And with that, we arrive at the final pick of the first round.
The Cleveland Spiders are back on the clock after grabbing Matt Clement earlier, and their strategy here is refreshingly simple:
Find more pitching.
Keep finding pitching.
Continue finding pitching until somebody can reliably get through six innings.
The Spiders remain one of the league’s most entertaining contradictions. Every year they score a ton of runs, hit a ton of home runs, and spend half the season wondering why their pitching staff is actively working against them.
The offense remains good.
The offense is also getting older.
But that’s tomorrow’s problem.
Today’s problem is pitching.
Which brings us to Jose Jimenez.
Among the collection of 2.5-star starters still available, Jimenez stands out as one of the more intriguing options. Not because he has ace potential. Not because scouts are projecting Cy Young Awards.
Because he looks like a pitcher.
And at Pick #24, that matters.
The movement is appealing.
The projected control is solid.
The stamina allows him to actually function as a starting pitcher, which is becoming an increasingly valuable trait in modern baseball.
Most importantly, he’s close to ready.
Cleveland doesn’t necessarily need another long-term project. They need innings. They need competence. They need somebody capable of taking the ball every fifth day and giving their offense a chance to do what it does best.
Score runs.
Lots of them.
Jimenez won’t headline prospect rankings.
He won’t be featured in “future ace” discussions.
What he might become is something arguably more valuable for a team like Cleveland:
A dependable starter.
The kind of pitcher who quietly throws 180 innings every season while fans spend all their time talking about everyone else.
And after years of watching Cleveland’s bullpen absorb the workload of three separate pitching staffs, dependable sounds pretty good.
With Matt Clement and Jose Jimenez, the Spiders leave the first round having addressed their biggest weakness twice.
That’s not exciting.
It’s probably smart.
Which is usually how good drafts work.
PICK #24
Cleveland Spiders select SP Jose Jimenez