The final game of Ethan Wachsmann’s sophomore season was the messy prelude to complete domination.
Grandview’s ace, then a sophomore with control issues, walked/hit more batters than he struck out that year. His ERA was an unimpressive 5.60, and when the Wolves called upon the right-hander in relief in the Class 5A semifinal against Cherry Creek, Wachsmann walked two batters on eight pitches and was promptly pulled.
That failure, however, was the end of the window for the state to get to , a Wake Forest commit with a triple-digit fastball who has been almost untouchable in the two years since.
“After the game, he was super frustrated with how he pitched, but then it was like a switch flipped where he was like, ‘OK, I’m never going to let that happen to me again,'” recalled Dillon Moritz, Wachsmann’s pitching coach at Grandview and in club. “We all knew he was extremely talented, but he knew he needed to get better and he didn’t need to worry about anything else but putting in work.
“So he hit the weight room hard. He bought a (fitness band) and measured his sleep. He bought an app to track his calories. He truly went all in more than any high school kid I’ve ever coached as far as just being like, ‘This is my process, and I’m going to stop worrying about all the other things.'”
That process turned Wachsmann into one of the best pitchers in Colorado, and a bonafide prospect going into July’s MLB draft. Along the way, the 17-year-old’s significant gains in size, velocity and pitch design accelerated his development from a JV pitcher as a freshman.
As a 5-foot-10, 160-pound freshman, he sat around 80 mph, which was solid considering Wachsmann only started playing competitive baseball in middle school. By the time he was a sophomore trying to figure out how to harness his stuff on varsity, he had grown to 6-2, 180, and was hitting 89 mph. As a junior, he jumped to 97 mph and was 6-4, 220. He went 8-1 with a 1.77 ERA, 80 strikeouts and a no-hitter while helping lead the Wolves back to the Class 5A Final Four.
The upwards trajectory continued this season, as Wachsmann currently stands at 6-5, 225. His fastball sits in the upper 90s and he’s hit as high as 102 in the bullpen. He complements that heat with a mid-80s cutter and changeup, as well as a curveball that’s in the mid-70s. He also threw his second career no-no, and hoards of MLB scouts have attended his every outing.
“He’s realized how much better he is than most high school players,” Grandview head coach Scott Henry said. “And over the last two years, he’s been attacking hitters with a ton of confidence in himself.”
Failure leads to more success
Ahead of this dominant senior season, failure, once again, proved to be a powerful motivator. Wachsmann went to the prestigious Area Code Games last August in southern California and got hit around, a reality check that caused him to work even harder in the winter.
“I definitely thought that I was a lot better than I was (on the national scene),” Wachsmann said. “I was facing Colorado competition (and mowing them down) as a junior, and then I went to California and faced a bunch of big recruits all committed to top Division I schools. It was a good lesson for me and reminded me that my work in the weight room, in the bullpen and in pitch development wasn’t done.”
While Henry describes Wachsmann’s no-hitter last season against Cherokee Trail as the pitcher’s breakthrough high school moment, Henry says the no-no this season on April 18 at Mullen was the more impressive outing. Wachsmann got some help from his defense in that game — specifically by his third baseman on a bunt play and on a gapper that the center fielder ran down — but was otherwise unhittable.
Wachsmann walked three and struck out eight in the game, while hitting 98 mph in the opening inning and 97 mph in the seventh.
“He was locating pitches wherever he wanted to,” Henry said. “He was super efficient, he was getting ahead a lot and getting hitters out early. And he didn’t lose any steam on his fastball the whole game.”
Going into this weekend, Wachsmann is 5-1 with a 0.84 ERA and 48 strikeouts to just six walks. He’ll have a decision to make this summer, where he projects as one of two draftable Colorado arms along with Eaton right-hander Gunnar Garrison, an Arizona State commit. Wachsmann is ranked No. 81 in MLB Pipeline’s .
For Wachsmann to forgo his scholarship to a premier Division I program and sign out of the draft, recent history says the price tag would need to be at least around $2 million. That is about the slot value , although he could be drafted lower and sign for over-slot, like Coronado right-hander Trey Gregory-Alford did with the Angels in 2024. Gregory-Alford passed on his commitment to Virginia when he was drafted in the 11th round but Los Angeles a record for an 11th-round pick and money that was equivalent to a high second-round pick.
The influence of big bro
Whatever ends up happening, Wachsmann says he wouldn’t even be in position to make the decision of a lifetime without the influence of his older brother, Isaac Wachsmann. Isaac, a former Regis Jesuit star, is a redshirt junior outfielder
“At the beginning of my career he basically made me,” Ethan Wachsmann said. “(As a seventh and eighth grader) I wasn’t big. I wasn’t talented. But I just followed him around in everything that he did. I lifted like he did. I ate when he ate. And I practiced with him almost every single day during the offseasons. I just did everything he did, because he got good results, and then I carried those habits with me (after Isaac left for college).”
Isaac doled out tough love and unwavering support in equal doses.
That included a phone call where he reminded Ethan that the poor performance at the Area Code Games would be good for him, as well as showing up to a start last season and shouting “first pitch attack” repeatedly from the stands. That game enabled the younger brother to mentally shift from a pitcher prone to walks to a pitcher who now consistently pounds the zone.
And, there were the weight room sessions together over the years, including many where Ethan tagged along with Isaac and a handful of Isaac’s friends who are now playing at Division I programs.
“Coming in his freshman year, I used to give him (crap) like, ‘Dude, you don’t know how to lift, but you better figure it out,'” Isaac Wachsmann said. “But he really grew from watching all of us, and seeing how my friends and I grind. He took all of that and he’s honestly one-upped us with his preparation. His warm-up (for a game) is now probably an hour long. He takes such good care of his body. He’s doing mobility work every night. He just is obsessed with trying to find every edge he can.
“It’s come a long way since me giving him (crap) one time at the rec center when he was about 13. He’s was benching 30-pound dumbbells, and he told me he was going for 15 reps. I just laughed and told him, ‘Dude, grab some weight, and start moving some weight.’ It’s that kind of brotherly love.”
With Wachsmann as the headliner, Grandview (ranked 15th in the latest ) has a chance to make noise in the playoffs. Wachsmann is also the Wolves’ best hitter, batting .588 with a .650 on-base percentage. Grandview features two other college commits in senior catcher Kayden Bohmeyer (Chandler-Gilbert Community College) and junior shortstop Jackson Bernosky (Gonzaga).
As Wachsmann attempts to pitch Grandview back to the Class 5A state tournament, Henry forecasts big-league success in the pitcher’s future, regardless of whether he’s drafted this summer or not. Grandview’s produced two big-leaguers, first baseman Greg Bird and right-hander , the latter of which is in his 14th season in the majors and is a two-time all-star.
“The scouts always ask me, ‘Hey, what’s going to get (Wachsmann) off track?'” Henry said. “The only thing would be bad luck. Otherwise, I think he’s going to be a major league pitcher probably sooner than we think.”
