Here’s the latest on some prospects of note from around the game:
- The Red Sox brought up top pitching prospect Darwinzon Hernandez for his first taste of the majors, with Alex Speier of the Boston Globe first reporting the move. Hernandez, a 22-year-old from Venezuela, still needs to iron out his command but has shown some impressive swing-and-miss capabilities. It was on display tonight, as he allowed five baserunners but also racked up four strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings in relief.
- Left-handed pitching prospect Justus Sheffield will join the Mariners on Friday for his first action with his new club, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports on Twitter. He’s expected to piggyback with Yusei Kikuchi for a start; it’s possible he’ll be dropped back to Triple-A thereafter, though that’s not yet clear. While he already has 13 days of MLB service on his odometer, Sheffield won’t be able to reach a full year of service even if he stakes a permanent claim to a big-league roster spot. Sheffield hasn’t been himself thus far at Triple-A, carrying an 11:14 K/BB ratio through 18 1/3 innings.
- It’s possible the Reds will soon welcome top prospect Nick Senzel to the majors. As Fletcher Page of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports, Senzel is back in the lineup at Triple-A after recovering from a sprained ankle. There’s no guarantee that he’ll be promoted in the near-term, but the organization doesn’t have much cause to hesitate at this point. Senzel can no longer achieve a full year of MLB service in 2019; the club is sitting at five games under .500 and can’t wait long to make its move. Once Senzel gets his timing down and gets comfortable in the outfield — he’s lined up in center field tonight for Louisville — he’ll likely be called up.
- The Blue Jays got some unwelcome news on exciting infield prospect Bo Bichette. Robert Murray and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported on Twitter that Bichette had suffered a broken hand. As Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca tweets, the fracture was to the second metacarpal of his left hand. Widely considered one of the game’s very best prospects, Bichette will now need to get back to health before he can begin pressing for a major-league promotion. Meanwhile, anticipation grows that teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will soon get the call; Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs tweets that some around the game anticipate it’ll come this week.
- Top Athletics prospect Jesus Luzardo is beginning to work back toward the hill, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Twitter links). He’s moving from 75 feet to 90 feet tomorrow, so it’s still rather early in his progression back from shoulder soreness. Slusser estimates that it could take four to six weeks before the prized southpaw could be ready for game action. In all likelihood, he won’t be seen as a candidate for a MLB promotion until he has at least a few Triple-A starts under his belt and the club feels confident there aren’t any lingering issues with the joint.
Did Senzel get any run (or more than a few games at least) at CF before getting hurt? If not, the rush to promote a guy to play a tough position in the bigs that isn’t his position is kind of nutty, even if the team needs a spark.
You have to shag fly balls somewhere. He played there all spring. The bat is clearly ready. Might as well have him shagging flyballs in a major league park instead of a AAA field.
Reds have extremely below average defenders in outfield everywhere but RF and nobody is hitting so it makes no sense for him to be in AAA long even if he struggles with the glove
He didn’t get many innings playing CF at night in Arizona. That’s why he’s in L’ville. He’ll be up shortly.
Well, missing Luzardo for that much longer certainly blows, but a couple of our prospects in Double A are looking primed for promotion to Triple A at this point so at least there is a little depth in our system to make up for it.
I’m guessing Howard’s first to make it to AAA which will make way for Jeffries to take his place in AA…by the end of July, the AAA rotation could actually be filled by only prospects with no trace of org fillers.
I think Dunshee makes it up first. Howard needs to rebound from his last start, but Dunshee has been pretty consistent all seasons. Needs to cut down the walks, but we know he’s capable of it, and he’s struck out 20 batters in 26 innings.
Dunshee definitely has the better stuff of the two but apparently is the least coachable, meaning he’s refusing to throw his changeup on the advice of his coaches, what that means for the future? who knows, but he pitched well enough last year to technically be in AAA right now
Maybe he just doesn’t feel comfortable throwing a changeup. Who actually knows.
Avengers premiere or Vlad premiere, Which will happen first?
Vlad.
Shocker, highly touted Yankees prospect gets traded and turns into pumpkin
Think Rob Refsyndar.
Why would you compare Sheffield to Refsnyder? Refsnyder was a 5th round pick who had a pretty nice college career but wasn’t seen as having enough of a bat to be an MLB Outfielder. The Yankees tried to get him to switch to 2nd. He wasn’t able to make the change. Try to remember that he was never ranked higher than 5th in a very weak Yankees system. Sheffield is a former 1st round pick and a left handed pitcher who was drafted as a teenager. He has been a consensus top 50 prospect for a couple of years now. You are comparing apples to brussle sprouts. Maybe your “scouteyes” need some new glasses.
It was an obvious joke Coffin. It’s a dead issue….
He was a highly touted Indians prospect before the Yankees got him.
Why is eveyone so hyped about Bichette> He forecasts as a below average MLB level player.
Vlad jr forecasts as a star and Cavan Biggio as a very good MLB player.
Someone tell biggio’s godfather, Jimmertee to stop slandering Bichette.
You have it backwards.
Bichette is a top prospect and biggio is average
Majority of prospects should be taken with cautious optimism.
Biggio has grown leaps and bounds the last couple years. Not only has hit bat improved, he’s been asked to play and learn multiple positions while improving his bat. That’s impressive.
For anyone looking at prospect lists, remember that Anthony Alford was #1 in the Jays system. Tell me, Jays fans, is Alford ready to be better than Kevin Pillar? You guys (not Jimmer) said Alford is better than Pillar right now. I’d say he’s having a hard time showing he’s better than Roeman Fields.
Bichette has talent. And genes. Oh, and people that speculate for a living also believe he will produce. Perhaps never live up to the hype but being an every day mlber seems to be a fair projection.
Could have used him to replace Galvis while he’s down.
Loved
KING feliz.
But so did the rest of the AL West.
Castellanos and Greene for Vlad Jr and a lottery prospect….. That’s a bad trade proposal guys.
The excuse for Vlad needed at bats was concocted weeks ago. If the organization wanted Vlad to get at bats consistently, here is the place he needed to go:
Toronto
There’s your list.
As for Bichette, hope he recovers and comes back strong.
Cut Brito for J. Davis, Hanson for Biggio and Sogard for Vlad. Yes, Sogard.
Take it easy on Sogard! He has glasses
Right. Sorry BravesCanada. Speaking of which, where were his glasses on the Grichuk at bat where he couldn’t score second to home on a ball off the fence? Those specs let him down!
Tellez bailed him out.
Cut Sogard. Fundamentally inept.
Shapiro and Atkins might suck at selecting free agents but they are definitely some of the best at developing a farm. They started with barely anything in Cleveland and built a consistent playoff team in one of the worst markets. Now they have built an exciting system in only a couple of years with Toronto. Hopefully they will luck into someone like Terry Francona who will be able to get the most out of their prospects. Imagine how different that system would look if they had gotten Duquette instead.
They suck at selecting free agents? Because it’s up to them who signs with the Jays. Right?! Get a grip.
Interesting take Coffin, so I’ll spell it out like this:
A holdover from the previous regimes had to convince them to draft Bichette.
Vlad was AA’s signing.
As overrated as AA is, I’d rather have AA/Duquette over Atkins/Shapiro. However, I’d rather see new ownership; deep pockets with a deeper desire to be champion. It starts there and they should be taking the most blame out of anyone.
Agreed, Shapkins didn’t sign Vlad, draft Bichette or Biggio… their trades have been an abject disaster, and they’ve made some of the worst free agent signings in MLB since AA left. The Yankees and Brewers reloaded in the same time that Shapkins have had to rebuild from the playoff teams… if they’re really so good at building a farm system, let them run the minors, not the MLB team!
They have built an exciting system in a number of years with no attendance and no future. Jays could not hit last place SF Giant pitching and show no baseball savvy whatsoever, Hernandez-looser, Gurriel-looser, Bichette-goner, Smoak-traded, Vlad-looser and poor marketing scam, need I go on?
Perhaps you should learn how to spell “loser” before attempting to go anywhere.
Boston may be struggling, but it is nice to see 3 of the future kids called up, even if temporarily and doing well in Chavis, Lakins and Hernandez.
The farm system that is “empty” some here post over and over has several kids really close and several more a couple years away.
On a side note, let’s say Boston falls out of the standings in July. Not saying I’d want to do this but….do you deal Betts for a big return knowing you have a core group signed longterm? Obviously want to keep Betts but the situation may push Boston to consider the trade option.
Regurgitate regurgitate
Wow, I didn’t know Boston had minor league players on the way. I’m almost positive that their minor league franchises had to fold since they literally couldn’t field a team. Must’ve loaded em up real quick.
Regurgitate regurgitate….
JD made Mookie the MVP, what has he done but say he wants to be a FA. If they fall out trade him.