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Cleveland Guardians Prospect Report 9/11/24
Matthew Kennell
Sep 12






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Scoreboard:
Triple-A - Columbus Clippers 7, St. Paul Saints 6
Double-A - Akron RubberDucks 5, Hartford Yard Goats 4
Highlights:

Johnathan Rodriguez (DH, Columbus): 3-for-5, 2 R, 2B, HR, RBI - Rodriguez was a triple away from hitting for the cycle on Wednesday night and walked it off with a solo homerun in the ninth. He was able to power out his 25th homerun of the season to center field despite an inward blowing wind with an exit velocity of 104.5 mph. That was his only hit that drove in a run, but his presence on-base led to another run scoring on the game-tying homerun in the eighth.

Micah Pries (1B, Columbus): 1-for-4, R, HR, 3 RBIs, 3 DPs - One swing of the bat changed the game for the Clippers and it was the game-tying homerun from Micah Pries in the bottom of the eighth. That longball completed a five-run comeback that eventually ended in victory. He was able to turn on a fastball at 107.2 mph to right field to do the damage.

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Austin Peterson (SP, Akron): W (7-2), 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BBs, 6 Ks, PO - Words are not enough to describe what Austin Peterson is doing this year. You just have to go see it for yourself live. On Wednesday he outdueled the Rockies top prospect in Chase Dollander by going six strong innings where he allowed no runs and no walks. He leads all of minor league baseball in wins (14), innings (160.0) and WHIP (0.91).

Cooper Ingle (C, Akron): 2-for-3, R, 2 RBIs, BB - A two-run single off the bat of Ingle drove in a pair in the second inning to get the scoring started for Akron. He makes it back-to-back games with multiple hits and reached base a third time on Wednesday.
Notable Performances:

Estevan Florial (LF, Columbus): 1-for-5, R, HR, 2 RBIs - Florial was able to elevate a changeup for his eighth homerun of the season. That was the first big hit of the game for Columbus and really turned the corner on the contest.

Christian Cairo (SS, Columbus): 2-for-3, R, RBI, BB, 2 DPs - Cairo got the rally started with his RBI single in the fifth and proceeded to reach base on three of his four plate appearances.

Jack Leftwich (RP, Akron): H (4), 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BBs, 2 Ks - Leftwich went four up, four down in his appearance out of the bullpen. He’s given up multiple hits in each of his last four outings, but this one was clean for the 25-year-old.

Zane Morehouse (RP, Akron): S (2), 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BBs, K - Morehouse locked up his second save with the RubberDucks and has four consecutive scoreless appearances.

Milan Tolentino (3B, Akron): 2-for-3, R, BB, PO, E5F - A good day for Tolentino with the bat in his hand after reaching base in three-of-four plate appearances, but he was picked off and committed an error to put a wet blanket on his game.

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Cleveland Guardians Prospect Report 9/14/24
Arthur Kinney
Sep 14






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Triple-A - Columbus Clippers 11, St. Paul Saints 1
Double-A - Hartford Yard Goats 3, Akron RubberDucks 0
REHAB
James Karinchak (RP, Columbus): 1 IP, perfect, 1 K - Karinchak needed only twelve pitches (nine of them strikes) to hurl a perfect seventh in his fourth (and best) appearance of his current rehab stint.

Carlos Carrasco (Rehab SP, Akron): L (0-1), 3 IP, 3 H, 2 R (both earned), 1 BK, 3 K - Carraco’s rehab stint, which saw his fastball top out at 93 MPH, got off to a solid start over its first two frames before a rough third brought his return to the mound to an end for the evening.

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HIGHLIGHTS
Johnathan Rodriguez (LF, Columbus): 3-5, 3 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI - The St. Paul pitching staff will be glad to see this week end because it means they won’t have to face Rodriguez. After “only” getting a single and a walk in Tuesday’s series opener, J-Rod has dominated the Saints with a trio of multi-hit games in as many days. Over the course of those three games, part of a ten-game on-base streak, Johnathan is 8-for-14 with three doubles, two homers, six runs scored and four driven in. If only the Big Club bats were so hot!

Juan Brito (RF, Columbus): 3-5, 2 R, 3 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 CS - After the last two days, the Twins Triple-A hurlers will be similarly happy to be done with Brito who, after only reaching via walk in the series' first two games, Brito has gone 5-for-9 with three runs, three doubles, and a pair of RBI - extending his team-leading on-base streak to 18 games in the process. Also notable is how hard Brito hit the ball last night. Two of his doubles left his bat at over 106 MPH (106.1 in the first inning and 106.5 in the fifth for the third and second hardest-hit balls of the game, respectively) and his third two-bagger in the sixth was hardly a bloop, either at 100.4 MPH.

Angel Martinez (2B, Columbus): 3-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SF - While Friday night ‘s performance was Martinez’s first multi-hit one of the series, that doesn’t mean he hasn;t also struck fear in the St. Paul staff, with extra-base hits picking up the slack earlier in what is now a ten-total base week (in 16 official at-bats), continuing both a team-leading seven-game hit streak and a 16-game on-base one.

Bryan Lavastida (C, Columbus): 1-1, 1 R, 1 3B, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 2 SB - Normally, one-hit nights are not Highlights in the Prospect Report. Then again, one-hit performances usually aren’t paired with the kind of plate discipline that makes them perfect nights at the plate or the baserunning prowess to make them a multi-steal evening. In Lavastida’s case last night, he had both. Oh, and the hit was a two-run triple.

Doug Nikhazy (SP, Columbus): W (6-3), 3 H, 1 R (earned), 2 BB, 8 K - the spectacular efforts were not limited to the plate on Friday night at the Corner of Neil and Nationwide as Nikhazy dominated the Minnesota farmhands to make the game a rout rather than a slugfest. One area where Doug’s September has been markedly better than his August has been longevity. After not going six full frames in any of his four outings last month (and only going more than five once), he has gone an even six and in his last two starts and seven complete in his first appearance of this month. If he can provide this kind of length when he makes the Big Club and the bullpen stays as dominant as it has been, his major league starts could be something very special. Of note from the Statcast data: I’m not sure how exactly they determined when he was throwing a four-seamer rather than a sinker as both pitches had virtually identical velo, spin, and break characteristics.

Aaron Davenport (scheduled SP, Akron): 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R (earned), 3 BB, 5 K, 1 HR allowed - While Davenport struggled with control like he did in his outing last Friday (four walk), he did a much better job of limiting the damage than he did in Richmond (three earned runs in 4.2 innings). The result was an outing that provided a much-needed on-field highlight on an evening bereft of them.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Myles Straw (CF, Columbus): 2-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 outfield Assist - In a performance that would’ve been a highlight on many other nights (or in last night’s Akron game), Straw hit a pair of singles including one in the sixth that drove in a pair of runs

Gabriel Arias (SS, Columbus): 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K - Arias hit the ground running in his return from a brief stint on the Temporarily Inactive List with a pair of hits that included the night’s hardest-hit ball in a fifth-inning double (106.9 MPH).

Nick Mikolajchak (RP, Columbus): 2 IP, 2 H, 1 K - Mikolajchak’s two-inning outing was his longest of the season and the first time he completed two frames in an official game since September 20, 2022 (Nick spent the entire 2023 season on the IL.).

Kahlil Watson (LF, Akron): 1-3, 1 2B, 1 BB - Watson was the only RubberDuck to reach twice last night, including on the team’s lone extra-base hit.

Minor League year-end awards: Boston Red Sox’s Kristian Campbell is Prospect of the Year
By Keith Law
Sep 17, 2024
80


Other than in Triple A, which has another few days to go, the 2024 minor-league regular season is now in the books, so it’s time for my annual Prospect of the Year award, given to the prospect who showed the best performance in the minor leagues in 2024.

While the process of selecting the top prospects was ultimately subjective, I focused primarily on legitimate prospects who performed well relative to their age, level and experience in pro ball. In short, the younger a player was relative to the other players in his league — especially when compared solely to the players in his league with a chance to have some impact in the majors — the more impressed I was with a strong performance. What a player did in the majors, if he was called up, was irrelevant for this list’s purposes. I do consider age relative to level, so a player like Spencer Horwitz, who hit .335/.456/.514 in Triple A but was 26 years old and repeating the level, doesn’t make the cut.




So, given those criteria, here is my overall Prospect of the Year for 2024, as well as several other players who had outstanding seasons and deserved notice.

(Note: Scouting grades are on a 20-80 scale)

Prospect of the Year: Kristian Campbell, IF/OF, Boston Red Sox
The decision to give the award to Campbell wasn’t even close for me — nobody in the minors had a year to touch Campbell’s. He finished the season with a .330/.439/.558 line across three levels, starting the year with High-A Greenville and finishing it with Triple-A Worcester. That triple-slash line was good for a 179 wRC+*, which was by far the highest of anyone in the minors with at least 400 PA, well ahead of the No. 2 player at a wRC+ of 160. His OBP ranked third among all hitters, his slugging percentage sixth, and his batting average fourth.

This all came with just a 19.9 percent strikeout rate, and it was in his first full year in pro ball. And he did it while playing four skill positions — second, short, center, and third, with more than 200 innings at each of the first three spots.


Campbell was a redshirt freshman at Georgia Tech in 2022 and missed a few more weeks to start 2023 for the Wreck, hitting .376/.484/.549 in 45 games after he joined their lineup for good on March 10. That followed a strong summer the year before playing for Duluth in the wood-bat Northwoods League.

Red Sox area scout Kirk Fredericksson drafted Campbell and told me he believed not just in the skill set, but saw Campbell’s “good makeup and aptitude” to go with it — and when you have an athlete who has those things, you can really bet on their upside. This already looks like a home run of a pick for the Red Sox’s scouting staff, as Campbell tore up pitching — even good pitching — at every level, and now sits as one of the top 50 prospects in baseball.

*(I’ve said before that I don’t believe wRC+ has much predictive value for minor-league position players. I am only using it here as a measure of how good Campbell’s year was.)




Honorable mentions
Walker Jenkins, OF, Minnesota Twins
The best prospect on this list, Jenkins was the Twins’ 2023 first-round pick, fifth overall, but his season started late as he got hurt in his first game of 2024 and missed six weeks with a hamstring injury. After that, he hit .294/.407/.462 across the complex league, Low A and High A, only struggling when he was bumped up to Double A on Sept. 8. I’ll forgive him that last bit, as he’s still just 19 years old.

The Larry Walker comparisons he evoked in high school might turn out to be accurate after all.


Franklin Arias, SS, Boston Red Sox
It’s been a pretty good year for the Boston farm system, with Roman Anthony joining Campbell in reaching Triple A and hitting well at two levels, 2023 first-rounder Kyle Teel also reaching Triple A in his first full pro season, and the 18-year-old Arias tearing up the Florida Complex League with a .355/.471/.584 line before a promotion to Low A in August. He hit .257/.331/.378 at the higher level as one of just a handful of 18-year-olds to play there, and of course did so playing one of the most valuable positions on the field.

The Red Sox’s system has turned around very quickly in the past few years, with some fantastic drafts and a couple of early successes on the international scouting side, as well.


Demetrio Crisantes, IF, Arizona Diamondbacks
Campbell is the biggest breakout prospect in the minors this year, but Crisantes might be a solid No. 2, as the second baseman from Nogales, Ariz., came back from his second (!) Tommy John surgery to hit .341/.429/.492 between the Arizona League and Low A, punctuated by a 57-game on-base streak. He was a seventh-round pick in 2022 but had already reinjured the elbow, so he only DH’d in 2023 and was limited to 23 games, although they were impressive ones — .347/.417/.465, also in the Arizona League.

He’s become one of the Dbacks’ top prospects now that he’s playing a position (Cristantes appeared in games at first, second and third base this season) and has maintained that high rate of hard contact.


Angel Genao, IF, Cleveland Guardians
The 20-year-old Genao returned to Low A to start 2024 but hit so well that Cleveland moved him up to High A after 44 games, and he just kept on hitting, posting a .330/.379/.499 line on the year with a 15.5 percent strikeout rate. He’s a natural shortstop but played some more second and third for High-A Lake County, all skill positions and all places where his bat is very likely to make him a strong regular or more. He even stole 25 bases in 30 attempts for a little more value.




The Guardians had a number of candidates for this honor, including first baseman C.J. Kayfus, their 2023 third-round pick who demolished High A with a .338/.437/.578 line before cooling off in Double A, and catcher Cooper Ingle, their 2023 fourth-round pick who hit .305/.419/.478 in 93 games, mostly in High A.


Others of note
• First baseman Tre’ Morgan was at LSU in 2023 when the Rays took him in the third round, so sending him to Low A to start the year was too conservative. To his credit, he raked there and in High A, posting a .371/.447/.558 line at the higher level with more walks than strikeouts, only hitting the wall at the very end of the season in Double A.

• Second baseman Luke Keaschall, the Twins’ 2023 second-round pick, also reached Double A in his first full season in pro ball, hitting .303/.420/.483 across two levels and earning a spot in the Futures Game.

• Detroit’s top two picks from 2023 both had great seasons, but the second-rounder, middle infielder Kevin McGonigle, outshone the first-rounder, outfielder Max Clark, while both were still playing. McGonigle hit .326/.407/.470 in Lakeland, then moved up to High A but broke his hamate bone, ending his run there after just 14 games. Clark had a solid year as well, hitting .279/.372/.421 across the same two levels and stealing 29 bases in 34 attempts while playing all of his innings in centerfield.

• Rockies centerfielder Robert Calaz was the best hitter in the Arizona League, hitting .349/.462/.651 as an 18-year-old, and was doing more of the same in 13 games for Low-A Fresno before a minor shoulder injury ended his season.

Pitcher of the year: Matt Wilkinson, LHP, Cleveland Guardians
The man they call “Tugboat” was just a 10th-round pick in 2023 out of Central Arizona, a junior college located between Phoenix and Tucson, and all he did in his full-season debut was finish second in the minor leagues in strikeouts with 174.

Wilkinson still tops out in the upper 80s, but he’s got a 55 changeup, has a ton of deception in his delivery, and has a great idea of how to attack hitters — well, minor-league hitters, at least. I’m not that sanguine about his long-term outlook, given how soft the fastball is and the obvious questions about his build, but he had an incredible season across Low and High A, with a 1.90 ERA in 118 2/3 innings.


Honorable mention
Quinn Mathews, LHP, St. Louis Cardinals
This goes to the man who led the minors in strikeouts, Mathews, the Cardinals’ 2023 fourth-round pick out of Stanford. Mathews has seen his velocity jump in pro ball and he still has the plus changeup that made him Stanford’s ace as a senior. His record was only marred by some struggles in three Triple-A starts to end the year, but in his defense, that was his third promotion of the season and he may have been fatigued by that point. Travel’s hard, man.


Others of note include the Angels’ Caden Dana, who had a 2.52 ERA and 27 percent strikeout rate as a 20-year-old in Double A before his premature promotion to the majors, and the Rays’ Santiago Suarez, who walked just 21 in 111 2/3 innings (4.7 percent) with 115 strikeouts as a 19-year-old in Low A.

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2024 Draft debuts
Of the high picks from the 2024 draft who actually were allowed to play this summer, very few really excelled in their pro debuts, and quite a few struggled, including Charlie Condon, Walker Janek, and Vance Honeycutt, whose first summer in the minors ended with 11 K’s in 20 PA in High A.

The decision to shift the complex leagues to a spring start meant that most high school draft picks debuted in the unofficial “bridge” leagues held at the Arizona and Florida complexes, where games don’t count and nobody keeps stats. That means that these kids went from playing at least somewhat meaningful games in high school to playing pretend games in front of no fans. I may not be a player development guy, but I find it hard to believe this is helping anyone become a better baseball player.

Best pro debut: Cam Smith, 3B, Chicago Cubs
Smith, the No. 14 pick this July, hit .315/.400/.622 in 130 PA across three levels, finishing in Double A, with just a 17.7 percent strikeout rate. On Aug. 20, he was still in Low A, but from that point on he played in 22 games and had hits in 20 of them — despite the two promotions — while striking out just 13 times in 99 PA.

The Cubs have had quite a bit of success in the first round the past few years, with Matt Shaw, Cade Horton (when healthy), and Jordan Wicks their last three top selections; Smith looks like he’ll continue that winning streak.


Honorable mention: Nick Kurtz, 1B, Oakland A’s
Kurtz might have taken home this honor, but his pro debut ended due to injury after 50 PA. He hit .368/.520/.763 in that brief stint, mostly in Low A plus a couple of games in Double A, where I expect him to start in 2025.