It’s not uncommon for me to have little working knowledge of a player the Chicago Cubs select in the Rule 5 Draft. The players are, by their very eligibility for the draft, not necessarily top prospects. But usually I recognize a name. I gotta tell you … I do not recognize this name.
Today, the Cubs took 24-year-old righty Gray Fenter from the Orioles’ organization, and I’m gonna have to do some quick legwork to get up to speed. It’s all the more difficult when there wasn’t a minor league season, of course.
First, the minor league stats for the 2015 7th rounder:
Immediately, I’m wondering how and why a guy Fenter’s age was putting up numbers like that at A ball and was not promoted.
Some quick research indicates that Fenter was a big-time overslot signing out of high school (strong commit to Mississippi), and he’s simply developed very slowly since then. He had Tommy John surgery in 2016, saw very limited action in 2017, and then had limited seasons in 2018 and 2019. He was at times considered a top 15-20 prospect in the Orioles system, but the slow development seems to have taken him off those lists.
Again, though, I’m wondering why he wasn’t pitching at High-A, at least, in 2019, because he was clearly too good for Low-A. He’s pitched in the mid-90s at times, and has a huge 12-6 curveball. It’s pretty easy to imagine that the Cubs are thinking he could be an immediate bullpen option, even though he’s pitched as a starter in his minor league career thus far.
This looks to be a deep scouting play, which is kind of wild when there were no games to scout. As near as I can tell, Fenter wasn’t at the alternate site or instructs, either. So, yeah, deep play. More on Fenter soon.
The Cubs selected Gray Fenter from the Orioles Triple-A roster.
Fenter had a 13 K playoff performance in Single-A Delmarva in 2019.pic.twitter.com/1urYrB9XPl
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) December 10, 2020