Walters emerges as unlikely prospect
All across Brevard County, the secret was out by the time Andrew Walters suited up for his senior year at Palm Bay Bayside.
In one summer, the right-handed pitcher sprouted up from about 5-8 to something close to his 6-4 frame. In the next, he finally played a serious summer season with travel teams and stiffer competition. At home, Walters was a pitcher to fear.
In the greater baseball world, Brevard is nothing more than a blip, though, and word can only travel so fast about a lateblooming, showcasespurning righty from a middling Florida high school. Division I teams, including the Miami Hurricanes, hardly took notice, let alone MLB. For his first year of college, he barely left home and headed just a few miles up the road to Eastern Florida State College, a junior college in nearby Melbourne.
“The end goal,” he said, “was always to play at the highest level, whether it was D-I in a national championship or in the pros.”
He parlayed one season at the junior college into a scholarship offer from Miami, and then two years in Coral Gables into real major-league interest. This week, the relief pitcher has a real chance to be the first Hurricane picked in the 2022 MLB Draft and should go sometime Monday on Day 2 of the draft, when Rounds 2-10 play out, starting at 2 p.m. in Los Angeles.
The MLB draft kicks off Sunday at 7 p.m. with Round 1 at L.A. Live and wraps up Tuesday with Rounds 11-20, starting at 2 p.m.
A first-team All-American last season, Walters is the No. 130 prospect in the draft, according to MLB.com, and ProspectsLive.com considers him Miami’s top-ranked prospect at No. 70 overall.
It’s an unlikely rise for the once-unknown reliever, although maybe not as likely as it seems at first glance. Even when he was too short at Bayside or too skinny at Eastern Florida State, Walters made sure no one could ever question his arm, and Miami saw it as a worthwhile project.
“He had a delivery that was very easy … but you could see there was a lot more there if you built up the strength,” UM coach Gino DiMare said. “The pro guys, you would think, would drool over an arm like that.”
Now they are. It was just those other question marks keeping them from falling in love.
Few are interested in a 5-8 pitcher, which is what Walters was until his junior year of high school, and no one thought he was a finished package when he left his junior college at 205 pounds.
His height problems changed all in one summer — Kyle Walters, his father, is 6-8 and played basketball at the Division II Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, “so I was like, I’m going to grow I just don’t know when,” Walters said — and the growth spurt didn’t rob him of his smooth mechanics. His strength problems changed in two years in South Florida, bulking up to about 220 pounds and bringing his average fastball velocity from about 90 mph to 95-plus now.
Now he lacks is a dynamic second pitch, but it didn’t matter too much this year.
In his first season as closer, Walters notched 14 saves with a 1.65 ERA, 62 strikeouts and just six walks in 32 2⁄3 innings.
“He has the makings of a good breaking ball, but inconsistent,” DiMare said. “Once he gets that figured out, then the sky’s the limit.”
MIAMI’S OTHER MLB DRAFT PROSPECTS
Carson Palmquist is the other candidate to be the first Hurricane picked next week. No one projects to go in Round 1 on Sunday, but Palmquist could hear his name called before the start of Round 3 on Monday, as the No. 86 prospect in MLB.com’s draft rankings and the only Miami player ranked inside Baseball America’s top 100.
DiMare compares the 6-3, 185-pound left-handed pitcher to Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale because of their spindly frame and unorthodox, lower-slot lefty release point.
“He’s a guy that’s deceptive,” DiMare said.
He has also just been really good. After his first season was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Palmquist became the Hurricanes’ closing pitcher as a freshman in 2021 and was one of the best in the country, finishing third in the nation with 14 saves and posting a preposterous 75-to-8 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 44 2⁄3 innings. He gathered first-team AllAmerican honors, and then Miami moved him to the starting rotation as a sophomore and he still thrived.
In 84 innings across 16 starts last season, Palmquist posted a 2.89 ERA with 118 strikeouts and 32 walks.
His success in both roles could make him appealing to MLB teams: If he can develop his changeup to go along with his reliable fastball-slider combo, he could stick as a starting pitcher; if he can’t find a good third pitch, he has a good track record as a relief pitcher using his two-pitch mix.
“[Starting] helped him develop his other secondary pitches, which is good. He still needs work,” DiMare said. “If he was more polished with those pitches, he’s probably a possible first-day guy.”
Right-handed pitcher Alex McFarlane entered the transfer portal last month, but there’s a good chance he never suits up for another college. McFarlane is the No. 167
Aprospect draft, according to MLB.com, and DiMare said he expects the 6-4, 215-pound pitcher to sign after he struck out 68 batters in 45 innings with a pedestrian 4.00 ERA last season as a sophomore. He has a chance to become the highest drafted player ever from the United States Virgin Islands.
Jacob Burke could give the Hurricanes four second-day selections. The 6-1, 208-pound outfielder starred in his first season at Miami after transferring from Southeastern Louisiana, batting .347 with a .425 on-base percentage, .599 slugging percentage and 13 home runs as a sophomore. He’s No. 248 in ProspectsLive’s rankings.
Maxwell Romero Jr. should be picked at some point during Day 3 of the draft Tuesday. The 6-1, 218-pound catcher transferred from Vanderbilt and transferred back near home for his junior year — he graduated from Pembroke Pines Charter — and he made the most of his expanded opportunity with the Hurricanes by hitting .272 with 12 home runs last season. He’s No. 435 in ProspectsLive’s rankings.
Victor Mederos, who transferred from the Hurricanes to Oklahoma, should get drafted at some point next week, too, even though he posted just a 5.59 ERA in 13 starts as a sophomore.
The 6-2, 227-pound Cuban right-handed pitcher from Westminster Christian is No. 325 in ProspectsLive’s rankings.
Miami commit Elijah Green is a candidate to go No. 1 and will almost certainly sign with a professional team. The 6-3, 225-pound outfielder from Bradenton IMG Academy is the No. 3 prospect in MLB.com’s rankings. Green is the son of former Dolphins tight end Eric Green. Nazier Mule — a right-handed pitcher and shortstop from Passaic County Tech in Wayne, New Jersey — is No. 93 and the Hurricanes’ only other commit ranked inside the top
200.
AAAA