Right-hander Alex Petrovic grew up in Cypress, Texas, a suburb of Houston, the son of parents who played basketball at Oberlin College. Alex’s physical gifts manifested themselves on the baseball diamond rather than the basketball court, and the youngster quickly began standing out on the sandlots around Texas. He attended Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball, Texas, where he dominated as both a hitter and a pitch, earning TAPPS First Team All-State honors in 2022 and 2023. Inflammation in his right arm kept him off of the mound for the majority of his senior year, and may have cost him a selection in the 2023 MLB Draft; despite solid results, Petrovic was not considered an elite talent, and he ended up going undrafted, leading him to honor his commitment to Auburn University.
His career with the Tigers began inauspiciously, as the inflammation in his arm returned that fall. It calmed down to the point that, when the spring began, the right-hander was able to take the mound for his new team after missing the first three weeks of the season. Appearing in 7 games for Auburn, Petrovic allowed 7 earned runs in 11.0 innings, good for a 5.73 ERA, giving up 15 hits, walking 3, and striking out 17. There is a chance that the right-hander might have improved as the weather continued warming, but Petrovic sustained a stress fracture in his right elbow in early April, ending his season prematurely.
The right-hander had surgery on his elbow, having screws inserted into it, and returned to the mound at Plainsman Park for the 2025 season. Improbably, the exact same thing almost happened a second year in a row. The right-hander appeared in 7 games, starting 5, and posted a 4.34 ERA in 18.2 innings, allowing 13 hits, walking 4, and striking out 25, but once again, an injury on a different spot on his arm sustained in early April ended his season early. His velocity had backed up from the low-90s into the high-80s and his breaking balls did not look as sharp, and it was only a matter of time before something in his arm went off. A draft-eligible sophomore because of his age, Petrovic did not hear his name called in the 2025 MLB Draft.
When his arm felt better later that summer, the right-hander went to a baseball training facility in Lakeland, Florida- the Florida Base ARMory- and worked on making subtle changing his mechanics to put less stress on his arm and elbow and hopefully prevent a third-consecutive season-ending injury in 2026.
The 22-year-old returned to Auburn for his redshirt sophomore season armed with new mechanics and not only was he able to make it through the entire year without an injury, but Petrovic also had a very solid season. His fastball having gained a few ticks from the mechanical changes that were made and his secondary stuff looking sharper, he appeared in 17 games, starting all of them, and posted a 3.21 ERA in 92.2 innings, allowing 70 hits, walking 24, and striking out 92.
Standing 6’5” and weighing 235-pounds, the big Serbian is well-proportioned and athletic, not exactly striking an imposing figure. Likewise, his stuff is not exactly imposing, but it got the job done, as the right-hander was one of the best SEC pitchers in 2026. Petrovic throws from a high-three-quarters arm slot, working exclusively from the stretch with a high leg kick and long arm action through the back, throwing with downhill plane, getting good extension. Petrovic is a strike thrower, commanding his arsenal well and pounding the strike zone. He throws a four-seam fastball, circle changeup, sweeping slider and cutter.
Prior to the 2026, while he was pitching compromised and/or in pain, his fastball sat in the low-90s, often backing up into the high-80s. In 2026, the pitch was sitting more in the low-to-mid-90s, reportedly hitting as high as 96 MPH. In addition, the pitch featured above-average spin rates between 2400-2500 RPM, giving the pitch as much as 18 inches of induced vertical break, a well above-average, borderline elite measurement.
His changeup is his go-to secondary pitch, a high-70s-to-low-80s offering that features a high spin rate, giving it a ton of fade when he is able to turn the ball over properly in addition to . The pitch tunnels extremely well with his fastball, and the pitch gets a fair amount of whiffs against left-handed batters and right-handed batters alike. Thanks to the amount of run the pitch has, Petrovic can sometimes have trouble commanding it and can get gun shy about using it when behind in the count or with runners on base.
The right-hander’s sweeping slider sits in the high-70s-to-low-80s, while his cutter sits in the low-to-mid-80s. At present, his slider is a bit more advanced than his cutter, with the pitch being more likely to develop into an average offering; at present, the pitch relies more on big loopy movement rather than bite and batters going fishing for it outside of the strike zone, particularly right-handed batters.
While not exactly a groundball machine, Petrovic posted a strong 44.2% groundball rate in 2026, a consequence of batters making poor contact with his fastball, changeup, and slider.
Read the full article here