On Monday, Stanford junior left-handed pitcher Drew Dowd went 243rd overall to the Tampa Bay Rays in the 8th round of the 2023 MLB Draft. Dowd was the eighth Cardinal selected in the draft, following Eddie Park who went 239th to the Chicago White Sox.
Dowd came out of the bullpen for most of the season, starting in just three games. Despite his lack of starts, Dowd racked up an impressive 9-3 record to go along with a 4.52 ERA, the second best ERA of anyone on the team behind Quinn Mathews. In 65.2 innings pitched, Dowd had 88 strikeouts.
With Mathews moving to the Friday night starter role for this season, Dowd had to really be the main anchor of the Cardinal bullpen this season and he did a really good job of holding down the fort. Whenever the Cardinal were in a bit of a jam and needed to get some clutch out late in games, Dowd was frequently called upon and rose to the challenge. He rarely wavered under pressure and was one of the most reliable arms on the team all season long. The Cardinal would not have gotten back to the College World Series this season without his consistency coming out of the bullpen.
While the Rays aren’t getting Mathews, whom they selected last year, they are getting Dowd, who has a similar type of pitching style to Mathews. Just in terms of his ability to get strikeouts with his excellent pitch placement and control. The Rays are known for their ability to develop players and with him needing some development as well, this really is a great place for Dowd to end up. It’ll be fun to see how he does.
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