2. MacKenzie Gore, LHP
Birthday: 2/24/1999 (19)
Acquired: Draft, 1st round, 2017
Level(s): low-A Fort Wayne
Statistics: 2-5, 16 GS, 60 2/3 IP, 4.45 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 6.9% BB, 28.4% K
While teammate Patino was turning stat heads this season in Fort Wayne, MacKenzie Gore was making people wonder if something was up, but if you saw the young lefty pitch, you saw one of the elite young prospects in all of baseball.
The San Diego Padres drafted Gore with the 3rd overall selection in 2017. He immediately came out and showed exactly what made him an elite selection, putting up a 1.27 ERA and 0.98 WHIP over 21 1/3 innings in rookie ball, with an incredible 7/34 BB/K ratio.
Gore put up elite numbers in high school, striking out over 330 hitters in roughly 150 innings of work. He used a tremendous high leg kick that he is able to repeat very well in his athletic 6’3″ frame to keep hitters off base, and the delivery still keeps hitters off, but as he’s returned from injury at times, he’s struggled with keeping his delivery consistent.
When he’s healthy, the stuff is incredibly elite, with a fastball that works into the mid-90s and sits in the 92-93 range most of his starts with tremendous late wiggle. The shape of his curve is such that it leaves hitters completely frozen and is a double-plus pitch. Just those two pitches would give Gore an impressive repertoire, but he also has a hard-biting slider and a sinking change that also show plus as well, giving him four pitches that all at least show plus, and in games where he’s had all four working in that way, it’s simply unfair to hitters.
The Padres are easing innings onto Gore’s arm, and they will let his own readiness and health dictate his path. If he were to be healthy and dominate high-A to open 2019 then continue dominating AA, he could end up in AAA by the end of the season at age 20, but the speed of his ascent will be up to how he handles each level as there is a true ace potential here, and the San Diego Padres will handle his development carefully.