Mason Englert, RHP
Birthday: 11/1/1999 (19)
Acquired: Draft, 4th round, 2018
Level(s): none
Statistics: none
If there’s a way to have a better senior year in Texas high school on the mound than Mason Englert did in 2018, then I’m not sure how to do it. Englert set a scoreless inning streak and led all prep pitchers in the nation in strikeouts in his senior year before the Texas Rangers drafted him in the 4th round and gave him $1 million to sign.
Englert did not pitch in his draft season, something Texas did with all three of their prep arms they took in the first four rounds. However, once he got on the mound in fall instructs, he really impressed all those in attendance with his polish, velocity, and much cleaner mechanics in instructs than he’d shown in high school.
Standing 6’4″ with an athletic build already and a frame to add more good size to his frame. He already has added velocity, sitting around 92-93 and touching 96 in instructs with good extension on his fastball, getting tremendous late movement on the pitch and excellent location on the pitch as well due to his easy delivery.
Englert offers two breakers that both have projection as a plus pitch. His slider is a bit better than his curve in the video I’ve had a chance to see from instructs, but both show very good spin, with the slider appearing as a slider until it breaks late in its path to the plate.
The Texas Rangers will take things easy with their young arms from the 2018 draft, likely starting Englert in one of their short-season assignments, and as his change develops, he could end up an upper-level mid-rotation guy, an elite #3 type.