When a player is drafted by the Dodgers and brought into the system, one of the first things they are told is that the organization wants them to be a great person, and a great baseball player and they want those two things to be in that exact order. 

The Dodgers develop a culture in their players that teaches them to understand the value of hard work, to be humble and tough, and to not be entitled. They drive home the idea that nothing in their career will be free, and that, instead, everything will be earned.  

This “Culture” that is instilled in players throughout the organization is one of the reasons that the Dodgers do so well in development.

Everyone has elite talent at the professional level, so talent, at some point, stops being enough. When that happens, those that have the right values continue to develop while those that don’t fade away.  

Ceiling Can’t Hold Him

Washington attended Episcopal Academy in High School, a Pennsylvania-based school that taught him lessons on time management and work ethic that he carries with him to this day.

He was always tall and lanky and with a toolbox of talent, discipline, and work ethic, he was destined to be great both on and off the field.

And he was.

During his High School career, he was First Team All-Main Line, and 3rd team All-Southeastern P.A., and got to play in the Carpenter Cup.  

He was quickly transitioning from a young athlete that was full of potential to one that was applying it to his everyday life.

In High School, I just kept improving.  I was 175 pounds and didn’t really throw hard so I got myself familiar with lifting weights during my Junior year of High School. I put on 25 pounds, and since then I have grown into my body and have become the pitcher I am now

Lehigh

Washington’s High School success got him an opportunity to play Division 1 baseball and get an elite education at Lehigh, one of the most prestigious Academic institutions in the world.  Balancing baseball with the rigors of a Lehigh Mechanical Engineering major is not an easy thing to do, so the time management and discipline he learned from the experience is something he will always appreciate.

Academically, Lehigh is a very rigorous school and Mechanical Engineering is not an easy major so it was really tough to balance baseball and being a student-athlete, But I ended up doing pretty well and learned a lot about time management because you have to be disciplined.

Washington is very humble, but, let me assure you, he did WAY better than pretty well. 

As a Sophomore, he posted Lehigh’s 4th all-time lowest single-season ERA at 1.80 and he allowed just 9 earned runs in 45 innings of work. 

After a very successful Sophomore season, he was invited to play in the NECBL league over the summer which gave him the chance to play against some of the best players in College baseball.  Washington knocked that Summer out of the park, pun intended, and became an All-Star in the NECBL, and was finally on the map. 

He gives high praise to Coach Leary and all of the staff at Lehigh for helping him grow both as a person and a player.

At Lehigh, I got with Coach Leary and the strength staff and started filling out my body and using my big frame. From there my Sophomore year clicked, and then, after my Sophomore year, I had a chance to put myself on the map by playing against guys from the biggest Conferences playing in the NECBL league. I made the All-Star team so that kind of helped put me on the map.

After a Summer that created a Pennsylvania-sized amount of momentum, Washington got off to a good start to his Junior season but was forced to shut down for a bit when he sprained his UCL He had put in so much great work and had such great momentum that he didn’t want to let this minor setback get in his way so he made it a goal to get back to his team by the end of the year.

And he did it. 

Washington made it back in time to pitch against Army in the Post Season and gave his Lehigh team the best chance he could to keep advancing.

In my Junior year, I put a lot of pressure on myself to throw really well and was throwing through some injuries and it didn’t end up going too well.  I ended up straining my UCL so I was out for a couple of weeks. They put me on some Anti-Flammatory meds and I was just trying to do everything I could to get back to my team. I ended up coming back but our run in the playoffs ended up coming up a little short.

Perspective

Washington has learned time management skills at Episcopal Academy and Lehigh and, he has also learned perspective through heartbreak. 

Mark’s mother, Rosella Clemons Washington, lost a battle with breast cancer during his Junior year, a tragedy that left Washington devastated. Rosella was an ultra-talented professional singer and one that Washington drew inspiration from so picking up the pieces was not an easy task.

Mark picked himself up, however, and, instead of letting that devastation ruin him, he has, instead, learned to use it as inspiration.

So, not only is Washington disciplined, intelligent and talented, but he is also extremely tough and knows how to handle adversity.

That was a tough time in my life because in my Junior year in High School my mom passed so dealing with that, then trying to get into college and different things was an interesting time in my life.  But I’ve since moved past that and Glory to God as he got me through everything and to where I’m at now.

One Step At a Time

The Dodgers drafted the battle-tested right-hander in the 25th round of the 2017 draft, and although he loved blue-collar “culture” at Lehigh, getting the chance to play professionally was a dream of his and he jumped on the chance. 

His time at Lehigh had come to an end, but he left with memories that last forever and got to celebrate with those that were the closest to him. 

All my teammates were very happy for me and we had a get-together and celebrated and my dad was there and so were my coaches so it was really fun. I enjoyed that I got drafted by the Dodgers because they believe in the team aspect.

Washington continued…

Right after I got drafted we had a talk with Gabe Kapler and he told us that we had to be teammates and good people first, and we have awards for those kinds of things every year and so that’s a big part of being in the Dodgers organization is that you need to be a good teammate first and a good player second.

Toolbox

Washington features a 3 pitch toolbox that centers around his fastball.  His fastball can sit in or close to the mid-’90s, and has hit as high as 97 on a somewhat regular occasion.

His fastball has a lot of “arm side” run to it, and being 95ish, it makes it really tough to square up or even hit at all. 

Here’s a video of his fastball that starts inside and tails back toward the inside corner.  When a left-handed hitter commits to swinging at this pitch it is inside off the plate, so it causes him to pull off and swing and miss. 

This pitch is thrown to what Washington calls the 4-hole and is a location he feels very confident in hitting.

Location, Location, Location

Washington does a really good job of using both sides of the plate with his fastball and when he locates it on the “arm side” corner of the plate it has a lot of “arm side” movement.

Changing Eye Levels

Another thing that Washington does very well is he changes the eye levels of the hitters he faces by using both the top and the bottom of the zone with his fastball.  Watch the amount of run this high and tight fastball has.  It gives off the effect to the hitter that the ball is rising.

Secondaries

It is no secret that Washington uses his fastball in a myriad of ways to not only set up the hitter, but also the rest of his arsenal.  He also has a changeup and a slider that he uses in patterns set up by his fastball.  His changeup is very “feel” heavy, so, as with everyone, it has a tendency to be a day-by-day thing.

But when it’s on it takes him to a different level.

Approach

Despite an immense amount of physical ability, one of Washington’s biggest strengths is his discipline in time management and routine, then also his intelligence to his approach.  So, as you’ll see in the next video, when he needs to back off the movement of his change up a touch to get it in the zone he knows how to do it.

Vertical Tilt

At 6’7, Washington is able to create a lot of vertical tilt to his pitches. Although he doesn’t feature a curve ball, sometimes, because he is so tall and gets so much vertical drop, his off speed pitches have the same break and effect as a 12/6 breaking ball would have. This amount of vertical drop gives him a fairly large margin for error.

Lots of Drop

What sticks out is that the pitch in this video, at its apex, is above the hitter’s head, but, by contact, is almost to the bottom of the zone. 

The hitter, by the way, is Luken Baker who is 6’4 and is a really good slugger.  The pitch in the video and the side by side, quite honestly, isn’t one of Washington’s best breaking balls he’s ever thrown.  In fact, it was pretty much left out over the plate and appears to be very hittable.  But, because the pitch has so much downward tilt Baker didn’t square it up and could only hit a routine fly ball to Center Field. 

This is what I mean when I say that his vertical tilt gives him a fairly large “margin for error”.  As you can see, he doesn’t have to be perfect to get even really good hitters, like Luken Baker, to miss their barrel.

Slider

Just in case hitters want to tilt the barrel more as an adjustment to Washington’s downward plane to his pitches, he also throws a 2-7 type slider. Make no mistake, Washington is more of a vertical break type pitcher than he is horizontal, but he can spin the slider to induce rollover ground balls.

Versatility

Washington has both “swing and hit” type stuff, then also has “swing and miss” stuff in his arsenal as well.  As a former starting pitcher, the “swing and hit” stuff is used for efficiency.  As a bullpen arm, the “swing and miss” stuff is used to be explosive.

That versatility is something that the Dodgers love and is why Washington’s development continues to build and why his ceiling is so intriguing.  If he’s needed to be a bulk inning guy he has the ability to be efficient and if he’s needed on the back end of the pen he has explosive enough stuff to do that too. 

Add the fact that he is exactly what the Dodgers desire, which is a great person first and then a versatile and great baseball player 2nd and it’s easy to get excited about his potential. 

Washington has a perspective on life above his years and a work ethic and efficiency in his daily routine that will give him every chance to keep building. 

He is tall, and he is talented and he is even more intelligent, so, again, his ceiling has yet to be built.  But when that ceiling does get built, hopefully, it will be covering his home in the MLB for many years.