Is it another case of too much too soon? Justus Sheffield, the Cleveland Indians 2014 first round draft pick was arrested Monday morning on two charges in Tennessee. The 18-year old was released on $5,500 bail.
MiLB.com reports that Sheffield was arrested in his hometown of Tullahoma, Tennessee along with two of his high school teammates. He is charged with aggravated battery and under-age drinking.
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The Cleveland front office had this to say in regards to the charges:
“The organization is aware of the report involving Justus Sheffield. We have spoken with Justus about the incident and are in the process of gathering additional information. Beyond that, we will not comment further until the legal process is completed.”
Sheffield, of no relation to big league slugger Gary Sheffield, was the 2014 Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, honoring the best high school baseball player in the country (which by strange coincidence, Gary Sheffield was the first recipient of). The 5 foot 10 inch lefty doesn’t have the typical frame of a pitcher, but the Indians liked what they saw when they made him the 31st overall pick last year and signed him for $1.6 million.
FanGraphs scouting report of Sheffield shows that his signature pitch is his low-90s fastball. He mixes in two above-average breaking pitches in a 70-mile per hour curve and an 80-mile per hour slider. His first year as a professional was spent in Rookie ball with the Arizona League Indians. He started four games and came out of the pen in four others. His debut wasn’t exciting, but wasn’t terrible. He finished the season 3-1 with a 4.79 ERA and 29 strikes outs over 20.1 innings.
Sheffield is currently the seventh ranked prospect in the entire Cleveland farm system. He is set to appear in court on February 5th. Hopefully this is just a minor speed bump on his road to the show.