Mets 3B Ronny Mauricio is listed here as a third baseman today because that’s what he is today, apparently, according to a report that Buck Showalter told him as much during a meeting this week. Brett Baty is reportedly a man without a position for the near term. Seems like they have a great plan over there. Real shared mental map of the organizational outlook from top to bottom.
Marlins 2B Xavier Edwards has been riding that August heatwave, slashing .692/.742/.962 with two home runs in six August games. He hit .365 with six strikeouts and nine walks in July. He’s finally impacting the ball enough to let the rest of his skills drive the profile. We’ll see more Weapon X before the season’s over. I’m starting to think we’ll see a lot of him next year.
I’m happy to see Phillies 2B Weston Wilson collecting some major league money. He’ll turn 29 on 9/11, and he lost a key season to the pandemic. A lot of players lost a key season to the pandemic, but he would’ve been 25 in Triple-A. Anywho, he’s making real money for now. With 25 home runs and 23 steals in 100 games, Wilson’s appeal for our game is obvious. His playing time outlook is not.
Mets RHP Blade Tidwell was recently nominated for Most Teenage Pitcher Name: 2023, but his Double-A debut won’t be going on his awards-night highlight reel. He allowed four hits, four walks, and three runs in four innings. Even so, he’d been dominant in High-A, and his trajectory is clearly aimed at a rotation spot sometime in 2024.
Gotta make room for Pirates 3B Jack Brannigan here in honor of Futurama’s return. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy, bruised.” Like his pants-less namesake, Brannigan brings supreme confidence into the box. In 14 High-A games, he’s slashing .327/.400/.654 with four home runs and two stolen bases. A third-round pick in 2022, he’ll turn 23 in March and should open the 2024 season in Double-A.
Young Yankees LHP Henry Lalane (19, CPX) has inherited the family’s power-juicer franchise but still finds plenty of time to practice his pitching. (Fun fact I learned moments ago: “Jack” Lallane’s middle name was Henri. Circles within circles.) At 6’7” 211 lbs with premium heat from the left side, Lalane features rare physical advantages
Diamondbacks OF Jakey Josepha (19, ACPX) received his own Baseball Name Awards nomination in the Most Little League category. His game is anything but. Listed at 6’2” 135 lbs, the organization employs a sort of get-back coach to make sure Josepha doesn’t get caught in a stiff breeze and sent flying across the state. In 26 games on the complex, he’s slashing .352/.468/.489 with two homers and six steals. He’s probably not weighing in at 135 anymore, but there’s a long way to go before Josepha can tap into his full technicolor man strength.
The Red Sox are on a roll developing hitters and have another on the way in OF Natanael Yuten, an 18-year-old thriving in the Florida Complex League. A lefty bat listed at 6’2” 143 lbs, Yuten should add thump with age and is already slashing .333/.396/.486 in 37 games against older arms.
Hey guess who else has a young bat breaking out in the complex?
We don’t have all day, and you’d never guess it’s the Dodgers, so I’ll just get to the words of praise for SS Alexander Albertus, an 18-year-old slashing .409/.567/.591 in nine games. He’s had more walks than strikeouts in three straight stops now. He’s loose with fast, sure hands despite being listed at 6’1” 176 lbs.
International bonus money was changing places at the trade deadline, and the other shoe dropped this week for the Dodgers when they signed top Korean prospect, LHP Hyun-Seok Jang, for $900,000. It’s a fascinating development on multiple levels. Will Jang head straight to the complex? Will we see him pitch at all? Will other Korean and/or Japanese youngsters bypass their leagues’ drafts to jump straight into a big league system. We’ve already been seeing that last piece in action, but this feels like a harbinger of an oncoming wave. Korea and Japan are both making fast gains in popularity and development, baseball-wise. Jang might’ve been the top pick in that draft. I don’t think that’s happened before. Maybe for Ji-hwan Bae, I guess? But he wasn’t a lefty with four pitches who could sit 95. Wikipedia says Bae was only second player to go from a Korean high school to a minor league system. Down the rabbit hole, he reportedly signed for $300,000, but Atlanta was planning to give him another $600,000 by moving money around from other players’ contracts. Very cool. Anywho, it’s interesting that they were both promised $900,000 to skip the domestic draft. That’s a reasonable fee for adding a top tier prospect.
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