With the MiLB season in full swing, pun intended, at this point, it seems like a good time to take a look at some of the latest news around the minors and who’s been doing what in the last few weeks. Injuries continue to be a problem at the MLB level but at this point, aside from MacKenzie Gore and Wander Franco , we’ve likely seen all of the top prospects come up that are going to this year.
Another week, another multi-hit game for the uber prospect Wander Franco as he just keeps lighting up Triple-A to this point with a .299/.361/.536 slash line, four homers, seven doubles, two triples, 21 RBI, and 19 runs in 23 games for Durham. It’s just a matter of time for him to come up as the 20-year-old shortstop is living up to his billing.
Bobby Witt Jr. was the talk of camp this spring with a great showing and then those wondering why he didn’t come up quickly when Adalberto Mondesi took longer to get healthy than originally thought, perhaps his showing at Double-A has been why. In the first 21 games of the year at Northwest Arkansas Witt was hitting .209 with three homers, then this past weekend happened. He went deep three times on Sunday and once Saturday which gave him three-straight multi-hit games and raised his slash line to .233/.314/.478 on the season.
Speaking of top shortstop prospects, Franco, Witt, and Noelvi Marte have gotten a lot of the buzz of late but there’s another shortstop in the top-10 of the prospect rankings that should be being paid attention to as well. See how much depth there is a shortstop coming, but I digress. Marco Luciano is a top-10 overall prospect and is currently at Class-A San Jose for the Giants. He’s been stateside since he was 17 when he played in the short-season Pioneer League before getting time at the alternate site last year. Luciano is starting to beat up on Low-A pitching as well, slashing .474/.524/.947 with four multi-hit games, two homers, five runs, four RBI, and 12 extra-base hits in the last week. If you can sit on him until, likely, 2023, get him now in your dynasty leagues.
Despite having 17 players on the MLB IL, the Mets are still in the lead in the NL East and everything is looking rosy for them on the farm too, especially at High-A Brooklyn. That team is loaded with the next wave of impact Mets prospects and now is a good time to start paying attention to them. Francisco Álvarez (C), Ronny Mauricio (SS), Matthew Allan (RHP), and Brett Baty (3B) are the Mets’ top-four prospects and are all at High-A right now and Alvarez and Baty are both hitting over .340 on the season with the three hitters combining for 51 RBI in the first 20 games of the season.
The first signs of the rebuild in Baltimore are getting closer to the majors with three of their top-four prospects all at Double-A Bowie now following the promotion of Grayson Rodriguez to the BaySox. Adley Rutschman, DL Hall, and now Rodriguez are expected to anchor the catcher and rotation in Baltimore for years to come and they’ve been showing why this year with great starts to the year. There could be more future stars in Bowie later this year too with Gunnar Henderson (SS) gunning (excuse the pun) for a spot with Bowie by the end of the year having already posted seven homers and four steals while hitting over .330 at Class-A.
The Tigers got a lot of buzz for sweeping the Yankees over the weekend but down the farm, their top bats were also putting in work between Spencer Torkleson, Riley Greene, and Daniel Cabrera. Torkelson started the season on a 6-for-41 stretch but has righted the ship going 10-for-24 in the last seven games with three homers in his last four games. Greene is 13-for-35 with three homers and 11 RBI in his last 10 games at Double-A Erie, not to mention the excellent defense he’s showing in the outfield as well. Cabrera for his part at High-A, with Torkelson, went .500/.577/.727 with a homer, two doubles, seven runs, six RBI, and four walks in the last week to boost his average for the season from .200 to .276 in 22 games.
One thing the pandemic did last year, aside from shut down the whole minor league season, was to postpone the Olympics and that means they’re this summer in about six weeks. This past weekend the USA Baseball roster was announced for the qualifier tournament and it contained four top-100 prospects. Matthew Liberatore (LHP STL), Triston Casas (1B BOS), Simeon Woods Richardson (RHP TOR), and Jarren Duran (OF BOS) are all on the team and so they will be away from their minor league assignments while Team USA is competing and so for the latter three it means any potential promotion that could’ve been coming is on hold for while.
For the last bit of news for the week we head to the Nation’s Capital where the pitching news hasn’t been good between Will Harris needing TOS surgery, Erick Fedde still out with Covid, Jackson Rutledge having inflammation, Mason Denaburg out with TJ surgery, and now Stephen Strasburg having a concerning 1.1 inning start on Tuesday. So let’s highlight a couple of the good pitching stories on the farm in Cade Cavali and Tim Cate. You’ve heard me mention both before but Cavali’s start has been spectacular with five starts all going at least five innings posting a 1.63 ERA, .98 WHIP, .198 BAA, and leading all minor leaguers with 45 strikeouts in 27.1 innings. Cate has been steadily lowering his ERA at Double-A and last start out, threw 6.2 innings with one unearned run allowed, striking out five and allowing just three hits. Both guys could be in the Nationals’ rotation as soon as next year as they’ll be openings waiting to get snatched up in spring.