The game of baseball is a daily grind that, for many, becomes a “way of life” and creates camaraderie and brothership that is unmatched. For Aaron Ochsenbein, a pitcher in the Dodgers organization, baseball became a passion at an early age, and he has taken that passion to the next level and is just a couple steps away from the ultimate prize, the MLB.
Background
Ochsenbein grew up in Lexington Kentucky and is the kind of story that makes him easy to root for because although he starred at Lawrence Dunbar in High School, he certainly wasn’t a “5-star” recruit, didn’t get drafted, and had just 1 DI offer which was from Eastern Kentucky where he ended up.
My recruiting trail was a little spotty and EKU was my only DI offer. During the summer after my Junior Year I pulled my oblique muscle and a bunch of the other schools that were talking to me fell off the table a little bit and then my Senior year EKU was still keeping tabs on me and they believed in me so I decided to go there.
Ochsenbein was very excited to get his College career started and got off to a great start, but after 8 starts into his first year on Campus he was faced with yet another injury, this time it was Tommy John Surgery, which forced him to shut down the rest of that year and miss all of 2016.
I was ecstatic to go to College as a Freshman and compete and kind of earn a spot there at EKU so to speak. I started off as a reliever there because they had Juniors and Seniors that had some Seniority, were super competitive and understood the game. It’s kind of funny, the day of my injury I was supposed to start that game but the day before my coach saw me with some ice on my arm and asked if I was okay. I told him I was just a little tender but would be ready to for the game the next day and he said he was going to bring me out of the bullpen and give my arm another week before I started again. I came out of the bullpen in that game the next day and I think it was a curveball and that was the pitch. It was against Illinois State and I remember it very vividly.
The Kentucky native redshirted during 2016 while recovering, then eventually made it back to the mound in 2017 in a dual role, both as a starter and out of the bullpen. With a good smile and a humble chuckle, Ochsenbein described his comeback.
Yeah, so I earned a spot as a starter my first year back from Tommy John in 2017 and it didn’t go too hot. But then I made that transition to the bullpen and everything just started to click. I started to throw harder, my mentality changed and then coach started putting me in the back end of games and he was like, just go get these 3 outs, sometimes 6, but that was the biggest change for me was the mentality from a starter to a reliever.
Ochsenbein made 14 appearances as a Redshirt Sophomore, then had a big year in 2018, and although he was not 100% sold on the idea of being in the bullpen full-time, it quickly became obvious that high-leverage relief was suited perfectly for the 6-3 Right-Hander. Bullpen duty allowed Ochsenbein to max out his stuff, and, as a result, his fastball jumped 5 to 6 miles per hour, and after a good finish to 2018, he took his new role to the Cape Cod League and put his name on the map by striking out 43 hitters in 18 relief appearances, had the highest K/BB ratio in the league and entered 2019 having embraced his new role, and full of confidence.
I gave Coach Thompson a hard time about moving me to the bullpen when he made that decision, but as things started to unfold I found myself and my mentality and my velo started to tick up a little bit and I was like, “you know what, this might not be so bad.” As a relief pitcher you get to pitch more often that helps as well and when things start to click you just stick with the routine, stick with whats working and you go with the flow.
Ochsenbein is unique in many different ways. His pitch mix is somewhat unique in the sense that, unlike most pitchers, he offers a split-finger, but his motion, as he put it, is also “a little quirky” and it makes hitters uncomfortable.
Yeah I think my motion plays well for me because I’m a little different and I don’t have the same motion that other guys do. My arsenal isn’t as powerful as some guys but it gets the job done because I keep the hitters off balance pretty well.
Entering 2019 Ochsenbein added a splitter to his mix, and, as a 3 pitch pitcher, became one of just 11 players in Ohio Valley Conference history to record a sub 1.00 ERA with at least 50 innings pitched. During that campaign, he struck out 90 hitters in 54 1/3 innings pitched, had 10 saves, and became an All-American, first-team Ohio Valley, and a finalist for NCBWA Stopper of the Year for his efforts. He was then drafted by the Dodgers that Summer in the 6th Round of the 2019 Draft and has been working his way through the Dodgers ranks ever since.
Feature Cut
Ochsenbein spent all of 2021 in AA Tulsa and had a very good year recording an ERA of 3.32 with a strikeout ratio of more than 3:1. He had 56 appearances and threw 82 innings and gave up just 63 hits during his action on the mound, and that’s on the heels of a completely dominant 2019 where he recorded an ERA of 1.44, had a strikeout to walk right at 6:1, and had a WHIP below 1.00. Ochsenbein has shown that he can be dominant out of the pen and is working his way possibly into the closer role for the Dodgers, and certainly as high-leverage relief. He features a 3 pitch mix of fastball, slider, and splitter, and having seen him in person on several occasions, I can tell you, his stuff is legit. Here is a sequence showing how he uses all 3 pitches very effectively.
What’s Next?
I must admit, having seen Ochsenbein on several occasions, I am quite biased because I love his stuff. When he would come in after the smooth motions of Nick Robertson or Mark Washington, his motion would seem to have some “knees and elbows” to it that made hitters uncomfortable. His fastball jumps out of his hand, and his slider and splitter just seem to have more bite than what hitters are ever expecting. This is a guy that reminds me of a “Blake Treinen” type bullpen arm that could easily be a very, very good closer, and at the very least, very good in high-leverage set-up situations. Having spent all of 2021 in AA Tulsa, I would expect that he will eventually make it to AAA OKC this year before his final destination which is in LA, a place where I think he’ll land and stick for several years.
