The Minnesota Twins originally drafted Blake Cederlind out of Merced College in California in 2015 during the 22nd round. Instead of signing with the Twins, he opted to stay another year in college in hopes of boosting his stock for 2016. The risk paid off in the 2016 draft as the Pittsburgh Pirates took Cederlind in the 5th round.
The hard-throwing Cederlind struggled a ton in the minors earlier on, most notably in 2017 with the Low-A West Virginia Power he saw his ERA rise to 7.76, to go with a 1.74 WHIP and a dismal xFIP of 4.