The main piece in the Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly trade to the Dodgers, Nastrini was a fourth-round pick by the Dodgers out of UCLA in the 2021 draft. Nastrini was not particularly outstanding at UCLA, as in three years there he had a 4.73 ERA in 23 games, 15 of which he started. He would only pitch 66 innings, but he struck out a staggering 95 batters in those 66 games, which was good for an elite 12.8 strikeouts per nine innings. That is why the Dodgers took him in the 4th round, in hopes that he could get everything figured out and be an outstanding prospect.
So far, Nastrini has been better than your typical fourth-round pick. In his first professional season after he was drafted, he split time between the Arizona Complex League and Low A, where he would toss 14 innings of 1.93 ERA baseball. In those 14 innings, he struck out 32 batters, which is more than 2 per inning! That is absolutely insane. This would lead to him starting in High A in the 2022 season.
At High A, Nastrini would start 21 games, throwing 86.1 innings. He would strike out 127 batters and hold them to a low .192 ERA. This would be good for a 3.86 ERA, which would earn him a promotion to AA for the latter part of the 2022 season.
At AA, he would start six games throwing 30 innings. He would strike out 42 batters and hold them to a .140 average. He had an elite WHIP too, sitting at .99. Somehow despite those great numbers his ERA was 4.15, which doesn’t add up as he didn’t get hit hard or walk too many batters.
He would start off pretty good at AA in 2023, as before the trade to the White Sox, he started 17 games, throwing 73 innings. He would strike out 85 batters, but he would get hit a bit more than last year and walk a few more batters, en route to a 4.03 ERA, 1.4 WHIP, and a .232 average. Not bad, but he would have liked to cut down on the walks.
Once he was traded to the Sox, he would struggle at first but started to figure out things as he got promoted to AAA. Overall, between both of the levels, he would post a 4.17 ERA over 41 innings. He would strike out 54 while walking 17 batters. Once he got to AAA, he only allowed a .154 average and had a 1.02 WHIP. This was good to see, as he ended the year on a high. I would grade his season as an A- as he had a solid year but can tweak things to truly become elite.
He is probably the pitching prospect that is closest to getting promoted to the MLB. I can see him breaking camp with the Sox in the back end of the rotation, as all it would take is a strong Spring Training. It would be refreshing to see a young, new face in the rotation, as it seems the White Sox have not had a high-rated homegrown pitching talent make it to the rotation in a long time.
