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The Uncommitted Spotlight Series continues as the summer circuit is getting underway Prep Baseball California is beginning to highlight some of the top uncommitted class of '26 athletes ahead of the August, 1st contact date for this class. The player featured today is one of the top players in the state of California and figures prominently in our Class of 2026 Rankings. The players featured within our Uncommitted Spotlight series are ones that college coaches and fans should be keeping their eyes on over the coming months.

We invite you to get to know them through the eyes of our Prep Baseball California staff of scouts both through our in person looks at players and/or the data-backed numbers collected at our events with our partnered companies. TrackMan, Blast Motion, Swift Performance, and Visual Edge provide comparable data to project and evaluate players. All of these systems come together to give a clear picture at what colleges will get when a players steps onto their campus.

Today, we put the spotlight on the number 36 ranked player in the 2026 class in SoCal '26 OF Takashi Rutherford from JSerra Catholic High School. With an athletic frame with wiry present strength to it and room to continue adding in the lower/upper body at 6'3 190 lbs.. Rutherford was impressive at the 2024 Prep Baseball California Orange County Summer ID where he stood at the plate and defensively while also showing well within the Trinity League. During the Orange County Summer ID Rutherford was one of the more athletic performers who showed off tools across the board. Running a 6.98 60 time with burst over the first 30 yards at 3.87 seconds and a max run speed of 20 MPH. From there he took defensive work in the OF/INF looking more polished moving around the OF including a 88 MPH OF arm with carry out of his hand to his throws. Rutherford profiles as a CR/RF defender long term, but did show some potential on the INF dirt with his hands and actions to potentially handle 3B with some polish to his skillset there. Once the batting practice session started Rutherford added more intrigue to his ceiling with an athletic RH swing featuring present bat speed up to 76.8 MPH with torque in the turn at 17.7 G's of rotational accleration while adding quickness with his hands at 22.6 MPH. The quality and repeatability of his swing combined with a present feel for rhythm/timing in his approach helped him consistently generate impact to the middle-pull side of the field with a max EV at 98 MPH including launching a 349' HR to straightaway LF while driving several balls hard into the LCF gap. As he continues to mature and develop as a player to go with his already athletic frame and present toolset Rutherford has a chance to contiunue to raise his stock over the course of his final 2 years of high school/travel baseball. 

College coaches and fans be sure to click on Rutherford's profile to see full video and information.