Red Sox select Durbin Feltman with their third round pick

After the Red Sox went with a pair of power-based high school bats with their first two picks, they went with a power-based college arm with their third round pick. Picking at the number 100 slot overall, Boston took Durbin Feltman, a right-handed pitcher out of TCU. The college junior is in his age-21 season, having turned 21 in April. He has spent the last three years as one of the NCAA’s best relief arms, and this season he tossed 24 ¹⁄₃ innings over 18 appearances. In that time, he pitched to a 0.74 ERA with 43 strikeouts and six walks, which seems pretty good.

The bad news here is that this is a relief-only profile, but the good news is that Feltman has the potential to be a dominant reliever at the highest level just as he was in college. Despite being on the smaller side of things — he’s listed at 6’0” and 190 poinds — he has a massive fastball, consistently sitting around 97 mph and getting up as high as 99 mph when he needs to. Along with that pitch, he throws a nasty slider. MLB Pipeline and Fangraphs both have his fastball as a 70-grade (elite) pitch and his slider as 60-grade (above-average). Jim Callis, on MLB.com’s stream, mentioned that the slider flashes 70-grade when he’s at his best as well. In addition to the big-time stuff, he has solid command for his profile, though it’s more average than elite. He’s also a very fast worker on the mound.

There is no chance of him converting as a starter, and while that limits the ceiling a bit it also means Feltman could very well be a fast mover through the Red Sox system. In fact, on the MLB.com stream the analysts indicated he could theoretically be someone who could come up and make this majors this season. I’m not sure that’s something I’d bet on, but it’s at least worth monitoring. I know relief-only prospects aren’t the most exciting, but a college reliever with late-inning success and two plus pitches can certainly work out.

Feltman was ranked as the number 94 draft prospect by Baseball American, number 70 by MLB Pipeline and number 76 by Fangraphs.

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Via Fangraphs

Via MLB Pipeline