Prospect Profile: Pedro Araujo
Pedro Araujo is the number 27 prospect on the MLB Pipeline top 30 prospects for the Baltimore Orioles. He comes in ahead of Luis Gonzalez who I profiled yesterday.
Pedro signed as an international free agent with the Chicago Cubs in 2011. He spent seven seasons in the Cubs Organization before being taken in the Rule-5 Draft in December.
Born in San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic, Pedro spent four seasons in the Dominican Summer League. He appeared in 40 games in the DSL making 22 starts throwing 155 innings. He had a career 17-4 record with a 3.00 era and 143 strike outs.
He got his first taste of stateside pro ball in the Arizona Rookie League. He made 10 appearances all from the bullpen, pitching 16.1 innings. He had a 2.76 ERA striking out 27 and earned one save.
He then spent the next three seasons across the three levels of A ball. From 2015-2017 Pedro appeared in 95 games, coming out of the bullpen for all of them, throwing in 170 innings. In those three seasons he had a 9-5 record with 15 saves, a 2.38 ERA, and struck out 224 batters.
Araujo is tied with Hunter Harvey for best curveball on the top 30 list according to MLB. On a scale of 20-80, his curveball is rated at a 60. His fastball is ranked just below that at 55.
As a rule-5 pick, Pedro will have to stay on the roster the entire year for the Orioles to keep him. The last time the Orioles had a rule-5 pick who had not pitched above A ball was Jason Garcia in 2015. Garcia only pitched in 21 games that year and was hid on the DL for most of the season.
Pedro has impressed so far in Spring Training. He has only faced six batters across his two innings of work striking out three. An impressive Spring could lead the way for him to be a viable option out of the bullpen.
