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Last week Keith Law released his Reds Top 10 prospects on ESPN.com and sitting at #10 on the list was Jackson Stephens. Law has been the lone wolf with ranking Stephens in the Reds top 10. His scouting report is what jumped out more to me than the ranking itself. Stephens has a good arm, so while I didn’t rank him as highly as Law, I can understand being a big fan of the arm itself. However the report that Law had was quite a bit different than what I saw from Stephens while watching him twice in person this season and a few more times on Milb.tv. Below I have my scouting report on Stephens based on what I saw this past season while he pitched for the Dayton Dragons.
Scouting Report
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Fastball | For the most part, Stephens worked in the low 90’s, topping out at 95 MPH. When the pitch is at the lower end of his velocity, it can run in on a right hander but as he adds velocity the pitch loses that movement. He shows good control of the pitch most of the time, but will overthrow it in short spurts and lose control of the pitch.
Breaking Ball | Stephens gets things a bit mixed as he will flash a curveball at times and a slider at times as the pitch goes back and forth between the two. When at it’s best it has sharp breaking action, but more often the pitch lacks good downward biting action and he struggles to throw it at the bottom of the strikezone. There is a chance to develop it into an average to above-average pitch, but the consistency needs a lot of work at this point in time.
Change Up | Clearly the third pitch that he goes to, the change up is less inconsistent than the breaking ball but could show better consistency. When it is at its best the pitch is at least above-average with good tumbling action in the 78-82 MPH range.
Other | Stephens worked out of the bullpen in Dayton for 8 games (starting 6 others), but he and Amir Garrett basically split the game down the middle as they worked on a 5-day schedule with each other in order to get them both plenty of innings in a crowded rotation.
Overall | With control of a good fastball Stephens has a good base to work with. He needs to improve his offspeed offerings, but he can already flash quality pitches so it is more about finding consistency than truly developing them. In the long run, if he is unable to refine both of his offspeed offerings a move to the bullpen could work out where his fastball could play up and he could focus on just one offspeed pitch.
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