How high?
“I know it’s going to sound crazy,” President of Baseball Ops Jerry Dipoto recalled Blank telling the Mariners front office. “But this boy will be all the same to me.”
One-one – As in the first pick of the first round. He High.
“Yeah,” Dipoto replied, laughing, “it sounds crazy.”
Blank, who has held the ubiquitous title of director of pitching strategy for the Mariners since 2020, was so impressed with Wu that, during the first two days of the draft, he regularly called or texted Dipoto, something he never did. Did it before.
“Has anyone taken Wu yet? …Are we going to take Wu? Blank will ask.
The Mariners knew they wouldn’t need to take Wu on the first day of the 2021 draft. A right-handed pitcher from Cal Poly, Wu was considered a middling prospect by most – MLB.com did not even include him in their top 250 prospects list – and within a few months he had Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery. It happened earlier.
Instead, the Mariners used their first-round pick (No. 12 overall) on high school catcher Harry Ford, who is now at Class AA Arkansas and is considered by many to be a top-50 prospect in the game. (With the first overall pick that day – the actual one-and-one – the Pittsburgh Pirates selected Louisville catcher Henry Davis.) But Blank, 34, was determined, as he had been since he first saw Wu’s footage. And it’s his tenacity and his honest eye for talent that has helped the Mariners become one of MLB’s most prodigious pitching factories, and Blank has again had an active role in preparation for the 2024 MLB Draft that begins Sunday .
Each April, after the Mariners scouts compile their list of amateur pitching prospects, they will submit it to Blank and the Mariners’ High Performance Team for a thorough analysis of the prospects’ physical equipment.
That list usually includes more than 150 pitchers, and it’s quite common to find Blank in the Mariners—who works as a full-time major-league coach for the Mariners, devising a pitching plan for each game. Works closely with coach Pete Woodworth. ‘ The hotel or team airplane is evaluating those amateur pitchers using a video feed uploaded to their iPad.
Using pitch-technology numbers and biomechanical information, he’ll assess whether pitchers have the athletic upside — if they’re “movers,” as he calls them — that the Mariners can tap.
“He will provide information via video,” Dipoto said. “And he is such a curious person (that) he will then find his favorite people who are offbeat. He’ll tell us the name of a kid in high school we’ve never heard of and say, ‘I really like this guy.’
Wu was similarly prominent on the Mariners’ draft board three years ago.
On baseball’s 20 to 80 scouting scale, a grade of 50 reflects major-league average, 60 is a “plus” tool and 70 is a “plus-plus” tool. The 80 grade is at the top of the scale – for example, Aaron Judge’s power.
For the first and only time in his career, Blank gave an 80 grade on Wu’s scouting report, citing the young right-hander’s unique level of athleticism and his release point.
“What Brian has is really interesting, he’s a guy who has strength, stability and mobility, as well as good timing in his delivery,” Blank said. “You’ve got this unicorn of a propeller that’s really strong and dynamic. …He came for us.”
The Mariners ultimately selected Wu in the sixth round.
They took two other pitchers before him: a high school right-hander, Michael Morales, in the third round (he was promoted to Class AA earlier this month) and Texas A&M’s Bryce Miller in the fourth round. .
Blank was also ranked higher than Miller, giving a scouting grade in the 50-60 range before the draft.
Less than two years after being drafted, Miller and Wu earned big league promotions last season, and have now joined the Mariners rotation.
“It’s amazing to see it all play out,” Blank said.
The 24-year-old Wu, 3-1 with a 1.77 ERA in eight starts this season, is scheduled to return from the injured list on Friday for his start against the Angels in Anaheim.
Blank was quick to note that he was hardly the only person in the organization who saw potential in Wu, and he was hardly the only person involved in scouting pitchers.
At this point, the structure is well established: Scouts look for interesting arms and get to know the person, trying to figure out if the pitcher has the “growth mindset” the Mariners are looking for.
Blank and the HP team then examined the pitcher’s athleticism, while Senior Director of Data Science Joel Firman and his analytics team examined how the pitcher is able to manipulate the baseball with each pitch.
“We’ve done very well in the back-end of the draft with pitchers,” Dipoto said. “It’s a combination of Trent and the HP department, and Joel Firman and our analytics group. And I think the job our scouts do is better than anybody – we find the right person. Now our scouts will say, ‘He’s a Mariners-type guy,’ meaning (he’s) a hard-worker, observant, smart; Understands modern pitch data; And will be responsible for this type of routine.”
It was this process that helped the Mariners uncover another under-the-radar college arm, Logan Evans, who they drafted in the 12th round last year. Less than a year later, Evans is now the Mariners’ top pitching prospect and a top 100 prospect overall.
The Mariners will certainly be on the lookout for some more hidden gems when the draft begins on Sunday.