The Washington Nationals selected collegiate left-handed pitcher Tim Cate with their second-round selection (No. 65 overall) in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo, and Assistant General Manager & Vice President of Scouting Operations Kris Kline made the joint announcement.
Cate, a 6-foot-1, 186-pound junior went 5-4 with a 2.91 ERA (17 ER/52.2 IP) in 11 games (seven starts) for the University of Connecticut. He recorded 67 strikeouts, walked 19 batters and held opponents to a .258 batting average.
"Tim Cate is an advanced collegiate starter who gained even more experience playing with Team USA for two summers," Kline said. "He has one of the best left-handed curveballs in the Draft to go along with a really good fastball. He is a strike thrower with good, smooth delivery."
Cate entered the 2018 First-Year Player draft rated by Baseball America as the No. 54 draft prospect, by MLB.com as the No. 62 draft prospect, and is considered by many to have one of the best curveballs in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft.
Prior to the season, he was named to the Golden Spikes Award watch list and was a Preseason All-American by Baseball America, Perfect Game, and D1Baseball.com.
As a sophomore in 2017, Cate went 4-3 with a 3.33 ERA (28 ER/75.2 IP) with 102 strikeouts and 31 walks en route to being named First-Team All-Conference. Combined with his 101 strikeouts as a freshman in 2016, Cate became the first player in program history to eclipse the 100-strikeout mark in two consecutive seasons.
As a freshman, he was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and was named the American Athletic Conference Rookie Pitcher of the Year after going 5-1 with a 2.73 ERA (25 ER/82.1IPO) in 14 games (13 starts).
Cate enjoyed two stints as a member of the Team USA Collegiate National Team in the summers of 2016 and 2017. He was the first University of Connecticut Husky to appear with Team USA on two occasions.
A native of Manchester Conn., Cate attended Chaney Tech High School where he served as team captain and was named First-Team All-Conference as a senior.