Washington Nationals: could be headed for another Tommy John draft pick

Some mock drafts have the Washington Nationals taking a pitcher who has already gone under the knife.

The amateur draft for Major League Baseball will take place on June 10th and will be limited to five rounds. In the majority of the mock drafts, the Washington Nationals are projected to select a pitcher. One of those pitchers, Clayton Beeter, has already undergone Tommy John surgery.

Jim Callis at mlb.com has the Nationals taking the right-handed pitcher out of Texas Tech with the twenty-second overall pick in the first round.

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Beeter has only pitched 41.2 innings at the college level as he underwent Tommy John surgery while in high school. He has four main pitches with a fastball between 93 and 96 MPH, which has touched 98 on the radar gun.

The fact he has a TJ surgery in his past does not scare off the Nationals brass, who have drafted a handful of reclamation projects who have also gone under the knife. They have signed several major leaguers as well off the scrap heap who have had the dreaded surgery, with varying results.

Lucas Giolito and Erik Fedde are two pitchers the Nationals have selected in the first round who they knew would be having the surgery before throwing a pitch with the organization. Anthony Rendon was drafted sixth overall even though he had a history of ankle and shoulder problems. All three of these players have had great success since.

Stephen Strasburg, Joe Ross, and Shawn Kelley are three others who have had Tommy John surgery and have pitched well at the major league level in years after.

Then there was the Trevor Rosenthal debacle. He was signed to a one year/$7M deal and we all know how that transaction turned out.

While Calis’ mock draft has the Nationals taking Beeter, several others show the Nats taking pitcher Cole Wilcox. We only have two weeks to wait and see if the arm drafted will be one that has undergone surgery before or not.