Michael Grove Stats & Scouting Report College Baseball, MLB Draft, Prospects

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read
BA Grade/Risk: 40/Medium

Track Record: Grove looked like a future first-round pick as an underclassman at West Virginia but had Tommy John surgery midway through his sophomore year and missed all of his junior year as well. The Dodgers bet on his pre-injury stuff and drafted him in the second round in 2018, signing him for $1,229,500. Grove's velocity and command took four years to fully come back, but he finally clicked in 2022 at Double-A and Triple-A and earned his first big league callup in May. He went 1-0, 4.60 in seven appearances for the Dodgers and took regular rotation turns at the end of the season.

Scouting Report: Grove is a strong, athletic righthander who flashes big stuff. His fastball has plus velocity at 94-97 mph, but it plays down because it's straight and he lacks consistent command of it. He shows feel to spin an average mid-80s slider with decent depth and his upper-70s curveball flashes above-average. Grove has feel to manipulate the length and shape of his breaking balls, giving them bigger shape early in counts before shortening them to get swings and misses to put hitters away. Grove doesn't throw a changeup, leaving him vulnerable against lefties, and his control is fringy. His fastball command is particularly inconsistent and leads to widely varied quality of his outings.

The Future: Grove projects to be a spot starter and long reliever who can handle righthanded-heavy lineups. He is ready to assume that role now and will try to win an Opening Day roster spot.

Scouting Grades: Fastball: 55. Curveball: 55. Slider: 50. Control: 45

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