Dodgers: Cole Pervical, Son of Former All-Star Closer, Among ‘Rising’ Stars

Cole Percival was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 31st round out of Riverside Poly High School in 2017, but he chose to go to UC Riverside to play for his dad, former Angels closer Troy Percival. That ended up being a good thing for the Dodgers. 

Three years later, as Maria Torres of The Athletic explains, Percival was faced with a tough choice. The UCR baseball program seemed likely to be cut and Percival hadn’t been drafted in the pandemic-shortened 2020 draft, so his options were to transfer and play his last year of college ball somewhere else or try to sign with a team for the $20,000 allowed amount.

Percival wanted to play for the Angels, the team he grew up rooting for as the son of their star closer. The Angels never approached him with an offer, but the Dodgers did. As far as second choices go, a guy like Percival could do much worse than the Dodgers, who are famous for their player development system, especially with it comes to helping young pitchers reach their potential.

As Torres notes, Percival was recently promoted to Double-A Tulsa after posting a 3.77 ERA in 57.1 innings for High-A Great Lakes. His walk rate across two seasons in the minors is at 5 BB/9, which is definitely higher than they want it, but he is showing signs of improvement in that area already, with 16 strikeouts and just four walks in the nine games leading up to his promotion to Double-A. With the Dodgers’ track record of helping prospects refine their command, a decrease in Percival’s walks coupled with his solid strikeout rate could help turn him into a legitimate prospect.

Oh yeah, and he looks a lot like his dad, who was quite an intimidating force on the mound.

Gotta love watching Cole Percival throw the last 3 outs, it's Mark Fidrych-type fun! By the way, he has some of the best stuff of any pitcher in the org., see for yourself!
His ERA in July is just 1.74, his WHIP is just 0.87, & he has 14 K's to just 3 walks this month. #dodgers pic.twitter.com/yKa3Rl8F41

— Dodgers Daily (@dodger_daily) July 29, 2022

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