Oregon State baseball commit Josh Proctor at-bat for the Corvallis Knights of the WCL. Proctor joined the Knights less than two weeks after graduating high school, saying he hopes that the experience will help him get on the field for the Beavers as a freshman. CMG Photo: Isaac Streeter

Oregon State baseball commit Josh Proctor is a living, breathing hyperbole of baseball scouting jargon in the best way possible.

The Pasadena native is hard to miss amongst peers on a baseball practice field, let alone a crowd. Proctor oozes physicality, standing at a towering 6-foot-5, a listed weight of 215 pounds and boasting what Baseball America calls “some of the best raw power” in the 2025 MLB Draft class. In fact, Baseball America ranked the Maranatha High School product the 224th-best draft-eligible prospect — a legitimate candidate to jump from prep hotbed of Southern California to the professional ranks.

But on the draft’s eve, Saturday, July 12, Proctor was batting eighth and playing right field for the West Coast League powerhouse Corvallis Knights. While high school players of similar caliber across the nation patiently waited to hear their names called by a big-league organization, Proctor hit a three-run homer to deep left-center at Goss Stadium in the seventh inning of a 10-3 win over the Walla Walla Sweets. It was his fourth homer of his summer stint with the Knights.

The draft’s 20 rounds came and went the following Sunday and Monday, with Proctor’s name not among the 615 called. His undrafted status was surely a win for the Beavers coach staff, ensuring they’d get the talented slugger to campus for his freshman season as they work to recoup a roster that bled 16 transfers after a College World Series berth.

Early Arrival

While he kept all his options open, donning the orange and black at the collegiate level was the plan all along, Proctor told the Portland Tribune earlier this summer.

“The main reason was the coaching staff,” He said. “(Head coach Mitch) Canham, (assistant coach Ryan) Gipson, it was honestly just one of those things where I just felt right when I met them. I’ve met and talked to a lot of coaches, but being here, it just felt right. I prayed about it a lot obviously and I just felt like this is the right spot.”

In fact, Proctor thought Corvallis was such the right spot that he showed up for the 2026 season before 2025 had come to a close.

After graduating from Maranatha on May 24, Proctor was taking in the Corvallis Regional from the stands of Goss Stadium just five days later. He made his WCL-debut with the Knights on June 3, less than three weeks after playing his final high school baseball game. In his first live game on Goss Stadium’s Coleman Field, Proctor hit a pair of bombs and drove in seven runners.

Proctor threw himself into the deep-end of college baseball preparation to “have the best chance possible to play” as a true freshman and says he’s enjoying every second of it.

“Honestly, I love it,” Proctor said. “It’s obviously a grind, but it’s what I signed up for. I’m happy to get my feet wet before I have to report back for school, so summer ball has been a great way to get ready for it. I’m excited.”

Growing Pains

Breaking in his new digs hasn’t been a perfect process, however.

The WCL’s competition is more potent than anything Proctor regularly faced in high school. Not to mention the Knights’ schedule routinely has them playing six days a week, bussing several hours for away games. All the while Proctor moves from his natural position at third base to learning the ropes of the outfield and sprinkling in reps at first base, too.

“These (pitchers), their command is a lot better than the high school level,” Proctor said. “That’s been a big adjustment. And since we play every day, the at-bats really stack up. It’s easy to get in a negative mindset if you have a couple bad games and get down on yourself. But I’ve learned and am learning to just flush it because it isn’t going to get any easier… It’s been good for me. I don’t think I’ve ever done something this hard in my life, to be honest — playing every day, working out every day. So I think it’s amazing, like, I needed this. I really did.”

As any person thats as big as Proctor is would tell you, you get used to growing pains. And so too has he this summer.

Proctor’s .237 batting average and .663 OPS in the Knights’ 2025 league games is a considerable drop from the 1.034 OPS he put up for Maranatha as a senior, as is to be expected with the adjustment to the level of competition. But his peripheral stats — a sub-20% strikeout rate and recorded exit velocities north of 100 mph with a wood bat — paint the picture of a toolshed of talent becoming morphing into a seasoned ballplayer. And one on the cusp of becoming a middle-of-the-order force at that.

Talent at work

Maranatha’s hitting coach, Al Quintana, has had his wagon hitched to Proctor for years now, citing the incoming freshman’s combination of talent and work-ethic when asked what makes him so different.

“There were countless times we’d have a game and he’d come work out afterward or he’d come hit in the cage after the game at 9 p.m. and be there the next morning before school at 7 a.m. hitting or lifting,” Quintana, who enjoyed a five-year minor league career before founding Legends Baseball Academy, said. “It’s so awesome to see a guy with that much talent work like he’s the worst player on the team.”

Quintana continued, detailing the extensive work the two have done together to refine Proctor’s swing and approach at the plate. He noted points of frustration for Proctor during his high school days when opponents wouldn’t run the risk of pitching to him, as well as how much positive impact small mechanical tweaks have made to his game.

“He’s still just scratching the surface of where he could go,” Quintana said. “There’s been times where we’ve made adjustments (to his swing) and all of a sudden he hits eight home runs in two months. Most of the time that you do that with a kid, they’ll probably get a few more singles, a double maybe. But Josh really takes off when he makes these adjustments. It’s awesome to see.”

Coming soon to Goss Stadium

The WCL is one thing, but Oregon State and the competition it faces on a year-to-year basis is another. More growing pains and adjustment periods are sure to come as Proctor continues to get his feet wet in the college baseball landscape; and just how much he’ll contribute as a true freshman is question that won’t be answered for several months.

No matter what 2026 may hold in store for the next chapter of his baseball career, Proctor says he knows he’s in good hands as a Beaver.

“It’s pretty obvious the coaching staff knows what they’re doing. I’m just going to trust that, to be honest,” He said. “It’s a winning culture, but (Oregon State isn’t) just trying to win. They’re trying to develop their players, and they actually care about them… They stay with the guys that they recruited and try and get them to the next level. They don’t just care about your time here, they care about your future, too.”