One international scouting director calls Cuban center field prospect Eddy Martinez an “impact talent,” Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs reports (Twitter links). McDaniel credits the 20-year-old with 70-grade speed and 50-grade raw power, joining other recent observers in expecting an eight-figure bonus for the youngster. Though we’ve heard suggestions that a signing could come quickly, McDaniel says it remains unclear whether he’ll wait until the next July 2 period kicks off. Martinez will, of course, be subject to international bonus pool restrictions regardless of when he signs.
Here are some more notes on prospects and promotions:
- The Red Sox no longer have any good reasons to keep outfielder Rusney Castillo in Triple-A, Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com opines. Stats and scouts suggest he is ready, says Edes, and the big league club could use an offensive boost. While the team still has more outfielders than it knows quite what to do with, even after outrighting Allen Craig, Edes says that should not get in the way of Castillo — particularly given the club’s huge investment in him.
- The Nationals will make a surprising call-up of middle infield prospect Wilmer Difo, the team announced (and as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweeted earlier today). The 23-year-old broke out last year and earned Baseball America’s seventh slot on the club’s prospect list entering the season. As BA noted, Difo has ample tools, and finally put them to use in A ball in 2014. He had already earned a jump to Double-A this season, where he owns a .308/.339/.500 slash over 56 plate appearances. For now, it seems Difo will just get a taste of big league action while filling in for Jayson Werth, who needs to rest an injured wrist but has apparently avoided serious injury.
- Outfielder Jose Tabata is headed back to the Pirates today, as Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports on Twitter. The 26-year-old once looked like a cornerstone player, but has struggled to maintain consistency in recent years and was ultimately outrighted last season. He has been impressive at Triple-A this year, however, slashing .352/.422/.396 with eleven walks against just eight strikeouts over 102 turns at the plate. Tabata is owed $4MM this year and $4.5MM next season under the early-career extension that he signed. Pittsburgh can also control him for three additional seasons through a series of club options.
- Towering Yankees prospect Aaron Judge is putting up strong results against Double-A pitching and could be due for a move to the final level of the minors, ESPNNewYork.com’s Andrew Marchand writes. Judge could be with the club as soon as early 2016, Marchand writes, and he’s not the only prospect making waves. Slade Heathcott, a former top prospect who lost his 40-man roster spot, is enjoying renewed success and has forced himself back into the Yankees’ plans. Said GM Brian Cashman of Heathcott: “He is a legitimate option for us at the major league level.”
The Judge…
The Jury…… is still out.
We know. I can’t see him being worse than Beltran though.
Beltran has provided similar production to McCann.
Another international prospect for the padres to almost sign!
As excited as I am for Judge, I cannot see him hitting the bigs this year. It’d require a big, timely injury to one of the starting OFs or for them to bite the bullet with Beltran and release him (and he’s actually starting to hit a little, finally). Bringing him up to be a 4th OF doesn’t make sense either, as Young has been good and he wouldn’t get enough regular ABs anyway. Maybe if Beltran is as dead at the start of next year as he was this year I could see it.
I agree. Some of us Yankee fans just want instant gratification and that’s not how it works with prospects. He should probably be jumping to AAA soon, but bringing him straight up to the majors to improve an outfield offense that isn’t even a problem is just impatience, he’s promising but rushing prospects rarely turns out well. Plus, Beltran has started to show life the past few weeks a bit.
Yeah, it’s easier to wait for Judge if Beltran is hitting. With Stephen Drew hitting about .140 with no home runs in a few weeks and Rob Refsynder currently tearing up AAA, that’s a situation that it’s harder to be patient in.
Agreed once again, Drew probably isn’t going to have an awful long time to turn it around before he’s either cut or switched to a utility role rather than a starter, and rightfully so. When Didi came in, those who followed him knew we were getting an all glove,25 year old project, and we need to get some level of offense out of either SS or 2nd at some point. Considering Didi has more defensive upside and youth, Drew is clearly on the hot seat, & I think the fact that Girardi started him at 3rd makes it obvious that a utility role could be in his future.
Not even when rosters expand to 40 in September, for a cup of coffee?
But where will Beltran play?
DFA? Even though he’s owed a lot of money.
I was being facetious.
Ohhh, yeah didn’t catch that.
I’d love it if Beltran had a few weeks where he looked like the Beltran of old, just prior to the trade deadline so the Yankees could potentially move him for a C piece and picking up a lot of his money for next year. I don’t think it will happen, though, because Beltran has a no-trade clause and he waited a long time to play in the Bronx. He wanted to be here before he signed with the Mets–even offered the Yankees a discounted price but they couldn’t do it because they had acquired the very helpful Randy Johnson. FML.
Judge maybe the only legitimate option available for the Yankees to improve their outfield offense. There are few quality outfielders available.
The Yankees don’t need to improve their outfield offense. They need to improve their middle infield offense. Yankees OFers have a 110 wRC+ , 9th in baseball
At 2B – 58 (rank 26th)
At SS – 42 (rank 28th)
I can’t stand Stephen Drew at 2B. And Didi… well, even though we didn’t give up a lot, I’m guessing we could have gotten someone better than Didi back for Shane Greene after his career year last season.
How do you feel about benching or demoting Didi, moving Drew to SS, and having Pirela and/or Ref at 2B?
Drew would have to be kept in the lineup. There are no backup SS they can use internally. I can see DiDi being benched (or sent down if he has options) and Drew to SS and Ref/Pirela at 2B.
Edit – Well someone would have to get sent down for Ref to be called up, so there’s that thought.
I have to think/hope Drews full time 2B gig is coming to a close, Ref is knocking hard at the moment
I hope DiDi has options. If so send him down and make Drew the SS. Could be just a huge coincidence, but Drew has good numbers at the plate this year while playing SS (very small sample size, but hey it just proves the point he cannot play 2B period. His UZR is terrible there too)
I believe Didi does have options, and I honestly wouldn’t be entirely opposed to using that option so he could try to get into a swing with his offense without all the pressure, IF we had a better option to use right now. I’m not convinced using Drew at SS would do much to improve the situation if he keeps swinging the bat the way he has this year. Didi at least has defensive upside to be tapped into at the position.
Wonder if Drew would feel better if he got moved at SS. For what it’s worth (and it’s probably worth next to nothing), he’s hitting .261/.346/.523 as a SS this year. Likely not the case though since he stunk in Boston last year too.
But after DiDi, Drew is the best and really only SS option the team has. I say send DiDi down if he has options and then move Drew to SS and platoon Ref/Pirela at 2B.
The sample size of Drew’s PAs at SS is small enough this year that it’s fair to label as insignificant, that’s why I don’t know he’s a real upgrade/better option, and in turn I’m unsure that optioning Didi should be done just yet, those options are finite and Drew could wind up being this year’s Roberts if he doesn’t turn it around even slightly soon. Ref is certainly a tantalizing option right now, but I’d like to see him keep it up just a bit longer, namely on defense, before making that decision.
greenes career year for 78 innings?
He’s not reaching a sub 4 ERA with 9 k/9 ever again. So… yeah?
They could give Flores and Heathcott a shot. Maybe they surprise.
Tabata is not even as close to as bad as some people make him out to be
He actually is not near as bad as people make him out to be. If not for Polonco, Tabata would have been the lead off hitter. He never regained any power after he brake his hamate bone a few years back but when he has been in he majors he has hit for average. Hit .282 the last 2 years in the majors.
yes sorry i forgot to write the “not” part in my comment haha! totally agree with you
LOL Typos can be fun!
Great news on Slade!
How incompetent do the Red Sox look with Rusney Castillo rotting in the minors. They should fire John Farrell and hire Don Mattingly, whose handling of Alex Guerrero makes him a perfect fit in the black hole that is the Red Sox braintrust.
How is keeping Castillo in the minors Farrell’s fault?
Who said Castillo’s situation was Farrell’s fault? Try reading what I said again, which is that Mattingly would fit in much better with the Red Sox poor baseball decision making than Farrell. I’m pretty sure I wrote it at about a seventh grade reading level.
Actually, your comment looks like you implied that farrell should be fired for having castillo in the minors. No need to be rude when it looks like you wrote it that way.
If you’re not going to bother reading it, don’t bother commenting on it
I read it, how would I comment what I did without reading it?
We did read it. First you said the Red Sox look incompetent with Castillo in the minors, and then you said Farrell should be fired and Mattingly should be hired because he knows how to handle Alex Guerrero. I don’t understand what 1 has to do with the other, but that’s not the point. Neither Manager has control on who is on their 25 man roster. The fault is of Ben Cherington for Castillo not being there. Not Farrell.
Oh and MB was the one with a condescending comment? Well played
Um, Farrell isn’t responsible for Castillo not on the roster. That’s on Ben.
Do you only start condescending answers with Um, or do you usually type sounds that people make when they are stammering? See my response to TB above
I don’t understand how that’s being condescending. And my response to you came way before your response to TB (and I’ve answered to that as you can see)
Your initial comment was inflammatory, and it set the tone.
It doesn’t look that bad as far as I’m concerned. Look no further than Blake Swihart to see how misleading AAA stats can be when translated to the bigs. Swihart was doing better across the board than Castillo is now, and yet he hasn’t done well at all since being promoted. Aside from that, they’re still trying to juggle Betts, Victorino, Nava, and Holt in the outfield. Bringing up Castillo is only going to see him play on a semi regular basis most likely, due to the log jam of guys they’ve got that they’re trying to keep playing already as to keep alive any possible trade prospects.
Seeing Slade in the bigs would be awesome
I salivate at the thought of Gardner, Ells, Slade OF. No catchable fly balls will hit the grass with those speedsters out there.
Cashman: “We don’t anticipate Aaron Judge in NY until 2017, at the earliest.”
Judge: “I’ll be there in 2016.”
Cashman: “We anticipate Aaron Judge here in 2016, probably in May.”
Jose is back in the Burgh and will do well off of the bench. He does not have power anymore since breaking his hamate bone but has hit for average. Was very good pinch hitting last year while he was up.
agreed generally.. where he really lacks is his effort and some mental mistakes.. but as we see others have that issue to like Marte allowing an extra run or two yesterday.
Tabata is a singles hitter.. never really had much power to begin but if i remember correctly he was getting more doubles pre-injury.
Marte will be a Star sooner than later as long as he keeps up the effort hes not going anywhere (for long anyway).. but Gregory has been showing quite a few issues.. perhaps it is just mistakes of a youngster.. hopefully… Tabata will hopefully challenge him for the starting spot.
It was great to see Tabata run out that infield hit.. haven’t seen him run that fast in a while.
Yeah, gap power and hit balls line drive off the wall for many of those doubles. That is why it was assumed at some point they would start going over more with more strength and experience. Injury and as you say a singles hitter. Thinking Polonco is as you say. Youthful mistakes plus trying to live up to hype.
Rumor is Castillo is expecting a baby. Not sure what next week’s excuse will be though.
Difficult to play in that condition.
That is an outstanding post!