Jack Ralston

Scout’s note

Six-foot-six out of Panorama City, California, and a seventh-round pick in 2019, Ralston reached the majors for the first time this August at 29. Sixteen MLB appearances in, he has 19 strikeouts in 17.1 innings with a 5.71 ERA — numbers that earn a page but not a grade. Our stuff model isn't outcome-validated, so no arm gets a board flag from it. The ERA-FIP luck gap did clear our threshold, and that regression call is filed by hand.

Note written Oct 3 · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)

Current signals

The read: Ralston is in the Index ungraded, on purpose: our stuff model is stability-tested but not outcome-validated, so no big-league arm gets a board flag from it — not even one of the best seasons in the sport. (Calls are another matter: the ERA-FIP luck gap did clear the bar, and we file arm regression calls by hand from it.) The page is here because the player matters; the board grade waits for the science.

Stuff-lite

-0.1409

CSW%

31.1%

Pitches

983

Age

29

A market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of September 5, 2026.

2026 salary

$0.16Mest

Tax hit

$0.16M

Service time

0 yr 0 d

Options left

3 / 3

Regime read from his service time, not from the sheet — it does not project him past this season. Super Two eligibility is the top 22% of a class and can move this line in a way service time alone cannot see.

Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Miami Marlins.

A second set of books

The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of September 17, 2026. We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.

Tax AAV

$0.78M

Guaranteed

$0.78M

Term

1 yr

His class

MiFA

The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.

Collect Jack Ralston

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Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.

The Bureau on Jack Ralston

The scouting press, in their own words