2023 MLB Draft Profile: Chase Dollander
Chase Dollander is a highly touted pitching prospect out of Tennessee. With a devastating fastball and good offspeed to pair with it, is there a path to the MLB for Chase Dollander? Dollander himself was once considered the top arm of this class, but a lackluster season by his standards has seen him slip just a little.
Scouting grades: Fastball: 70 | Curveball: 50 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 55 | Control: 55 | Overall: 60
When first looking at a Dollander you immediately take notice of his fastball. While not as elite as the fastball from Paul Skenes, Dollander’s still gives plenty of reason to be impressed. It sits at 95-97 mph with the ability to get up to 99.
It generates a lot of swings and misses with its pure velocity, carry and run. It’s overall a very impressive pitch and one that Dollander will have to rely on to succeed.
But what about the offspeed? Chase Dollander has a slider, curveball and changeup to pair with his lethal fastball. The slider is the best of his offspeed grading at 60/80. It’s a great put-away pitch for him and has wicked lateral movement.
It sits in the mid-80s and serves as a great change of speed and movement from that fastball. The curveball/changeup, while not terrible still needs some work before they are big-league pitches.
He just isn’t as consistent when it comes to locating those two pitches. They have to potential to be big-league pitches but they just need a little bit of tooling before they get there.
Another big struggle for Chase Dollander is his command. Which is a big reason why his curveball and changeup struggle so much. He sometimes just loses command and relies too much on his athleticism/frame to get strikes across.
He still has time to grow into his lengthy body and put on some extra weight. Something that I think could really benefit Dollander.
Overall I see the big-league potential with Dollander. The fastball is already there with the slider not too far behind. He just needs to develop those last off-speed pitches and we’re talking about a potential superstar pitcher.
But for whatever reason I just don’t see it working out for Dollander. The offspeed doesn’t show me enough and I don’t think the fastball is good enough to constantly rely on it. But I could be totally wrong and Dollander could end up being the best pitcher of all time.
I’ll tell you what, I sure hope I’m wrong and this kid ends up proving me wrong. After all, I have no real way of knowing how these kids will pan out.
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