With all of the high profile draft picks, trades and overall spotlight that surrounds the Dodgers, down on the farm Veteran Aaron Wilkerson quietly posted one of the loudest years in the entire organization.
Wilkerson is an 8 year Veteran, who at the age of 32, is pitching some of his best baseball. The Texas native posted 112 innings this year with a 3.86 ERA and, according to Alex Freedman, the AAA OKC play by play Announcer and Communications director, if ballots didn’t have to be submitted by September 17th, Wilkerson most likely would have been the the AAA West Pitcher of the year.
Ballots had to be submitted by Sept. 17.
After that, Aaron Wilkerson pitched 17.0 innings and allowed 1 unearned run, 10 hits, 1 walk and 19 K. Ended up leading the league in ERA, WHIP, BAA, and K’s.
If voting is done after the season ended, he’s probably pitcher of the year. https://t.co/viIuqC4KnI
— Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) October 5, 2021
Wilkerson graduated from Midway High School in Waco Texas and played his first 2 years collegiately at Panola Community College in Carthage Texas, then finished at Cumberland University in Lebanon Tennessee. Cumberland is well known for their baseball as they have won the NAIA World Series 3 times and have been runners up twice.
Wilkerson’s 2 year career at Cumberland was record breaking, and, as a Senior, the former Midway High Panther was voted first team NAIA All American. In becoming an All American as a Senior, Wilkerson became one of two Phoenix to earn first or Second Team All American honors more than once. As a Senior, the All American threw 54 consecutive scoreless innings, and had a record of 12-0 with an ERA of just 1.49. This was following a Junior year where he was named a 2nd team All American after posting a 14-1 record as well.Â
Wilkerson signed as a free agent with Boston in 2014 and was assigned to the Lowell Spinners where he finished the Class A short season.
During the next season, in 2015, the 6’2 right hander was moved from Short A in Lowell, to Low A in Greenville, to High A in Salem then all the way up to AA in Portland Maine with the Sea Dogs in August. Wilkerson was soaring like a Cumberland Phoenix on his ascent with the Red Sox and by the very next year, in 2016, the Waco area native found himself just one step away from Boston, in Pawtucket, with the AAA Red Sox Affiliate. Wilkerson would move back and forth between AA and AAA 3 times in 2016 before getting traded to the Brewers on June 2nd.
After the trade Wilkerson reported to the AAA Colorado Sky Sox where he spent the rest of 2016.
In 2017 Wilkerson was sent back down to AA with the Biloxi Shuckers where he would spend the entirety of the Minor League regular season, but then got called up with Milwaukee in September as part of the expanded roster. During his time with Milwaukee in 2017, the native Texan pitched in 3 different games including a 7 inning performance against St. Louis. In total he threw 10 innings and posted a 3.48 ERA and had a very successful audition.
But, the next Spring, in 2018, Wilkerson started in AAA again, then had to battle injuries all the way through June, and didn’t make another MLB appearance until July 1st when he pitched 3 innings against Cincinnati. In total, in all of 2018, the resilient Wilkerson would be optioned to AAA and brought back up to Milwaukee on 5 different occasions.
In 2019 Wilkerson started in AAA again, but was quickly recalled in April before the injury bug hit again. Finally, on June 22 the Brewers called him back up and the well traveled veteran logged 16 Major League innings on the year.
After a 2020 season in which Wilkerson didn’t log any MLB innings, the Brewers invited him to 2021 Spring Training as a non roster invitee. Wilkerson chose Free Agency instead and the Dodgers signed him to a minor league contract and the right hander went on to have a spectacular year this year.
2021 was a total success for Wilkerson as he threw 112 innings and had an ERA of 3.86 and led the league in multiple categories.
Aaron Wilkerson allowed 1 unearned run over 7.0 innings tonight.
Unless there is someone just shy of reaching qualifying amount of innings, Wilkerson is going to lead Triple-A West in ERA, strikeouts, batting average and potentially WHIP as well.
He’s had a hell of a year.
— Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) September 30, 2021
What’s His Stuff Look Like
Wilkerson is a guy that has 4 pitches but centers everything around his fastball. His fastball is 92-95 so it’s not over powering but he does a great job using it to set hitters up.
He likes to use his fastball down in the zone to get ahead of hitters, and, for him to be successful, his fastball has to be a high strike efficiency pitch. Â
One of the things that makes his fastball so effective is that he can add armside run to it which makes him effective against left handed hitters as well as righties. He’ll start this pitch in on the hands and run it back over the inside part of the plate. It’s effective because the left handed hitter has to swing at the pitch, but when they commit to swinging, the pitch is well off the plate inside. So, it really jams the hitter.
Wilkerson also uses his slider as a get me over pitch so hitters can’t just sit first pitch fastball
But, then, when he gets ahead in the count he can add much more movement to the pitchÂ
Wilkersons curveball is what I call a good Old fashioned American Legion Roundhouse Curveball. It has a lot of 12-6 roundhouse break and plays really well off of his fastball. He’ll throw the curveball that starts up and breaks down into the zone.
Then, he’ll give the same look in terms of location up in the zone, but with a 4 seam fastball instead, and by the time the hitter realizes the pitch is going to stay up and out of the zone it is too late.
Just to make sure hitters stay off balance Wilkerson will also sprinkle in an occasional change up as well.
Moving Forward
When you’re as battle tested and well traveled as Aaron Wilkerson, nothing comes as much of a surprise anymore and you learn not to plan too far into the future. Â
So, although I do think the Native Texan is destined for future Major League action, I want to stay in the moment with his accomplishments this year and make sure that they are properly appreciated by Dodgers fans. Or just simply baseball fans in general.
What Aaron Wilkerson did this year for OKC isn’t going to make ESPN, it didn’t help win a pennant and it would have likely gone unnoticed by even the vast majority of great Dodgers fans. But, it needs to be understood that what he did is important, it’s impressive, it absolutely matters and it has not, in any way, gone without notice to those that have been close to it. What role Aaron Wilkerson paves with L.A. in the future is unknown, but for this moment, and this feature, let’s leave it with this:
Aaron Wilkerson…..Job Well Done!
