Guardians Made One of The Most Intriguing Picks Of The MLB Draft

The Cleveland Guardians have historically performed well during the MLB Draft, identifying solid young talent that goes on to become key pieces of their MLB roster.

This narrative is especially true when it comes to pitchers.

The Guardians may have focused heavily on college bats during the first few rounds of the 2025 MLB Draft, but Sam Dykstra of MLB.com believes Cleveland made one of the most intriguing selections of the draft.

With the 282nd overall pick, the Guardians drafted LHP Ryan Prager out of Texas A&M.

The analyst believes this pick is so interesting because "Prager was the ace of the Aggies' College World Series runner-up squad in 2024, leading to a third-round pick by the Angels. He didn't sign and saw his stuff and results take a downturn in College Station in '25. His fastball, which sat around 88 mph this spring, still has decent life, and his upper-70s changeup is his best pitch."

During the 2024 season, Prager recorded a 2.95 ERA and a 1.055 WHIP, which spiked to a 4.21 ERA and a 1.260 WHIP in 2025.

The biggest drop in Prager's stats was his strikeouts. He struck out 11.4 batters per nine innings in 2024, but that fell to 7.9 in 2025.

The jump in some of Prager's statistics must have scared some teams quite a bit, as he went from a third-round pick in 2024 all the way down to a ninth-round pick in 2025.

However, the Guardians have a strong history of developing pitchers, and there are some they obviously see in Prager to make him a quality big league arm.

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