Menlo School grad Kiefer Lord develops into legit major league draft prospect

Still, the San Carlos native was content prior to the pandemic. An All-Peninsula Athletic League honorable mention as a junior in 2019, Lord was already committed to play NCAA Division III baseball at Carleton College, a small liberal arts school in Minnesota, where he was intent on focusing on majoring in computer science.

“Baseball wasn’t really my biggest priority at the time,” Lord said. “I wanted to go there because it was a good school. … [Playing baseball] was definitely a big factor but definitely not as important as it’s a good liberal arts school. That was the main reason.”

Now, after transferring to Washington for his junior season, Lord is a bona fide major league draft prospect. Coming off a 6-5 record with an inflated 6.19 ERA but striking out 78 against just 17 walks in 75 2/3 innings, Lord is projected to be selected Monday in the MLB Draft. With the three-day draft starting Sunday with selections 1-70, Day 2 begins with the third round at pick No. 71. Lord is ranked the No. 127 prospect in the draft, according to MLB.com.

After a stellar sophomore season at Carleton, where he earned Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year honors, Lord began looking seriously at his baseball future. He’d proven all he could at the Division III level. With a fastball now dancing in the mid-90s, he struck out 81 batters in 49 innings pitched.

“I definitely had to put myself out there because you’re not really going to get exposure at an average or a below average DIII school,” Lord said. “So, I just put out a bunch of emails, and posted some videos on Twitter, and I think that helped get the word out.”

Lord never dreamed of being a pro prospect when he arrived at Menlo as a 5-2 freshman. Sure, he shot up by his senior year of high school. But as he continued to fill out through his college years, his stature would come as a surprise to Reynoso, when the former Menlo coach — who now works as a sports usher at Stanford University — saw him during Washington’s three-game swing through Sunken Diamond.

“What are you guys eating?!” Reynoso teased his former pitcher.

But Lord had began to really grow into his frame, and hone his dynamic fastball, while still a Menlo student. Reynoso didn’t witness this, however, because it was during the pandemic closures of 2020.

During quarantine, Lord started going to a local park every day to throw by himself. A serious academic, Lord approached it not only for fun, but as a lesson in baseball mechanics as well. He began studying pitching videos and working to improve through every pitching session.

“That’s kind of what started the whole thing for me,” Lord said, “because in high school, I was throwing mid to upper 70s. And basically, when COVID hit, I’m going to be playing baseball in college, so I might as well learn about pitching mechanics and how to get stronger.”

Three months into the pandemic, in June 2020, Lord’s velocity improved noticeably.

“And then that first jump is what kind of inspired me to keep going,” Lord said, “because it made me realize this is something I can actually get better at. So, I decided to take it as far as I can.”

By the time Reynoso saw Lord pitch again, the junior right-hander at Washington had already earned one Pac-12 Conference Pitcher of the Week honor. Then on April 24, he fired eight innings of three-hit shutout ball in the Huskies’ 9-0 win over the Cardinal, a performance that earned him his second Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week nod.

While Lord was intent on attending Carleton out of the Menlo, Reynoso said things might have been different if the right-hander would have had a chance to showcase his stuff as a varsity senior.

“Yes, definitely,” Reynoso said. “He would have really been able to show something then.”

Instead — in a loaded 2023 draft class with an overflow of athletes affected by the COVID pandemic — Lord has taken one unique path to becoming one of San Mateo County’s most intriguing draft prospects this season.

“It was pretty much all on my own,” Lord said. “No coaches or facilities. At the start, it was just kind of out of curiosity. I didn’t really expect anything out of it. And to have it explode like it has has just been crazy.”