Former King’s Way Christian standout pitcher Damon Casetta-Stubbs is headed to the Cleveland Indians organization.
Casetta-Stubbs, who was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2018 out of King’s Way, became the “player to be named later” on Friday to complete the Mariners’ June 10 deal that brought infielder/outfielder Jake Bauers to Seattle.
Casetta-Stubbs, 21, was selected by the Mariners in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft.
On Friday night, Casetta-Stubbs posted on Twitter: “Thank you @Mariners, @MiLBMariners and everyone in the org… that was an amazing 3 years!”
The 6-foot-4 right hander made nine starts for Low-A Modesto this season, going 3-3 with a 6.42 ERA (29 earned runs, 40.2 innings pitched) with 27 walks and 58 strikeouts.
On June 20, Casetta-Stubbs struck out a career-high 11 batters in six innings in the Nuts’ 8-0 win over the San Jose Giants.
In 41 professional games (39 starts) in the Mariners organization, Casetta-Stubbs went 9-13 with a 5.82 ERA (106 ER, 164.0 IP) with 73 walks and 172 strikeouts from 2018-21.
Ryan Divish, the Mariners beat reporter for the Seattle Times, tweeted: “Talked to a couple scouts earlier in the year that really liked how Casetta-Stubbs was was progressing.”
If Casetta-Stubbs goes into the Cleveland organization at the same level he was at with Seattle, the Lynchburg (Va.) Hillcats are Cleveland’s Low-A affiliate. The High-A affiliate is the Lake County Captains in Eastlake, Ohio.
In mid-May, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote that Casetta-Stubbs had improved his velocity from sitting in the low-90s to working in the 93-95 mph range consistently. Longenhagen slotted Casetta-Stubbs as the No. 25 prospect in the Mariners system.
