When someone pegged as a bulk reliever starts mowing ’em down in Double-A, could he be a starter instead? Meet Chase Silseth.
- Born: May 18, 2000
- B/T: Right/Right
- 6’0″, 217-lbs
- Drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Arizona (Tucson).
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
After a brief introduction to the pro leagues in 2021, Silseth immediately started at Double-A this year as a 21-year-old who turns 22 on May 18th (happy early birthday, Chase!).
Other than some control issues (and 7% walks rates aren’t terrible, especially early in your career, and especially especially if you are striking out 37% of the batters you face), he’s dominating Double-A. He’s pitching so well, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him at Triple-A before the season is over.
He’s faced 58% righties, but 67% of his strikeouts have come against them. The hits are perfectly divided by percentage terms. The home runs have only come against righties. WHIP has been more dominant against lefties. Both are great marks.
In short, I got nothing significant that tells me platooning is in his future.
(How nice a name is the Rocket City Trash Pandas anyway?)
So did Silseth get off to a good start and then tail off?:
Nope. His strikeouts per game go 6-6-7-8-10…he’s getting stronger as he goes.
The walks go 2-1-1-1-2. It’s not bad.
His pitches thrown are 68-77-90-88-88. He’s a starter.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: on their Top 400
- Fantrax: on their Top 400
- Fantasy Six Pack: on their dynasty Top 1,000+
- Imaginary Brick Wall: on their Top 473
Warnings
He doesn’t make any lists. Why not?:
His fastball lacks movement, so the fact that it can reach the upper-90s is not as impressive.
He’s 6′ even and weighs 217 pounds (up from 215 when this FanGraphs report was made in December. So he’s not all that athletic.
Conclusion
Although it should be noted that Double-A batters are only hitting .169 against him, so Silseth is hardly getting “hit around.” But remember, that except is from before his rampage across Double-A.
So FanGraphs put that multi-inning relief pitcher future on Silseth before he started dominating Double-A. As often as I’ve cautioned patience until a player tackles Double-A, when one does tackle it — and then lays waste to it as Silseth is doing (remember, folks, he’s striking out 37% of all batters he’s faced, and it’s been going higher and higher as the year goes on so that his most recent game he struck out 45%), you have to pay respect.
If Double-A is no match, will Triple-A? If nothing else, this is the year Silseth is showing he belongs on our radar. Speaking of radar, Baseball Prospectus just released their May 2022 Top-500 Dynasty Prospect list, and guess who just made the list at #417?
I don’t know if his fastball will develop to the point of having enough movement to be more than an average pitch. Maybe it won’t and he won’t become more than a bulk reliever. But maybe, just maybe, something is clicking in Double-A, and you heard it here first.