Jackson Flora<\/a> is a 6\u20195\u201d, 205-pound right-handed pitcher who plays for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos. Flora is having an unbelievably great junior season for UC Santa Barbara to emerge as the top pitching prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft class.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\tFlora was a blue-chip prospect coming out of Foothill High School in Pleasanton, California. On Perfect Game, Flora was the 428th-ranked prospect and the 140th-ranked right-handed pitcher in the Class of 2023. He was also the 20th-ranked pitching prospect out of the Golden State. Flora went undrafted and signed with UC Santa Barbara.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn his freshman season, Flora made an immediate impact for the Gauchos and was one of their best pitchers. During the 2024 season, he made 23 appearances and four starts. He posted a 3-2 record with a 3.83 ERA, five saves, 1.45 WHIP, and 40 strikeouts in 47 innings pitched. Flora was named to the All-Big West Honorable Mention team.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring his sophomore season, Flora had a major breakout and became one of the top right-handed pitchers in the country. In thirteen appearances and eleven starts, he posted a 3.60 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, a .209 opponent batting average, one complete game shutout, and 86 strikeouts in 75 innings pitched. Flora was named to the All-Big West First Team.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSo far this season, Flora has elevated his game again, emerging as the NCAA’s best performing pitcher. In his junior season, Flora has made nine appearances and starts. He owns a 6-0 record with a 0.63 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, a .138 opponent batting average, 2.8 BB\/9, 11.1 K\/9, and 71 strikeouts in 57 \u2153\u00a0innings pitched.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the mound, Flora possesses a three-pitch arsenal including his fastball, sweeper, and kick changeup. Flora\u2019s fastball is one of the best in this draft class, with velocity that sits in the upper-90s and tops out in the triple digits. His fastball has a plus spin rate and excellent arm-side movement. His plus extension also makes his fastball get on batters quicker than the velocity suggests.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n\tFlora\u2019s sweeper is his most-used secondary pitch. His sweeper has good late movement, but he needs to be more consistent with shaping that pitch.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThis is the first season Flora has been using his kick-change. While it\u2019s brand new, he already has a solid feel for the pitch and uses it very well against left-handed hitters.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tStrengths\n<\/p>\n
\t\t70-grade fastball with plus velo\u00a0and spin<\/p>\n
\t\tStrike-thrower<\/p>\n
\t\tGreat extension<\/p>\n
\t\tPlus slider<\/p>\n
\t\tPromising kick-change<\/p>\n
\t\tExcellent athlete<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWeaknesses\n<\/p>\n
\t\tInconsistent with secondary pitches<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tPro Comparison: Tyler Glasnow\n<\/p>\n
\n\tProjection: Top 10 pick\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\tBottom Line<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 2026 MLB Draft class seems to be loaded with starting pitchers at the top, and Flora is currently the best prospect of them all. He has frontline starter potential.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Baseball America, Flora is the third-ranked prospect and top-ranked pitching prospect in this draft class. On MLB Pipeline, Flora is the 14th-ranked draft prospect and second-ranked right-handed pitcher.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Marlins have the 14th overall pick in the draft. It doesn\u2019t seem likely that Flora will be on the board when Miami\u2019s on the clock. However, he’d be an incredible addition to their farm system.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMore 2026 MLB draft profiles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leading up to the 2026 MLB Draft, Fish On First brings you a series of scouting reports on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,54473,2291,4,1586,69437],"class_list":{"0":"post-677580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-jackson-flora","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-draft","13":"tag-scouting-report"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116419886209252890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}