2022 College World Series star surging up Guardians prospect lists in breakout year

Three years ago, Dylan DeLucia shot up MLB draft boards when he was named named the Most Outstanding Player at the College World Series.

The Guardians, who liked what they saw DeLucia do for Ole Miss in the tournament — 17 strikeouts and a 0.54 ERA in 16 2/3 innings (two starts) — selected him the sixth round of that year's MLB draft.

Unfortunately, he underwent Tommy John surgery shortly after being drafted, which delayed his pro debut all the way until last June. The good news is he made up for lost time quickly and pitched to a 2.55 ERA in nearly 50 innings across three levels last year

DeLucia started this year at High-A Lake County this season and picked up where he left off, striking out 54 hitters in 46 1/3 innings. He also recently earned a promotion to Double-A Akron, where he's impressed in two outings.

Guardians' 2022 draft pick Dylan DeLucia thriving in Double-A Akron

The jump to Double-A is often seen as the hardest in baseball, save for the final step to the big leagues from Triple-A.

You wouldn't know it from looking at DeLucia. In his first taste of Double-A baseball, the Ole Miss product hasn't allowed a run in 11 innings and has struck out 13 batters while allowing just two walks and hits.

After his first two starts in Akron, DeLucia has a career 2.95 ERA in 106 2/3 innings over 26 games (24 starts) in Minor League Baseball.

“There’s been a lot of things to be excited about with Dylan,” said Will Huntington, Guardians’ assistant director of player development, per MLB.com's Tim Stebbins. “The pedigree in college and just some of the things he showed during his collegiate career, especially the competitor [he was], the constantly showing up in big moments and in big games and rising to the occasion. We saw it in the College World Series. That's something we've seen be true in our organization as well.”

With the top of the Guardians' farm system featuring more hitting prospects than ever — only a couple of their top-ranked players are pitchers — DeLucia has a chance to quickly ascend through the system, especially as a 24-year-old who already has some championship pedigree.

Obviously, he won't continue to see such prolific success in Double-A forever. DeLucia, who has a high-quality fastball that sits in the mid-90s, needs to develop his secondary offerings to remain a starting pitcher. He'll also eventually be challenged by the hitters since the Eastern League has some of the game's top hitting prospects.

That being said, the righty has done nothing but dominate since returning from injury a year ago. If he wasn't on Guardians' fans radars before, he should be now.