Growing up in the Bay Area, Mitchell White grew up a Giants fan but had Dodger Blue running through his family’s veins. Whites’ grandpa moved to the United States in the late 1960’s and immediately became a huge Dodgers fan and his uncle Jay is a huge baseball fan as well. His uncle Jay and his Grandpa would watch the Dodgers play every night, and got to share their love of the Boys in Blue and the great game of baseball together. Then, in 2016, Mitchell was drafted in the 2nd round by the Dodgers out of Santa Clara and a family Dream had Come True .
Although his grandpa had passed away a couple years earlier his Uncle Jay has gotten to enjoy watching his 6’4 nephew play in some of the most cherished venues in all of baseball and for the team he grew up watching with his dad. White’s grandma is close enough where she can come watch her grandson pitch on the biggest stage of all, the MLB, and in L.A. as well. Needless to say, it has been one really cool experience for everyone in Whites family.
From Prep to Pro
White grew up playing baseball, but didn’t get overly serious about it until his prep school days at Bellarmine College Preparatory in the San Jose area. After graduating from Bellarmine, the oldest school in California, he took his talents to one of the oldest colleges in California, Santa Clara University.
At Santa Clara things started out slowly for the Bellarmine grad, as White had Tommy John surgery in his first fall of College baseball which forced him to redshirt during his first season. Being versatile in terms of the type of role he is asked to perform is nothing new for White as he started out as a reliever at Santa Clara, then transitioned to becoming a starter in his Redshirt Sophomore year.
White was the Friday night starter for the Broncos in his Redshirt Sophomore year and had 118 strikeouts to just 27 walks in 92 innings in 2016. His performance had made him a bigtime prospect and the Dodgers drafted him in the 2nd round of the 2016 draft with the 65th overall pick. The tall Bay Area native had become the 2nd highest Santa Clara draft pick in the history of the school in terms of the round he was selected in and the first to be drafted in the first 2 rounds since Greg Gohr in 1989.
Becoming a Dodger
Dealing with injuries and the stressful life of Professional baseball, White has learned to approach the game with an even keel. He was put on a fairly fast track early in his professional career and got off to a quick start as he was promoted to high A Rancho Cucamonga in the same year he got drafted in 2016. He entered his first full year of professional ball, 2017, ready to keep moving up.
That’s when the injury bug hit again, and in June of that year, 2017, White was put on the DL and then sent to the Arizona League Dodgers on a rehab assignment. But, he bounced right back and by the very next month, July, the fast tracked right hander was promoted again and this time to AA Tulsa where he finished the 2017 season. But, after a fast start in promotions, things slowed down for White as he spent all of 2018 in AA Tulsa as well.
In the following Spring, the Spring of 2019, 7 of Whites first 8 starts were still with AA Tulsa and the injury bug bit him again. During the 2019 season White was placed on the DL 3 different times, but he fought through it to compile a total of 93.2 innings with an ERA of 5.09.
Just as things looked like they were in neutral, the Dodgers selected his contract over the winter between 2019 and 2020 and his option years calendar had begun. At the beginning of 2020 he was optioned to AAA OKC, then when the Minor League season got cancelled, he spent his time at the Alternate Training site. White stayed at the Alternate Training Site until he got the call he had always been waiting for on August 1st as he was called up to L.A.
From August 1st of 2020 to the end of that season White would be optioned and recalled or activated 5 different times.
In 2021 things have been even more hectic for White as he started this Spring at the Alternate Site, has been put on the Injured list once, got placed in AAA OKC in March and has been up and down with L.A. 10 times.
Despite all that travel, White has been off the charts good in AAA OKC posting a miniscule 1.65 ERA in 43.2 innings in the hitter friendly AAA West division. AAA West has locations like Albuquerque, Salt Lake, Reno and Las Vegas where the ball really travels because of the altitude, so a 1.65 ERA is nothing short of remarkable.
During his time in L.A. in 2021, White has been very good too posting a 3.66 era in 46.2 innings pitched.
It is 2652 miles round trip from L.A. to OKC, so to think that White has been optioned and recalled 10 different times, and has been as effective as he has, having traveled that many miles, is impressive. Obviously not every recall has been directly from OKC, but the point to be made is that he has traveled thousands of miles, has had to be on call at basically all times, and has handled 2021 beautifully. Not only has he not known where he is going to be from day to day, he hasn’t even known what role he is going to be in. He has started games, opened games, been long relief then also been a 1 inning guy as well. He has shown the ultimate amount of flexibility and versatility in carving out his role with the World Series champion Dodgers.
4 Pitches Possible
Mitchell White is a guy that, if used in a starter role, could eventually have 4 pitches that he relies on. At the moment he is able to rely on his fastball slider and 12-6 curveball. He has a change up but is not able to control it as well as his other 3 pitches, so he throws it every now and then but not consistently.
His fastball ranges from 93 to 96 and he commands both sides of the plate with it and locates it both up and down in the zone. Here is his 4 seam “get me over” fastball he uses to get ahead in the count with.
He can also add some run to his fastball to get it to move in on the hands of right handed hitters
White will set hitters up by throwing his fastball away
Then he’ll come up and in with it to induce a swing and miss or weak contact jam shot.
To keep hitters off balance White uses his slider in a couple different ways. He can spin it and locate it just enough to maximize the pitches strike efficiency in what I call a “get me over”
Or he can start the pitch over the plate then move it away from right handers to induce an early swing and rollover
Or he can start it on the outer half of the plate and break it off the plate for a swing and miss.
His curveball has the ability to be a wipeout pitch with the amount of break and downward bite he has with it. He can choke up on it to make sure and throw it for a strike like in this video.
Or he can really put the hammer behind it and get a lot of bite to entice a lot of swing and miss.
Moving Forward
Mitchell White was a high draft pick for a reason, and although his rise through the system hit somewhat of a plateau, he has every tool needed to help the Dodgers for a long time. He can throw strikes with 3 pitches, can also add a hammer to those pitches to induce strike outs and he is versatile in his roles. As a 3 pitch strike thrower, White can open games, start games, be long relief, or just simply fill an inning. Over 162 games with injuries like the Dodgers have seen this year, that type of versatility is valuable, especially when it comes with the stuff White has. Having had the chance to talk to White, then also watching him several times in OKC, he is one that definitely makes you root for him because he is first class. Hopefully someday he won’t have to ride first class near as much as that will mean he has stuck with L.A.
