Max Rajcic
# Max Rajcic

### Max Rajcic

Maxwel Scott Rajcic (born August 3, 2001) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

Rajcic attended Lutheran High School of Orange County in Orange, California. As a junior in 2019, he went 8-1 with a 0.55 ERA and 78 strikeouts over 63.1 innings. That summer, he played in the Under Armour All-America Baseball Game, the High School All-Star Game at Progressive Field, and for the 18U USA Baseball team. During his senior season in 2020, he gave up no runs and struck out 32 batters over 22.2 innings before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rajcic was considered a top prospect for the shortened 2020 Major League Baseball draft but went unselected and enrolled at UCLA to play college baseball.

As a freshman at UCLA in 2021, Rajcic served as the Bruins' closer, going 2-1 with a 1.65 ERA and 36 strikeouts over 32.2 innings. Over the summer, he played in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Orleans Firebirds. As a sophomore in 2022, he moved into the starting rotation and went 8-5 with a 3.28 ERA and 92 strikeouts over 85 innings and 15 starts. After the season, Rajcic was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the sixth round with the 187th overall pick in the 2022 Major League Baseball draft. He signed with the Cardinals for $600,000.

Rajcic made his professional debut in 2023 with the Palm Beach Cardinals of the Single-A Florida State League.

* Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference (Minors)
* ↑ https://www.ocregister.com/2019/06/05/orange-county-baseball-pitcher-of-the-year-max-rajcic-orange-lutheran/
* ↑ https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/team-usa-takes-silver-at-2019-wbsc-u-18-world-cup/
* ↑ https://www.ocregister.com/2019/07/05/all-oc-baseball-players-rajcic-tolentino-in-high-school-all-star-game/
* ↑ https://www.mlb.com/news/under-armour-all-america-classic-2019-rosters
* ↑ https://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/story/2020-04-17/season-interrupted-socal-top-high-school-pitcher-has-dodger-dreams
* ↑ https://www.ocregister.com/2020/06/09/a-few-orange-county-baseball-players-could-be-selected-in-this-years-shorter-mlb-draft/
* ↑ https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/ucla-baseball-five-questions-to-answering-entering-2022/
* ↑ https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/future-four-highly-decorated-prepsters-who-chose-collegiate-route-vol-5/
* ↑ https://www.mlb.com/press-release/cardinals-select-8-players-in-day-two-of-2022-mlb-draft
* ↑ https://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/story/2022-07-18/mlb-draft-two-more-former-orange-lutheran-players-taken-on-day-2
* ↑ https://theathletic.com/3377239/2022/07/11/st-louis-cardinals-mlb-draft-2022/
* ↑ https://www.milb.com/palm-beach/news/palm-beach-cardinals-announce-2023-opening-day-roster
