FSU has seen several players drafted in the early rounds in recent years, with a few making the plays in the MLB nowadays.
Cam Smith is the latest after becoming the No. 14 overall selection in the 2024 MLB Draft. Luke Weaver, Cal Raleigh, Cole Sands, Taylor Walls, and Tyler Holton made up the other five who started the season on an MLB roster.
The journey to make an MLB roster is filled with an incredible amount of variables. How early a player got drafted, development, injury luck, depth at a position for an organization, etc.
There's one player who has been dominant since getting drafted from FSU in the second round with the No. 54 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. It's starting pitcher Parker Messick, and he's yet to make his MLB debut. He's close, playing for the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians.
His stat line this season in Triple-A:
Wins | Losses | ERA | Innings Pitched | Strikeouts | Walks | Opposing Batting Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 | 1 | 2.64 | 47.2 | 62 | 24 | .200 |
Those are his numbers in 10 starts this season. He's been the truth in his entire minor league career, no matter where he played.
Wins | Losses | ERA | Innings Pitched | Strikeouts | Walks | Opposing Batting Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
17 | 13 | 3.18 | 303 | 363 | 107 | .224 |
Those are his numbers in 63 career games in the minors. Wins and losses don't mean much in the minor leagues because it's more about developing players to reach the majors. However, look at the rest of his career minor league stats. The guy has flat-out got it done in the minors for the past 2.5 years.
Messick was the third-highest-ranked pitching prospect in the Cleveland organization going into the 2025 season (No. 13 overall).
The scouting report from MLB.com:
"Messick's great equalizer is his tumbling low-80s changeup, which elicits plenty of chase and swings and misses, along with well-above-average grades from some evaluators. It helps him miss bats with his low-90s fastball, which also benefits from a flat approach angle and good carry up in the zone. He has mostly scrapped his upper-70s curveball and turned what had been an upper-70s slider into a more cutterish mid-80s version that played as an average offering last year.
Though the 6-foot, 225-pound Messick is more burly than athletic, he repeats his delivery well and provides consistent strikes. He hides the ball well and isn't afraid to challenge hitters with his less-than-overpowering arsenal. Similar to Joey Cantillo but with more strike-throwing ability, he offers a high floor as at least a back-of-the-rotation starter."
As someone who has been on the radar of Major League teams as a player, played against guys who were high draft picks and made it to the majors, sometimes MLB scouts fall in love with potential and projections far too much. Messick dominated in the ACC and has been dominant in the minors. I'm not saying he'll dominate in the majors, but the numbers say he has proven enough in the minors to earn a shot to do it in the majors at some point soon.