PUTTING IN THE WORK
Coming out of his suburban St. Louis high school in 2017, righthander Jackson Rutledge looked like he was more than ready for pro ball.
The Rockwood Summit High senior stood 6-foot-8 and had already outgrown his father, John, who is 6-foot-5 and played ball in college.
It wasn’t just size that attracted scouts to Rutledge. His fastball routinely sat in the low 90s with excellent sinking life. He checked in at No. 183 on Baseball America’s ranking of prospects for the 2017 draft, which would have put him squarely in the middle of the sixth round.
But the timing wasn’t quite right. “He was not ready for the draft out of high school,” John said, “just
