound against Team USA on Friday, Contreras was already making a name for himself. The son of big league verteran Jose Contreras, Joseph is eligible for the upcoming MLB draft and is a consensus day one pick. The Baseball Focus MLB draft board may be the most bullish on Contreras as he ranks all the way up at #20 and as the top right-handed prep pitcher.
At 6’4” and 195 pounds, Contreras is very projectable with a lean, wiry frame and the tools on the mound to match. He has established himself as a prospect with a fastball, slider, and two offspeed shapes - a changeup and a “forkball” that the industry has a tough time classifying. The fastball has reached as high as 98 mph in game and has 100 mph juice. The slider is his most effective pitch when executed, thrown in the high-80s with a tight cutter shape. The changeup is thrown in the low-80s with some fade while the forkball falls off the table in the high-70s as a super depthy offering.
As if throwing in the WBC by itself wasn’t enough, Contreras was given the deepest lineup to navigate in the tournament with Team USA. Taking over in the second inning, he was tasked with handling Byron Buxton, Brice Turang, and Bobby Witt Jr. Contreras took the mound with a calm composure, not letting the moment get too big, but was clearly facing the effects of throwing to big league hitters as he was having a hard time finding the strike zone. That wasn’t surprising nor a knock on his profile as there’s likely not a single high-school pitcher that would be confident in delivering their best stuff in the zone to some of the best hitters in the world.
Although he was having a hard time finding the strike zone, there wasn’t a lack of stuff from the arsenal and we were fortunate enough to have Statcast at Daikin Park for more details on it. He threw four fastballs to Byron Buxton in his first look, pumping at least 96.5 mph with each pitch and reaching 97.8 mph which he would hit a few more times in the outing as his max velo. His best fastball on the night was actually thrown to Aaron Judge, a 96.9 mph heater above the zone that got his only whiff of the outing. That pitch also produced 17 IVB, the highest mark of the outing for Contreras. It appeared he was also altering the fastball shape at times, throwing a sinker a few ticks slower than the fastball with more arm-side run than ride, throwing it seven times.
The fastball was only located in the zone 17% of the time which is likely why he mixed in the changeup nearly as much as the fastball. He threw it to both right-handed and left-handed hitters alike, showing his confidence in that pitch, but also had a though time finding feel for it, only dropping it in the zone 30% of the time. Statcast had a tough time separating his forkball from his changeup and even classified the forkball as a curveball in an instance, but it was clear when Contreras was going to the forkball as it was visibly “falling off the table” as previously stated. The “curveball” was thrown at 78.2 mph with 0 IVB and -8 HB with just 1026 RPMs, just a very unique offering coming out of the hand of a pitcher of Contreras’s age. He didn’t go to the slider often, throwing it just three times, averaging 88.3 mph with 5 IVB and 2 HB, a true cutter look.
Despite having to face the top of USA’s order in his first inning of work, Contreras Houdini-acted his way out of a bases loaded jam. After a one-out double given up to Brice Turang and two walks issued to Bobby Witt Jr and Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge came up to the plate with one out and the bases loaded after homering in his first plate appearance. On a 1-1 sinker in on the hands of Judge, Contreras managed to shatter the bat of the three-time MVP, getting him to ground into a double play, effectively ending the threat. As he came out for the third inning, the sinker yielded another groundout via Alex Bregman, but Contreras was eventually removed after giving up a single to Kyle Schwarber, a walk to Cal Raleigh, and two wild pitches that eventually scored Schwarber. The bullpen managed to strand Raleigh on the bases, leaving Contreras with just the one earned run to his ledger in an inning and a third of work.
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