First a switch-pitcher now Seattle Mariners draft a 2-way player.
The Seattle Mariners already made perhaps the most interesting pick of the first round of the MLB Draft. It seems like now they’re trying to make sure they have the year’s most interesting draft class as a whole.
Seattle Mariners MLB Draft Tracker: Keep up with every 2024 pick
A day after Seattle took switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje at No. 15 overall, they piqued the interest of the baseball world again with their sixth-round selection: catcher/pitcher Grant Knipp.
That’s right – in a single draft class, the Mariners have taken a pitcher who throws hard with both arms, and a hard-hitting catcher who can also light up the radar gun on the mound.
The stats the 22-year-old Knipp put up this year at Campbell University as a hitter alone made him worth draft consideration. Not only did he finish the year with an OPS over 1.000, but even his slugging percentage (which is half the equation for OPS) was over 1.000. In just 29 games, Knipp crushed 18 homers along with eight doubles and a triple, contributing to his eye-popping slash line of .402/.547/1.029 for a 1.576 OPS.
Grant Knipp doing Grant Knipp things. 4⃣6⃣1⃣ FEET!
📺 | https://t.co/921jb6ideg@FloBaseball #RDH pic.twitter.com/4Mt9TXnAPl
— Campbell Baseball (@GoCamelsBSB) April 27, 2024
According to Future Stars Series senior analyst Joe Doyle, a regular guest on Seattle Sports programming, Knipp has “enormous raw power” and was fourth in the country this year in average exit velocity as a hitter.
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The Louisville, Ky., native isn’t as accomplished on the mound, making just four appearances for the Camels, all of which came this year in relief (watch a clip here). That’s not enough of a sample size for the stats (5 2/3 innings, six strikeouts, one walk, one earned run) to be meaningful, but per 643 Sports, he hit 97.2 mph at the MLB Combine last month, and that fastball also features 20 inches of induced vertical break.
.@grantknipp gets it done on the mound and at the plate 👊 #TridentsUp pic.twitter.com/uQLuYQN77P
— Mariners Player Development (@MsPlayerDev) July 15, 2024
It’s not all that uncommon for college position players to also take turns on the mound for their teams, but it is much more rare for those players to be listed as both a position player and pitcher when drafted – which is the case for the Mariners with Knipp.
There was another two-player taken on Sunday, which is the only reason the aforementioned Cijntje can’t be called the hands-down most interesting pick of the first round this year. Florida first baseman/left-handed pitcher Jac Caglianone went No. 6 overall to the Kansas City Royals.
