Travis Lakins Stats & Scouting Report — College Baseball, MLB Draft, Prospects

IP	87
ERA	4.862
WHIP	1.506
BB/9	4.759
SO/9	7.759

Full name Travis Clay Lakins Sr.
Born 06/29/1994 in Middletown, OH
Profile Ht.: 6'1" / Wt.: 220 / Bats: R / Throws: R
School Ohio State
Debut 04/23/2019
Drafted in the 6th round (171st overall) by the Boston Red Sox in 2015 (signed for $320,000).

View Draft Report

Lakins had always dreamed of attending Ohio State, so when the Buckeyes made him a scholarship offer it was no surprise to see him quickly accept. Lakins has a compact (6-foot-1, 175 pounds), athletic build. He had an extremely impressive freshman year and showed premium stuff in a summer stint in the Prospect League last summer. But as a sophomore, Lakins' stuff took a slight step back. He's touched 94-96 mph at his best but he was generally 88-93 mph this spring, although he started showing improved velocity again late in the season. His slider has backed up, but he's started throwing his 12-to-6 curveball more. Both flash the potential to be an average pitch, but he may need to shelve one at least temporarily to improve the other. His changeup is a fringe-average pitch with some fade. Lakins has had trouble leaving the ball up in the zone at times this year and he was punished for that by allowing a team-worst seven home runs and seven triples.

Top Rankings

Organization Prospect Rankings

Track Record: Though Lakins showed some of the best stuff of any Red Sox starting pitching prospect, both of his first two pro seasons ended with stress fractures in his right elbow tip, prompting the team to move him to the bullpen in 2018.

Scouting Report: Lakins still uses the entire four-pitch repertoire that he employed as a starter, though he relies chiefly on his fastball that reaches 96 mph and a plus cutter. Even so, the breadth of pitches gives him a chance to be more than a single-inning reliever. Lakins’ fastball is straight, so velocity and location are essential for its effectiveness. His the ability to shape his cutter played off his fastball well and showed the ability to generate swings and misses.

The Future: Lakins likely will open the year in Triple-A. He should be a big league depth option in 2019 with a middle-innings future.
After his 2016 season with high Class A Salem was halted by a stress fracture in his right elbow tip, Lakins returned to the Carolina League to open 2017 and looked as impressive as any pitcher in the Red Sox system. Lakins improved his strike-throwing by moving from the first- to the third-base side of the rubber, and a tightened his slider into a swing-and-miss pitch that complemented a mid-90s fastball and a potentially above-average curveball and changeup. But after Lakins went 5-0 with a 2.61 ERA and 27.7 percent strikeout rate in seven starts in Salem, his season ground to a halt following a promotion to Double-A, where he went 0-4, 6.23 with a 13.8 percent strikeout rate in eight starts before getting shut down with a recurrence of his elbow stress fracture. Scouts also noted that Lakins needs to focus on keeping the ball down in the zone. At his best, Lakins' four-pitch arsenal continues to show mid-rotation potential, and the Sox plan to continue his development as a starter, but some evaluators wonder whether narrowing his repertoire to a fastball/slider pairing as a reliever will become necessary to protect his elbow.
Lakins represented something of an unmolded ball of clay when the Red Sox took him out of Ohio State as a draft-eligible sophomore in 2015 and signed him for $320,000. He had been a pitcher who shuttled between the rotation and bullpen while receiving little guidance about how to channel his excellent athleticism and four-pitch mix into consistent results. Lakins showed enough in his pro debut and during spring training to convince the Red Sox to push him to high Class A Salem in 2016, and the initial returns were impressive. He recorded a 2.13 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning in April. However, he proved inconsistent over the next three months with an ERA north of 7.00 before the Red Sox shut him down at the end of July with a stress fracture in the tip of his elbow. The injury may have contributed to his struggles, but his elbow healed enough for him to follow a relatively normal offseason program. At his best, Lakins showed a low- to mid-90s fastball that he mixed with a true 12-to-6 curveball and feel for a potentially average changeup. He paired that repertoire with the athleticism to repeat his delivery, which could lead to average command and a ceiling as a mid-rotation starter. Regardless, his fastball-curveball combination gives him a floor of depth starter or middle reliever.
Lakins had a strong freshman year out of the bullpen at Ohio State (2.45 ERA, 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings), with his numbers ticking down as a draft-eligible starter in 2015 (3.75 ERA, 7.9 strikeouts per nine). Yet between his ability to touch the mid-90s with his fastball, the tremendous spin on his curveball and the athleticism to repeat his delivery and start, the Red Sox saw Lakins as a college pitcher with a higher-than-usual ceiling when they signed him for an above-slot $320,000 bonus as a sixth-round pick. Though he pitched just three pro innings in 2015 while building shoulder strength, Lakins opened eyes in instructional league, showing the ability to throw strikes with three pitches (fastball, curve, changeup) while displaying life on a fastball that regularly registered at 92-93 mph and topped out around 95, along with a true curveball and a changeup with late action. In a very limited look, Lakins showed the potential for three pitches that grade as average or better, even if he offers an element of the unknown because he's a pitcher who has spent so little time in the system.

Draft Prospects

Lakins had always dreamed of attending Ohio State, so when the Buckeyes made him a scholarship offer it was no surprise to see him quickly accept. Lakins has a compact (6-foot-1, 175 pounds), athletic build. He had an extremely impressive freshman year and showed premium stuff in a summer stint in the Prospect League last summer. But as a sophomore, Lakins' stuff took a slight step back. He's touched 94-96 mph at his best but he was generally 88-93 mph this spring, although he started showing improved velocity again late in the season. His slider has backed up, but he's started throwing his 12-to-6 curveball more. Both flash the potential to be an average pitch, but he may need to shelve one at least temporarily to improve the other. His changeup is a fringe-average pitch with some fade. Lakins has had trouble leaving the ball up in the zone at times this year and he was punished for that by allowing a team-worst seven home runs and seven triples.

Career Transactions

Lancaster Barnstormers placed RHP Travis Lakins Sr. on the 7-day injured list.
Lancaster Barnstormers activated RHP Travis Lakins Sr. from the 7-day injured list.
Lancaster Barnstormers placed RHP Travis Lakins Sr. on the 7-day injured list.
RHP Travis Lakins Sr. assigned to Lancaster Barnstormers.

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