a live-arm Cal freshman righty with real strikeout juice
Sam Johnston enters 2026 as a 6-foot-1, 170-pound freshman right-handed pitcher for California, and the early read is that his upside starts with bat-missing stuff: in 2025 he logged 13.0 innings with 18 strikeouts, and Cal noted he led 2025 returnees in strikeouts per nine. He looks like a high-ceiling, still-developing arm rather than a finished product, which makes him interesting for teams that value projection, competitiveness, and patience over instant polish.
