Striker Pence moved up a year in the baseball timeline on Thursday afternoon, announcing on Instagram that he is reclassifying from the class of 2028 to the class of 2027. The 17-year-old right-handed pitcher from Santiago High School in Corona is already one of the most closely watched prep arms in the country, and now his path to the MLB draft arrives sooner.
Pence, the nephew of former San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence, enters the 2027 cycle as the class of 2027 No. 2 prospect and the top prep pitcher in the country, behind Dylan Seward of Norco. Before the move, Baseball America had ranked him as the No. 1 player in his class, while Perfect Game gave him a 10.
The attention starts with the arm. Pence is listed at 6-foot-6 and 185 pounds, and his fastball sits at 98 mph and has reached 101 mph. He also works with a slider in the mid-80s, and Perfect Game vice president of scouting Jered Goodwin said what separates Pence from the rest of his class is the way he uses his tools and how they hold up in competition.
That competition has already shown both the upside and the question that follows him. In August last year, Pence threw seven straight pitches at 100 mph in the Area Codes game at Blair Field in Long Beach, a burst that underscored why scouts are drawn to him. But the knock against him has been his fastball command when he gets into triple digits, a reminder that raw velocity alone does not settle the draft conversation.
He has also shown flashes of what the secondary pitch can become. Last season, in a game against Orange Lutheran, Pence offered a look at the kind of slider that could give him another weapon if the command tightens. Santiago finished last season 19-12 and third in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 baseball playoffs, and Pence’s next step will be to carry that development into a class where he is now eligible a year earlier than expected.
For now, the reclassification changes the clock. Pence will keep building his case as a prep starter in the 2027 class, and the question that follows him is no longer when scouts will start paying attention, but how much his stock moves once the fastball finds the zone more often.
