Fifteen batters dug into the box opposite Christian Zazueta on Thursday night and 15 went back to the bat rack shaking their heads.
The Dodgers’ No. 9 prospect turned in his best start of 2026, pumping premium velocity coupled with a nasty changeup across five perfect innings in the second game of High-A Great Lakes’ doubleheader against Lake County at Dow Diamond, a contest that oddly ended in a 3-2 Loons' loss on a walk-off homer in their own ballpark.
There are plenty of instances throughout baseball history in which a starting pitcher retires a stretch of batters in a row, often getting some timely and extremely valuable defensive help to bail him out. This was not one of those starts.
Zazueta didn’t allow so much as a hard-hit ball to a stout lineup full of the Guardians' Top 30 prospects over his five frames, collecting seven strikeouts to go along with three weakly hit groundouts, three sky-high flyouts and two popups. Five of those punchouts came on his 87-88 mph changeup, which flummoxed left- and right-handed hitters alike. He went to his fastball -- which topped 98 mph on multiple occasions -- for the other two K’s.
More from MLB Pipeline:
• Top 100 prospects | Stats | Video | Podcast | Complete coverage
As exciting as Zazueta’s stuff has proven to be, it’s further heightened by the fact he has continued to masterfully pepper the strike zone. He threw first-pitch strikes to 12 of the 15 batters he faced Thursday, with 43 of his 58 pitches going for strikes. He has walked more than two batters in a start just once over the past 23 outings dating back to May 7, 2025.
Despite having a pair of 60-grade offerings (fastball, changeup) in his arsenal, Zazueta has had a bit of an up-and-down campaign after winning the organizational Pitcher of the Year honors in 2025. The 6-foot-3 righty endured a five-start stretch in which he allowed a homer each time out, leading to a 4.58 ERA as the calendar flipped to June.
Since then, he’s been nearly unhittable. The Dodgers have kept his pitch count below 60 for each of his three June appearances, and he’s combined to allow only three hits with opponents batting just .083 against him.
COMPLETE DODGERS PROSPECT COVERAGE
Much of the talk around Dodgers prospects in 2026 has been understandably dominated by their group of supremely gifted outfielders. But they’ve also quietly built up a cadre of arms. Their top four pitching prospects (Zazueta included) got their starts in pro ball in different organizations before being acquired in trades.
The 21-year-old Zazueta first signed with the Yankees in 2022 before joining the Dodgers as part of the return package for southpaw Caleb Ferguson in February 2024. He endured a rough first go in the California League that summer before growing into his stuff, a testament to the work done in developing him from a thrower into a pitcher.
All told, Zazueta’s ascent has been another major win for a Dodgers development staff that has recently maximized the talents of Justin Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan and others en route to their contributions at the big league level. Those same pieces are in place for Zazueta.