San Diego’s lone representative on the MLB.com Top 100 list, Kruz Schoolcraft (#88) is new to pro ball, being drafted 25th overall in the 2025 Draft. The Padres drafted Schoolcraft out of Sunset High School in Oregon, and the big league club is focused on making their current on-the-field product as vaunted as possible to compete with the rival Dodgers. That tells me two things are likely: 1) it will likely be years before Schoolcraft debuts, and 2) with San Diego’s aggressiveness on the big league market, I think it’s more likely than not that if Schoolcraft reaches the Majors, it will be in another uniform.

Schoolcraft was a two-way player in high school, also playing first base when he’s not on the mound. He towers over the opposition at 6’8 and 229 pounds. All indications are that the Padres drafted him to be a full-time pitcher, but if the club is patient with him, they could experiment with him as a hitter at the pro levels. Everybody wants a Shohei, right?

His fastball reached 99 MPH after the Draft, but his heat at present has very little carry to it. He’ll have to work on that if he doesn’t want to get hit hard. Currently, his best pitch is his mid-80s changeup, which he commands very well.

I’ve seen comps to David Price and Andrew Miller, but the closest comp to me is that of 17-year vet Chuck Finley. Schoolcraft has a couple of inches on the 6’6 Finley and a couple more notches on his fastball, but what drew me to the comparison was the uncomfortable arm angle and the fact that the 5x All-Star Finley broke into the bigs in 1986 as part of the Angels bullpen before transitioning to the rotation in 1988. Early tape on Schoolcraft shows that availability to different roles is his fastest path to the Show. To this day, Finley holds multiple team pitching records, so Finley could be a good pitcher to model his career after. With so little pro experience under his belt, only time will tell how the 18-year-old Schoolcraft will develop…and for who.