Q&A: Nastrini on college career, growth with Dodgers

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Nick Nastrini began 2021 as one of the best college pitching prospects on the West Coast, but he lost his spot in UCLA's rotation after just five starts when he couldn't throw strikes. The Dodgers thought the right-hander's problems were correctable, signed him for an over-slot $497,500 in the fourth round and were blown away by the stuff he has shown since. He can miss bats with four pitches: a four-seam fastball that averages 96 mph and features outstanding metrics, a pair of high-spin breaking balls and a mid-80s changeup that bottoms out at the plate.

Jim Callis: Going into last year, what were you thinking Draft-wise? We were hearing second or third round. What were you hearing?

Nick Nastrini: I wasn't really hearing anything much. I really put my expectations pretty low. I try not to have high expectations for that kind of stuff. I just really want to go out there and have fun, play with my team and try to win a championship. So I wasn't really expecting anything.

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Callis: I know the year did not unfold the way you expected. You had three good starts, and maybe your walks were up a little bit, and then you struggled with your control for a couple of starts. And then oddly enough, that was it. I hate to dredge up what happened last year, but you only pitched about six innings the rest of the way. What happened? That must have been horrible to go through.

Nastrini: Yeah, it was pretty tough to go through. It definitely tested me mentally. I was able to gain a lot of things in the mental aspect of the game. I learned a lot about that, which I'm very thankful to take a positive out of that negative outcome. I made a start against [Arizona] and the next day, we had a meeting with our team and I got called in Coach [John] Savage's office and I was told I wasn't starting the next week, we're going to go into the bullpen. And I just couldn't get back in the rotation after that, obviously, because of the command issues.

Callis: Was it anything in particular? What do you think caused the command issues?

Nastrini: I think it was mechanical to begin with and then it kind of turned into a mental thing. Once I fixed the mechanics, the mental game started to get a little more positive.

Callis: You won a National Baseball Congress World Series championship with the Santa Barbara Foresters in 2020. Whose idea was it to go pitch for the Foresters again last summer?

Nastrini: It was mine and my agent Joel Wolfe's. Joel's a good friend with the head coach there and so he ended up sending me there [in 2020] and I created a pretty good relationship with him as well. I texted him, made a phone call and he's like, "Yeah, come play for me. We'll get you back on track," and the rest is history.

Callis: You struck out 24 in 13 scoreless innings with the Foresters and you threw more strikes. How did it feel to get back on the mound and throw strikes and dominate again?

Nastrini: Oh, my. It was a huge weight off my shoulders getting out there. I think my first start was at the Urban Youth Academy, I started out pretty shaky. I was like six, seven balls to begin with and after that, I just made that adjustment really quick. And it was a huge weight off my shoulders, really fun to get out there and compete again. It was just like playing baseball when you're a kid.

Callis: When the season ended before you went out and joined the Foresters and showed people what you could do, what did you think was going to happen in the Draft?

Nastrini: There was quite a bit of uncertainty. I really had no clue what I was going to do. It was either just sign for the bare minimum and get into pro ball and hope I can develop into what I knew I could do. Or just go back to UCLA and finish my senior season.

Callis: Besides the Foresters, you also threw some bullpens for pro teams. Did you have a sense of how the draft was going to unfold at that point? Or was it still because it had been such an odd year, you didn't know what to expect?

Nastrini: Because of my command issues and my inconsistency during the season, I really had no clue what was going to happen, even having some pretty positive results at the Draft workouts and with the Foresters. So it was really just wait and see pretty much. And thankfully, the Dodgers came around in the fourth.

Callis: Were you a Dodgers fan growing up in Southern California?

Nastrini: Dodgers, Padres, yeah.

Callis: The average fan knows the Dodgers obviously have been winning a lot. But I don't know if people necessarily realize how good they are at developing players. They're one of the best teams in the big leagues and one of the best developing players. Were you aware of how good they were developmentally? And just what have you been exposed to since you've come in?

Nastrini: I was not aware how good they're developing players. I always knew the Dodgers were good. I had no clue how good they were developing guys and getting them to the big leagues and staying in-house. Just the minds here, it's really not so much the technology. I was really exposed to a lot of technology as soon as I got here, which I'm very thankful to learn a lot about. But it's really just the minds that I was able to pick. We have guys like Charlie Hough, Dontrelle Willis, our pitching coordinator Rob Hill. Being able to pick their brains and really learn from them was really, really a good thing for me to get right out of college after having troubles.

Callis: If you were evaluating your pitches, how would you rank them from best to worst?

Nastrini: I'd say my fastball is my best pitch. I get quite a few swing-and-misses with that. Then I'd have to go, probably my slider, then curveball, then changeup.

Callis: Are you throwing harder than you were at UCLA?

Nastrini: Maybe a little bit. Before the season started, I was probably 90-93ish. And then as soon as the season started, I got up to 94 to 96. I don't really know what happened. It just kind of clicked. And then the season kept going along and I got in a few games here and there. I hit 98 one outing and then I just kind of stayed right there.

Callis: How excited are you for the upcoming season now that you've got things figured out, you've got your stuff under control with a good organization?

Nastrini: Yeah, I'm super excited about it. I've heard that your first full season is really tough, but I'm really excited for what it holds and I'm excited to get out there and start playing some baseball.

Callis: Fans love comps and we've been asking prospects about them. Have you been compared to anyone who comes to mind? I haven't seen one necessarily but have you heard any?

Nastrini: I haven't really seen any comps. I kind of like to take players that I like and kind of try to mold it after their mentality. Not so much mechanics but their mentality. So I kind of try to mold my game after Nolan Ryan's because I grew up watching highlights of him and just hearing how good of a player he was. And I just tried to model my tenacity and the way I pitch after him.