MINNEAPOLIS — The Angels definitely did something different with the first draft since Perry Minasian was fired as GM.
They took a high school player with their first pick for the first time since 2018, looking just down the road to get him. The Angels picked Jared Grindlinger, an outfielder and left-handed pitcher from Huntington Beach High, with the 12th overall pick in the draft on Saturday.
Scouting director Tim McIlvaine said the Angels will get him started in the farm system as an outfielder, but the door is not closed to him pitching at some point.
“He does both really well,” McIlvaine said. “We are going to run him out as a hitter to start with, and then we will see where that takes us. I’ve had some conversations with player development about him as a pitcher as well at some point, but for right now we’re going to run him out as a hitter, let him play the outfield, and run from there.”
Grindlinger said he’s ready for anything.
“I’ve worked my entire life as a two-way, and I’m ready to go compete and do what’s best for the organization,” he said.
The Orange County Register High School Player of the Year, Grindlinger hit .376 with two homers and a 1.000 OPS at Huntington Beach. On the mound, he was 6-0 with an 0.85 ERA.
McIlvaine said Grindlinger has played mostly left field in high school, but at some point the Angels would like to see him in center field.
At the plate, his profile includes a high contact ability.
“I think it’d be attractive to any team, the way he can make contact, and the way he’s evolving as a hitter really,” McIlvaine said. “You look at what he did over the summer, in terms of contact and it’s elite. That was one of the big attractions is that if we can get the contact and he’s shown that he can drive the ball and we can kind of continue to grow both of those together, you think he can turn into a really good hitter.”
Grindlinger, who just turned 17 in April, reclassified as a high school senior so he could speed his baseball development, either in college or the minor leagues. He has a commitment to the University of Tennessee, but he said his preference is to sign with the Angels. The slot value for the No. 12 pick is just under $5.9 million.
“it’s definitely a dream come true,” Grindlinger said, adding that his family has seats at Angel Stadium behind the third base dugout.
The last time the Angels took a high school player was eight years ago, when they selected outfielder Jordyn Adams. Billy Eppler, the GM who also took Jo Adell out of high school, was in charge then.
It’s no coincidence that the shift in draft strategy comes with interim GM John Mozeliak now in charge. Mozeliak said on Friday that the Angels would take the best available player, and be more interested in talent than how quickly the player could get to the majors.
McIlvaine insisted that they could have been taking high school players all along.
“I always tell you guys every year, we’ve talked about a lot of high school players, and that didn’t change,” McIlvaine said. “We always have, and it just never really happened that way. This year, just the way it fell was Jared ended as the best player on the board and that’s the one we went with.”
McIlvaine did acknowledge that he was able to run the draft as he wanted under Mozeliak.
“Mo has come in and he really empowered me to run the room the way I want to run the room,” McIlvaine said. “Perry did it his way, which was a good way too. The way he did everything was fine as well. He can do it however he wants to. Mo came in and he basically said, ‘It’s yours, run with it.’”
The Angels took Georgia Tech second baseman Jarren Advincula with their second-round pick. They were also set to make their third- and fourth-round picks on Saturday. The 20-round draft concludes on Sunday.
BOUNCE BACK
Right-hander Sam Bachman retired six of seven hitters he faced on Thursday and Friday, after giving up five runs in his outing on Tuesday.
Bachman threw fastballs — his four-seamer and sinker — with 28% of his pitches on Tuesday. In the two most recent games, he threw fastballs with 38% of his pitches.
“Sometimes when something’s working right, you tend to go heavy on it, like the offspeed and stuff, but then the league will adjust, and you have to adjust back,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I think it’s a good thing that he was able to adjust back and find some success the last couple outings.”
NOTES
Catcher Travis d’Arnaud said on Saturday that he felt good after running the bases at about 70% of full speed the day before. Running is the final hurdle for d’Arnaud. He said he’ll be playing “soon” on a rehab assignment. …
Third baseman Denzer Guzman made a nice backhand play in the ninth inning of Friday’s game after coming off the bench as a defensive replacement. “That’s something that’s overlooked,” Suzuki said. “You can come in and not really be in the game and make an error on that play. Him being engaged and coming in ready to go was huge.”
UP NEXT
Angels (RHP José Soriano, 8-5, 3.40) at Twins (RHP Taj Bradley, 8-3, 3.57), Sunday, 11:10 a.m., ABTV, 830 AM