Jalen Beeks  Pitcher

     
 


Beeks Video

Born: July 10, 1993
Fayetteville, AR
Height: 5-11
Weight: 195
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Drafted: 12th round, 2014
How Acquired: Draft
College: Arkansas
High School: Prairie Grove HS (AR)
ETA: Late 2018

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SoxProspects.com Links
Scouting Scratch: Fall Instructs Part Two (10.9.14)
Scouting Scratch: Young Arms (4.1.15)
Scouting Scratch: Greenville Arms Part 2 (8.5.15)
2015 Top 40 Season in Review
The Write-Up (4.24.17)
Scouting Scratch: Wrapping Up April in Portland (5.5.17)
Scouting Scratch: Potential September Call-Ups (8.25.17)
Scouting Scratch: Jalen Beeks (6.6.2018)

Traded to Tampa Bay for Nathan Eovaldi (July 2018)

Physical Description: Undersized. Filled-out frame with a strong lower half.

Mechanics: Throws from the first base side of the rubber. High three-quarters arm slot. Stiff delivery with a lot of moving parts, though his delivery is a lot cleaner and easier now than when he signed. Comes set with his hands just below his belt and brings them back up with a high leg kick. Used to have a trunk twist and rocked back at the height of his delivery, but those became less pronounced during the 2017 season. As his hands break, he brings his left arm behind his back leg with a wrist hook. As he delivers, his front foot gets down early and the arm lags behind, creating added stress on the arm and making it difficult to locate. All this movement and rigidness creates deception, and coupled with his quick arm out front makes it tough to pick up the ball out of his hand.

Fastball: 90-92 mph, tops out at 95 mph with life. Also throws a two-seamer at 87-89 mph that shows late, arm-side run. Fastball velocity could play up in short stints. Velocity tends to drop into the high-80s as he works deeper into games. Solid control of pitch, but command needs refinement. Deception in his delivery and quick arm create perceived late life on the fastball and it gets on hitters quickly. Fringy command profile due to inconsistent release point and effort in delivery. Potential above-average offering.

Cutter: 87-90 mph. Added pitch in 2017, scrapping his slider. Throws with short, tight horizontal break. Sharp pitch when on, that he is willing to use against both left-handed and right-handed hitters. Pitch records very high spin rates. Commands pitch better to the glove side where has shown the ability to run right-handed hitters in on the hands and run it away from left-handed hitters. Strong feel for the pitch and commands well. Potential above-average offering.

Curveball: 73-76 mph. Pitch has 1-to-7 break with depth, breaking down-and-away from left-handed hitters. Also struggled with the curve in 2016. At its best, the pitch is an average offering.

Changeup: 83-85 mph. Thrown with deceptive arm speed. Has shown the ability to pull the string on it with late drop. Reportedly lost his command of the pitch in 2016, but regained it in 2017. Isn’t using the pitch as much and it hasn’t shown as well in 2018 due to the development of his cutter. Looked like a potential average offering in the past.

Slider: Was a potential average offering, but Beeks scrapped the pitch in 2017 in favor of a cutter. 84-86 mph. Showed short, late break. Tended to be more vertical when thrown harder and showed more tilt in lower velocity ranges.

Career Notes: Missed time due to an elbow injury late in his junior season at Arkansas that likely caused him to fall in the draft. Attended 2014 Fall Instructional League. Had something of a breakout performance in Spring Training 2017, throwing two scoreless innings in a start against the Team USA World Baseball Classic squad that later won that tournament despite being told he was starting 15 minutes before the game.

Summation: Projects as a backend starter who could jump between the rotation and bullpen if necessary. Development of cutter and improvement with delivery have given Beeks a much better chance to start, however there is still bullpen risk long-term. Addition of the cutter created a four-pitch mix and with jump in strike out rate in 2018, Beeks represents an intriguing depth starting option. In shorter stints, Beeks stuff could play up with his fastball sitting 94-95 mph with two effective off-speed pitches from the left side, allowing him to be effective against both right-handed and left-handed hitters.

 
   
  Pitching Stats                                          
  year team lg level org age w l % era g gs sv ip h r er hr bb so whip k/bb k/9
  2013 Arkansas NCAA Coll --- 19 6 2 0.750 2.20 29 0 2 41.0 33 10 10 1 7 28 0.98 4.00 6.15
  2014 Arkansas NCAA Coll --- 20 6 4 0.600 1.98 13 13 0 81.2 67 24 18 2 20 68 1.07 3.40 7.49
  2014 GCL Red Sox GCL Rk Bos 20 0 0 --- 0.00 2 0 0 5.0 3 0 0 0 0 8 0.60 --- 14.40
  2015 Greenville SAL A Bos 21 9 7 0.563 4.32 26 26 0 145.2 156 82 70 17 28 100 1.26 3.57 6.18
  2016 Salem Car A+ Bos 22 4 4 0.500 3.07 13 13 0 67.1 67 25 23 9 24 55 1.35 2.29 7.35
  2016 Portland East AA Bos 22 5 0.556 4.68 13 13 0 65.1 72 37 34 6 28 56 1.53 2.00 7.71
  2016 Surprise AFL Fall Bos 22 0 1 0.000 6.57  10 0 0 12.1 16 9 9 2 5 13 1.70 2.60 9.49
  2017 Portland East AA Bos 23 5 1 0.833 2.19 9 9 0 49.1 35 12 12 3 22 58 1.16 2.64 10.58
  2017 Pawtucket IL AAA Bos 23 6 7 0.462 3.86 17 17 0 95.2 86 45 41 10 33 97 1.24 2.94 9.13
  2018 Pawtucket IL AAA Bos 24 5 5 0.500 2.89 16 16 0 87.1 70 33 28 10   117 1.09 4.68 12.06
  2018 Boston AL MLB Bos 24 0 1 0.000 12.79 2 1 0 6.1 11 9 9 1 4 5 2.37 1.25 7.11
  2018 Tampa Bay AL MLB TB 24 5 0 1.000 4.47 12 0 0 44.1 41 22 22 5 20 37 1.38 1.85 7.51
  2019 Durham IL AAA TB 25 0 1 0.000 4.22 3 3 0 10.2 8 5 5 2 4 10 1.13 2.50 8.44
  2019 Tampa Bay AL MLB TB 25 6 3 0.667 4.31 33 3 1 104.1 115 56 50 12 40 89 1.49 2.23 7.68
  2020 Tampa Bay AL MLB TB 26 1 1 0.500 3.26 12 0 1 19.1 21 9 7 1 4 26 1.29 6.50 12.10
  2021 Tampa Bay AL MLB TB 27 --- --- DNP INJ --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
  2022 Tampa Bay AL MLB TB 28 2 3 0.400 2.80 42 7 2 61.0 49 22 19 7 22 70 1.16 3.18 10.33
  2023 Durham IL AAA TB 29 2 1 0.667 3.86 29 1 9 25,2 26 11 11 3 9 27 1.36 3.00 9.47
  2023 Tampa Bay AL MLB TB 29 2 3 0.400 5.95 30 8 1 42.1 42 28 28 4 21 47 1.49 2.24 9.99
  2024 Pittsburgh NL MLB Pit 30 1 0 1,000 3.92 26 0 1 20.2 28 13 9 0 9 17 1.79 1.89 7.4
  2024 Colorado NL MLB Col 30 6 4 0.600 4.74 45 0 9 49.1 49 29 26 6 18 38 1.36 2.11 6.9
   
  Additional Player Info  
  Pronunciation: ---
First Pro Contract:
June 21, 2014 by Chris Mears
Signing Bonus: $150,000
MiLB Debut: August 19, 2014 (GCL)
Added to 40-man: November 20, 2017 (Boston)
MLB Debut:
June 7, 2018 (Boston)
     
  Awards
Red Sox Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month (May 2015)
Red Sox Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month (April 2017)
Red Sox Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month (July 2017)
2017 Red Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Year
Red Sox Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month (April 2018)
International League Pitcher of the Week (April 16-22, 2018)
International League All-Star (2018)
SoxProspects.com Awards
SoxProspects.com Pitcher of the Week (April 17-23, 2017)
2017 SoxProspects.com Pitcher of the Year
2017 SoxProspects.com All-Star
SoxProspects.com Pitcher of the Week (April 16-22, 2018)
SoxProspects.com Pitcher of the Month (April 2018)
2018 SoxProspects.com All-Star
 
 
     
 
 
 
     
 
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