Tyler Mapes

Position: RHSP
Level: Double-A
Affiliate: Harrisburg Senators
League:
Age: 24 yrs, 11m
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 205
B/T: Right / Right
Acquired: 30th Rd., 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft (WSH)

Prospect Spotlight

Mapes is a former 30th-round pick of the Nationals from 2014, and after a rookie season being used purely in relief, he began spot-starting for Potomac in the High A Carolina League in 2015, and transitioned to Harrisburg’s rotation full-time this year. His carrying card is his command, and it was on display in this viewing — a three-hit shutout of the Trenton Thunder on May 16 on 98 pitches (68 for strikes).

Mapes has a muscular, bordering on bulky, athletic build that includes a running back’s lower half. He looks to be playing above his listed weight at present. He gathers with a sharp leg lift to his chest with slight rotation behind the rubber, and uncoils with strong drive off the rubber into a 3/4 arm slot, with his finish falling off to the first base side due to his high-effort mechanics.

For all that effort, however, his fastball was sitting at just 88-to-91 mph (T92), though he showed plus command of the pitch, and the ability to move it to both sides of the plate with some two-seam, boring action to the arm side, and with some mild sink to the glove side. While he was able to dot the pitch to in the lower third, his lack of velo left me thinking that his lean muscle mass may actually be hindering his arm speed, and he may not be able to dial it up any further than its present below-average velo range.

His best pitch was his slider, which sat 83-to-86 mph and was down in the zone all night. He started one version of the pitch at the belt of righties and it showed sweeping action into the zone with some late bite to it, and its effectiveness was accentuated by Mapes’ positioning on the third base side of the rubber. It’s not a true out pitch for him, as it generated some hard contact that went for ground ball outs in later innings. A second version was more of a slurvy 11-to-5 shaped offering thrown in the 75-to-79 mph range, starting on a fastball plane on the plate and dropping to the outside corner with some late bite as a chase pitch (a nice sample of which can be seen here, courtesy of milb.com). He flashed a changeup in the 78-to-80 mph range that had some late drop to the arm side, but it was used sparingly since he was pitching to contact and getting hitters out with great command of his fastball/slider combination in this viewing.

His solid build and athleticism are what you want to see in a starting pitcher, and his durability through the first half of the season already has him about 15 IP away from his 2015 total innings. And he does have plus-grade command of his fastball/slider combination, which is enough to get hitters out right now. But with the fastball being a below-average overall offering his slider being an average pitch, and his changeup being fringe-average, he still has a lot of work to do stay in a starter’s role beyond his current level. He’ll need to sequence the changeup into his repertoire a lot more, and have it play to at least an average grade, to see continued success against more advanced hitters. Based on his current three-pitch mix, he’ll be working on laser-thin margin for error to keep moving up the Senators’ system.