No. 11 Draft pick Arnold leans into funky delivery, Sale comps

This story originally ran previously, before Jamie Arnold was drafted with the No. 11 pick by the Athletics.

When it comes to the ideal mold of a pitcher in the Draft, top prospects can come in all shapes and sizes.

Yes, many will picture a Paul Skenes type: 6-foot-6 with a clean delivery, upper-90s fastball velocity and several plus secondary pitches. But, of course, there aren't many pitchers like Skenes.

To this point, look no further than Jamie Arnold, who established himself as one of the top pitching prospects in the 2025 Draft after a stellar sophomore season at Florida State and reasserted his promise in his junior season as he sits at No. 4 on MLB Pipeline's Draft Top 250.

The southpaw stands confident at 6-foot-1 and employs a whippy low-three-quarters delivery that gives him plenty of deception. It's non-traditional, but the added funk helps his fastball, up to 97 mph, and 65-grade slider, one of the best in the class, play up even more and makes his profile all the more interesting.

That rare combination of arm slot and stuff has drawn comparisons to eight-time All-Star Chris Sale, who went to high school in Lakeland, Fla., 36 miles from Arnold's Jesuit High School in Tampa. And while Sale has five inches on his fellow Floridian lefty, the comparisons are easy to draw, with how Arnold has paired an unusual yet smooth delivery with an electric repertoire.

"I've been lucky," Arnold told MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo on the MLB Pipeline Podcast. "I am pretty flexible, and I think a big part of my maturation with throwing harder was just understanding how I move and what my body's doing and the sort of positions I need to get in to throw hard. And that was something that took a little bit to learn. … I think that is key for any player in baseball, having a routine, sticking to it and just understanding what you do well."

Arnold got to see the field earlier than expected as a freshman, in part because his Seminoles were thin on pitching depth. The results weren't there, as he walked 27 batters in 44 innings and held a 6.34 ERA. But he made a point of building off of his failures and channeling that into a productive season at the Cape Cod League over the summer, which carried over into that excellent sophomore campaign.

Finally a full-time starter, Arnold finished third in Division I behind 2024 first-rounders Chase Burns and Hagen Smith with 159 strikeouts in 105 2/3 innings. He cut his walk rate by more than half, held a 2.98 ERA and became a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist. Arnold also earned a spot pitching for USA Baseball on the Collegiate National Team and stuck out seven across four hitless innings in his lone appearance that summer.

Arnold's junior season was impressive again, if slightly less dominant. He again held a 2.98 ERA and struck out 119 batters in 84 2/3 innings, although he missed a start due to illness and saw his walk rate tick up from 5.8 to 7.7 percent. Still, it offered further proof that his delivery is part of what makes him special rather than a major reason for concern.

"I've stayed healthy the last few years,” said Arnold, who added that he uses an energy-based approach on the mound. "I've never felt anything that's wrong with my mechanics. I feel like it's a pretty athletic delivery. It's funky, but, I mean, it feels smooth to me, and I don't try to throw too hard, so I think it works for me."

The widespread adoption of high-speed cameras and the understanding of the value of vertical approach angle has helped illustrate why his rare approach is so effective -- and how he can build around it as a strength rather than see it as some sort of flaw. The combination of his low release point, smaller size and exceptional ride he can impart on the fastball give Arnold an exceptional high VAA, making his heater appear to almost rise. That is even more devastating when thrown high or above the zone.

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Arnold admitted that he was throwing his fastball this year from a higher slot than intended, which contributed to his drop in strike rate (68.7 to 59.0 percent), chase rate (33.0 to 20.8) and whiff rate (30.7 to 22.6). But it's something he's working to improve to capture his most dominant form.

The team that drafts him in July, potentially in the top five, certainly has a lot to dream on, especially if he can recapture that dominant 2024 fastball-slider combination. And he's happy to prove that his brand of pitching can one day lead a big league rotation.

"When you combine that kind of look, and there's deception, and the angle that it attacks vertically, obviously, but then you have where the ball is thrown, it's almost coming from basically behind the left-handed hitter, and that's such a severe angle for the lefty and the righty," Florida State baseball coach Link Jarrett said. "All of it combined with the stuff itself makes for a very tough at-bat, very unique, very valuable. It checks all the boxes. … This is the natural gift that he has."