14. Dominic Keegan, 1B
Drafted: 4th Round, 2022 from Vanderbilt (TBR)
Age 24.6 Height 6′ 0″ Weight 210 Bat / Thr R / R FV 45
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
35/40 60/60 35/50 40/30 40/50 50
Keegan only caught 32 games throughout his four-year Vanderbilt career, but his most likely path to being an impact player when he was drafted seemed to be via a return to catching full-time. Aside from a handful of games at first base in 2023, the Rays have deployed Keegan exclusively behind the plate in pro ball, and he’s caught about 80 games each of the last two seasons. Unfortunately, he struggles with pitch framing and ball-blocking enough to conclude that it’s unlikely he will stick behind the plate long-term.
The good news is that Keegan has performed well enough on offense to have prospect relevance even if he has to move back to first base. He slashed .285/.371/.435 at Double-A Montgomery in 2024 and is a career .288/.380/.457 hitter in the minors. Most of Keegan’s underlying Statcast-style hitting data is near the big league average at first base, with his contact ability being the one aspect of his offense that falls short. Given that Keegan has produced this way as a catcher, with his body taking a beating in part because he’s such a butcher, is it possible his bat would have another gear if he were just a clean-jersey’d first baseman? That’s plausible, but there is one other aspect of Keegan’s hitting that could give one pause: He’s basically never on time to pull fastballs. You can count on one hand the number of left-of-center-field hits Keegan had against heaters in 2024. It’s a sign he might struggle against big league velocity if he’s barely on time against Double-A offerings. The 2025 season is Keegan’s 40-man platform year, and it will be interesting to see how the Rays handle his development on defense as he tries to make a case for a roster spot.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/tampa-bay-r ... prospects/
2025 Padres prospects news and notes
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
12. Cristofer Torin, SS
Ht: 5'10" | Wt: 155 | B-T: R-R
Age: null
BA Grade/Risk: 45/High.
Track Record: The Diamondbacks signed Torin for $240,000 on the strength of his advanced shortstop defense in 2022. He has since shown he just might be able to contribute enough offensively to one day become an everyday big leaguer. Torin has steadily climbed the system since signing and spent all of 2024 with Low-A Visalia where he hit .255/.381/.344 with nearly as many walks (81) as strikeouts (84).
Scouting Report: With good contact skills and strike-zone awareness, Torin flashes potentially above-average hitting ability. His short, repeatable swing leads to lots of contact and he rarely expands the zone. He was also tough to beat inside the zone, posting just a 12.6% in-zone miss rate. Torin can shoot balls the other way and has enough raw pull-side power to reach double-digits in homers. His offensive approach, namely his at-bat management, needs refinement. While he can tell balls from strikes, he will sometimes swing at the wrong strikes, and with two strikes he is so focused on contact he rarely takes his ‘A’ swing. He is the most natural shortstop in the organization, with smooth actions and the ability to make any type of play, but he sometimes gets himself in trouble by trying to do too much. He is a below-average runner.
The Future: Torin’s heavy-legged body creates concern about whether he can stick at short as he matures physically. If he can, he has the potential to become an average regular.
Scouting Grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 40 | Run: 40 | Field: 55 | Arm: 60.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2 ... =preseason
27. Cristofer Torin, 2B
Signed: International Signing Period, 2022 from Venezuela (ARI)
Age 19.7 Height 5′ 10″ Weight 155 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
25/60 20/30 20/30 40/40 30/50 45
Torin is a bat control savant with limited power and defensive ability. He’s posted in-zone contact rates in the 88-91% range so far as a pro, but the quality of his contact is often light, and he slashed .255/.381/.344 at Low-A Visalia in 2024. Torin uses very simple, conservative footwork and lets his hand-eye coordination and bat control do the work for his offense. He hits a lot of choppers and grounders and makes a ton of soft contact, posting one of the three lowest hard-hit rates among D-backs full-season hitters the last two years. He gives you glimpses of exciting rotational ability, especially when Torin has to tuck his hands in and barrel stuff in around his naval. But in general, this is a singles hitter and a smaller guy without the overt physical projection that would indicate he’ll eventually have real power.
Torin has also plateaued as a defender. He has a quick exchange and a lovely arm stroke, but his agility, range and hands are all below average for a shortstop. He’s playing a mix of both middle infield spots right now, but projects to second base for us.
The bat-to-ball skill here is pretty special and Torin is very young. We want to leave room for improvement and we value his profile, but barring an unexpected leap in his explosiveness, Torin is likely to produce akin to Luis Urías. He needs to develop either defensive versatility or power to play a more meaningful big league role.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/arizona-dia ... prospects/
11. Cristofer Torin, SS/2B,
Visalia Rawhide, A Arizona Diamondbacks
AGE: 19 DOB: 05/26/2005
BATS: R THROWS: R
HT: 5' 10" WT: 155
SIGNED: Jan. 15, 2022 - ARI
ETA: 2027
Scouting grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 40 | Run: 50 | Arm: 60 | Field: 60 | Overall: 45
Torin joined the Arizona organization in January 2022 and has moved fairly quickly on the strength of some of the best bat-to-ball skills in the entire system. After posting a .465 OBP and 1.85 BB/K ratio over 50 games in the Dominican Summer League in his first taste of the Minors, the infielder shot out of the gate with a .320/.437/.427 line, 21 walks and only nine strikeouts over 26 games in the Arizona Complex League last season, earning a mid-July callup to Single-A Visalia. Results were rougher in the California League, but it was notable that Torin was one of only 16 players to get more than 150 plate appearances at Single-A during their age-18-or-younger season in 2023, joining Top 100 prospects Ethan Salas and Samuel Basallo on that list.
Regardless of level, Torin led all Minor Leaguers in that age bracket (min. 250 PA) with his 13.8 percent strikeout rate, and his 8.8 percent swinging-strike rate at Single-A ranked fourth among players 18 or younger at that level (min. 150 PA). That barrel control has been more about protecting the plate than driving balls in the early going, but there’s hope that the right-handed hitter could get to at least below-average power as he adds more oomph behind his hacks.
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/2024 ... rin-800198
9. Cristofer Torin, Pos: MI
Born: 2005-05-26
B: Right T: Right
H: 5′ 10″ W: 155 lbs.
History: Signed January 2022 out of Venezuela.
Previous Rank: #6 (org)
Major League ETA: 2027/2028
Year Team Level Age PA R 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG DRC+ BABIP
2022 D-DBB ROK 17 202 45 12 2 0 26 37 20 21 6 .333 .465 .434 – .376
2023 A-DBR ROK 18 126 31 3 1 2 13 21 9 15 0 .320 .437 .427 – .333
2023 VIS Lo-A 18 156 16 1 1 2 11 14 30 6 4 .236 .314 .300 83 .287
2024 VIS Lo-A 19 512 78 19 3 4 50 81 84 15 5 .255 .381 .344 126 .308
The Report: Though the California League is a friendly landing spot for hitters making their full-season debuts, but for a teenager like Torin, it’s still a tall order. The switch-hitting shortstop demonstrated the skills that made him a key piece of the D’Backs 2022 international amateur class, running a 127 DRC+ in a full season of games with Visalia. He looked every bit the part of a solid middle infielder, showing above-average range at both up-the-middle spots despite a stocky physique. The Venezuelan youngster exerts a high level of effort on the basepaths, but is controlled at the plate. A light load unfolds into a flat swing with Torin’s hands tight to his body, leading to mostly line drive and ground-ball contact and next to no over-the-fence power despite generating significantly improved exit velocities in 2024. Torin looks to pull the ball despite lacking the lift or the pop part of the traditional power combo, and while he’s demonstrated a strong capacity to eschew pitches off the plate that he cannot handle, his limited ability to handle the outer half beyond trying to hook liners may leave him vulnerable against better pitching.
OFP: 50 / Average shortstop
Variance: Medium. Torin improved at the plate in 2024 and is likely to stick at shortstop but is a long way from the majors at this point. There are also questions about how much actual impact is in his bat. —John Trupin
Jesse Roche’s Fantasy Rundown:
Top-500 Dynasty Prospects: 347
Potential Earnings: $0-5
Fantasy Overview: Torin is a high-contact, disciplined hitter with little power and enough speed to swipe a bag here and there. His power-speed upside is limited, but he should hit for a solid average and provide deep-league value.
Reckless Fantasy Comp: Geraldo Perdomo
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/
Ht: 5'10" | Wt: 155 | B-T: R-R
Age: null
BA Grade/Risk: 45/High.
Track Record: The Diamondbacks signed Torin for $240,000 on the strength of his advanced shortstop defense in 2022. He has since shown he just might be able to contribute enough offensively to one day become an everyday big leaguer. Torin has steadily climbed the system since signing and spent all of 2024 with Low-A Visalia where he hit .255/.381/.344 with nearly as many walks (81) as strikeouts (84).
Scouting Report: With good contact skills and strike-zone awareness, Torin flashes potentially above-average hitting ability. His short, repeatable swing leads to lots of contact and he rarely expands the zone. He was also tough to beat inside the zone, posting just a 12.6% in-zone miss rate. Torin can shoot balls the other way and has enough raw pull-side power to reach double-digits in homers. His offensive approach, namely his at-bat management, needs refinement. While he can tell balls from strikes, he will sometimes swing at the wrong strikes, and with two strikes he is so focused on contact he rarely takes his ‘A’ swing. He is the most natural shortstop in the organization, with smooth actions and the ability to make any type of play, but he sometimes gets himself in trouble by trying to do too much. He is a below-average runner.
The Future: Torin’s heavy-legged body creates concern about whether he can stick at short as he matures physically. If he can, he has the potential to become an average regular.
Scouting Grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 40 | Run: 40 | Field: 55 | Arm: 60.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2 ... =preseason
27. Cristofer Torin, 2B
Signed: International Signing Period, 2022 from Venezuela (ARI)
Age 19.7 Height 5′ 10″ Weight 155 Bat / Thr R / R FV 40
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
25/60 20/30 20/30 40/40 30/50 45
Torin is a bat control savant with limited power and defensive ability. He’s posted in-zone contact rates in the 88-91% range so far as a pro, but the quality of his contact is often light, and he slashed .255/.381/.344 at Low-A Visalia in 2024. Torin uses very simple, conservative footwork and lets his hand-eye coordination and bat control do the work for his offense. He hits a lot of choppers and grounders and makes a ton of soft contact, posting one of the three lowest hard-hit rates among D-backs full-season hitters the last two years. He gives you glimpses of exciting rotational ability, especially when Torin has to tuck his hands in and barrel stuff in around his naval. But in general, this is a singles hitter and a smaller guy without the overt physical projection that would indicate he’ll eventually have real power.
Torin has also plateaued as a defender. He has a quick exchange and a lovely arm stroke, but his agility, range and hands are all below average for a shortstop. He’s playing a mix of both middle infield spots right now, but projects to second base for us.
The bat-to-ball skill here is pretty special and Torin is very young. We want to leave room for improvement and we value his profile, but barring an unexpected leap in his explosiveness, Torin is likely to produce akin to Luis Urías. He needs to develop either defensive versatility or power to play a more meaningful big league role.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/arizona-dia ... prospects/
11. Cristofer Torin, SS/2B,
Visalia Rawhide, A Arizona Diamondbacks
AGE: 19 DOB: 05/26/2005
BATS: R THROWS: R
HT: 5' 10" WT: 155
SIGNED: Jan. 15, 2022 - ARI
ETA: 2027
Scouting grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 40 | Run: 50 | Arm: 60 | Field: 60 | Overall: 45
Torin joined the Arizona organization in January 2022 and has moved fairly quickly on the strength of some of the best bat-to-ball skills in the entire system. After posting a .465 OBP and 1.85 BB/K ratio over 50 games in the Dominican Summer League in his first taste of the Minors, the infielder shot out of the gate with a .320/.437/.427 line, 21 walks and only nine strikeouts over 26 games in the Arizona Complex League last season, earning a mid-July callup to Single-A Visalia. Results were rougher in the California League, but it was notable that Torin was one of only 16 players to get more than 150 plate appearances at Single-A during their age-18-or-younger season in 2023, joining Top 100 prospects Ethan Salas and Samuel Basallo on that list.
Regardless of level, Torin led all Minor Leaguers in that age bracket (min. 250 PA) with his 13.8 percent strikeout rate, and his 8.8 percent swinging-strike rate at Single-A ranked fourth among players 18 or younger at that level (min. 150 PA). That barrel control has been more about protecting the plate than driving balls in the early going, but there’s hope that the right-handed hitter could get to at least below-average power as he adds more oomph behind his hacks.
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/2024 ... rin-800198
9. Cristofer Torin, Pos: MI
Born: 2005-05-26
B: Right T: Right
H: 5′ 10″ W: 155 lbs.
History: Signed January 2022 out of Venezuela.
Previous Rank: #6 (org)
Major League ETA: 2027/2028
Year Team Level Age PA R 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG DRC+ BABIP
2022 D-DBB ROK 17 202 45 12 2 0 26 37 20 21 6 .333 .465 .434 – .376
2023 A-DBR ROK 18 126 31 3 1 2 13 21 9 15 0 .320 .437 .427 – .333
2023 VIS Lo-A 18 156 16 1 1 2 11 14 30 6 4 .236 .314 .300 83 .287
2024 VIS Lo-A 19 512 78 19 3 4 50 81 84 15 5 .255 .381 .344 126 .308
The Report: Though the California League is a friendly landing spot for hitters making their full-season debuts, but for a teenager like Torin, it’s still a tall order. The switch-hitting shortstop demonstrated the skills that made him a key piece of the D’Backs 2022 international amateur class, running a 127 DRC+ in a full season of games with Visalia. He looked every bit the part of a solid middle infielder, showing above-average range at both up-the-middle spots despite a stocky physique. The Venezuelan youngster exerts a high level of effort on the basepaths, but is controlled at the plate. A light load unfolds into a flat swing with Torin’s hands tight to his body, leading to mostly line drive and ground-ball contact and next to no over-the-fence power despite generating significantly improved exit velocities in 2024. Torin looks to pull the ball despite lacking the lift or the pop part of the traditional power combo, and while he’s demonstrated a strong capacity to eschew pitches off the plate that he cannot handle, his limited ability to handle the outer half beyond trying to hook liners may leave him vulnerable against better pitching.
OFP: 50 / Average shortstop
Variance: Medium. Torin improved at the plate in 2024 and is likely to stick at shortstop but is a long way from the majors at this point. There are also questions about how much actual impact is in his bat. —John Trupin
Jesse Roche’s Fantasy Rundown:
Top-500 Dynasty Prospects: 347
Potential Earnings: $0-5
Fantasy Overview: Torin is a high-contact, disciplined hitter with little power and enough speed to swipe a bag here and there. His power-speed upside is limited, but he should hit for a solid average and provide deep-league value.
Reckless Fantasy Comp: Geraldo Perdomo
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Shane Smith, RHP, Chicago White Sox
Smith put together an impressive two innings of work on Saturday, striking out three in his perfect outing. Generating six whiffs, three came on his 98 mph four-seam fastball. This is notable because Smith sat around 94 mph and topped at 98 last year. Saturday he hit 99.6 mph. The pitch plays up due to nearly seven feet of extension.
Smith also throws a cutter in the low-90s which is his second most used pitch. The curveball dials it all the way back to 80 mph, as the pitch has heavy sweep and good depth to it.
The 2024 first overall selection in the Rule 5 Draft could pitch out of the bullpen and grab starts. Whether Smith is a starter or reliever long term is the question. Just six of his 27 appearances in 2024 saw him pitch at least five innings, and only 11 were more than three innings. Regardless, Smith is a talented arm and has proven he can be a big-league arm in some capacity, even if it is in the bullpen.
Davis Martin, RHP, Chicago White Sox
Martin tossed two perfect innings with three strikeouts on Sunday. He generated four whiffs and added four called strikes.
After adding a kick-changeup down the stretch last season and getting good results, it looks like Martin has another pitch in the arsenal. He debuted a new sinker last week, but only threw it once on Sunday, averaging 15 inches of horizontal movement and more depth than his four-seam.
The sinker played well during his changeup, though it lacks velocity separation. The arsenal is the biggest thing of note here. The cutter and slider are big difference makers for Martin.
If Martin finds consistency with pitches, he could be in for a big year. He is pretty much a shoo-in for a rotation spot in Chicago as things stand.
https://www.thedynastydugout.com/p/spri ... dugout.com
Smith put together an impressive two innings of work on Saturday, striking out three in his perfect outing. Generating six whiffs, three came on his 98 mph four-seam fastball. This is notable because Smith sat around 94 mph and topped at 98 last year. Saturday he hit 99.6 mph. The pitch plays up due to nearly seven feet of extension.
Smith also throws a cutter in the low-90s which is his second most used pitch. The curveball dials it all the way back to 80 mph, as the pitch has heavy sweep and good depth to it.
The 2024 first overall selection in the Rule 5 Draft could pitch out of the bullpen and grab starts. Whether Smith is a starter or reliever long term is the question. Just six of his 27 appearances in 2024 saw him pitch at least five innings, and only 11 were more than three innings. Regardless, Smith is a talented arm and has proven he can be a big-league arm in some capacity, even if it is in the bullpen.
Davis Martin, RHP, Chicago White Sox
Martin tossed two perfect innings with three strikeouts on Sunday. He generated four whiffs and added four called strikes.
After adding a kick-changeup down the stretch last season and getting good results, it looks like Martin has another pitch in the arsenal. He debuted a new sinker last week, but only threw it once on Sunday, averaging 15 inches of horizontal movement and more depth than his four-seam.
The sinker played well during his changeup, though it lacks velocity separation. The arsenal is the biggest thing of note here. The cutter and slider are big difference makers for Martin.
If Martin finds consistency with pitches, he could be in for a big year. He is pretty much a shoo-in for a rotation spot in Chicago as things stand.
https://www.thedynastydugout.com/p/spri ... dugout.com
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
29. Gregory Sanchez, RHP
Ht: 6'4" | Wt: 189 | B-T: R-R
Age: 17
BA Grade/Risk: 50/Extreme.
Track Record: Sanchez signed with the Rockies for $285,000 out of the Dominican Republic in January of 2024. He debuted in the Dominican Summer League as a tall and physically projectable righthander with plus raw stuff. Sanchez made 13 starts for the Rockies’ DSL team, pitching to a 0-3 record with a 5.40 ERA and 42 strikeouts to 19 walks across 33.1 innings.
Scouting Report: Sanchez has elite stuff and physical projection but has plenty of growth to come from a physical and pitching standpoint. His four-pitch mix is highlighted by a four-seam fastball that sits 94-96 mph with average ride and heavy armside run. Sanchez’s best secondary is a dirty low-to-mid-80s slider featuring raw spin rates up to 2,700 rpm. Sanchez mixes an upper-80s cutter with true ride-cut and a firm upper-80s changeup with heavy fade. Sanchez projects for average or better command at peak, but as a 17-year-old in the DSL he struggled at times with bouts of bad fastball command. Sanchez has starter projection due to his physicality with feel for four pitches and spin.
The Future: Sanchez is another exciting young fireballer from the Rockies’ international pipeline who will come stateside in 2025.
Scouting Grades: Fastball: 60 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 40 | Cutter: 45 | Control: 50.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2 ... =preseason
42. Gregory Sanchez, SP
Signed: International Signing Period, 2024 from Dominican Republic (COL)
Age 18.1 Height 6′ 4″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
50/60 40/50 45/60 20/40 93-96 / 97
Sanchez was Colorado’s hardest-throwing DSL pitcher in 2024, a big-framed, high-waisted, long-armed 6-foot-4 righty who works in the mid-90s with sink and tail. He made 13 starts and worked just 33.1 innings, so whether he can maintain that velo across a starter’s share of innings remains to be seen. His release is fairly inconsistent (as is his breaking ball quality) and he is a tad more filled out than the typical teenage pitcher. Both those things add to the relief risk here, but from a stuff standpoint, Sanchez has the foundation of a good young starter prospect. In addition to his sometimes 96-97 mph fastball, he has an average, bullet-style slider in the 82-85 mph range and an impressive power changeup in the 88-90 mph band. He’s a developmental name to know with a great arm.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/colorado-ro ... prospects/
Ht: 6'4" | Wt: 189 | B-T: R-R
Age: 17
BA Grade/Risk: 50/Extreme.
Track Record: Sanchez signed with the Rockies for $285,000 out of the Dominican Republic in January of 2024. He debuted in the Dominican Summer League as a tall and physically projectable righthander with plus raw stuff. Sanchez made 13 starts for the Rockies’ DSL team, pitching to a 0-3 record with a 5.40 ERA and 42 strikeouts to 19 walks across 33.1 innings.
Scouting Report: Sanchez has elite stuff and physical projection but has plenty of growth to come from a physical and pitching standpoint. His four-pitch mix is highlighted by a four-seam fastball that sits 94-96 mph with average ride and heavy armside run. Sanchez’s best secondary is a dirty low-to-mid-80s slider featuring raw spin rates up to 2,700 rpm. Sanchez mixes an upper-80s cutter with true ride-cut and a firm upper-80s changeup with heavy fade. Sanchez projects for average or better command at peak, but as a 17-year-old in the DSL he struggled at times with bouts of bad fastball command. Sanchez has starter projection due to his physicality with feel for four pitches and spin.
The Future: Sanchez is another exciting young fireballer from the Rockies’ international pipeline who will come stateside in 2025.
Scouting Grades: Fastball: 60 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 40 | Cutter: 45 | Control: 50.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2 ... =preseason
42. Gregory Sanchez, SP
Signed: International Signing Period, 2024 from Dominican Republic (COL)
Age 18.1 Height 6′ 4″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr R / R FV 35+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
50/60 40/50 45/60 20/40 93-96 / 97
Sanchez was Colorado’s hardest-throwing DSL pitcher in 2024, a big-framed, high-waisted, long-armed 6-foot-4 righty who works in the mid-90s with sink and tail. He made 13 starts and worked just 33.1 innings, so whether he can maintain that velo across a starter’s share of innings remains to be seen. His release is fairly inconsistent (as is his breaking ball quality) and he is a tad more filled out than the typical teenage pitcher. Both those things add to the relief risk here, but from a stuff standpoint, Sanchez has the foundation of a good young starter prospect. In addition to his sometimes 96-97 mph fastball, he has an average, bullet-style slider in the 82-85 mph range and an impressive power changeup in the 88-90 mph band. He’s a developmental name to know with a great arm.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/colorado-ro ... prospects/
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Davis Martin, RHP, White Sox
The White Sox landed a steal when they picked Martin in the 14th round out of Texas Tech back in 2018. Martin debuted in 2022, appearing in 14 games, including nine starts. He had Tommy John surgery early in the 2023 season and returned in the middle of 2024. After struggling over the first few starts in his return to the White Sox rotation, Martin started messing with a kick changeup grip in his side sessions. He began throwing the pitch during his Aug. 7 start against the Athletics and saw immediate results.
Martin’s fastball shape is below-average, but he has solid velocity on his four-seamer, sitting 93-95 mph regularly. He also has feel for spin with average spin rates on his slider (2700-2900 rpm), which sits in the mid 80s with moderate gloveside break. There’s still a window to buy Martin in deeper leagues (20+ teams) where he’s most relevant. In shallower, mixed leagues, he’s a higher-priority stream option on a bad team.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... 00f6cc9385
The White Sox landed a steal when they picked Martin in the 14th round out of Texas Tech back in 2018. Martin debuted in 2022, appearing in 14 games, including nine starts. He had Tommy John surgery early in the 2023 season and returned in the middle of 2024. After struggling over the first few starts in his return to the White Sox rotation, Martin started messing with a kick changeup grip in his side sessions. He began throwing the pitch during his Aug. 7 start against the Athletics and saw immediate results.
Martin’s fastball shape is below-average, but he has solid velocity on his four-seamer, sitting 93-95 mph regularly. He also has feel for spin with average spin rates on his slider (2700-2900 rpm), which sits in the mid 80s with moderate gloveside break. There’s still a window to buy Martin in deeper leagues (20+ teams) where he’s most relevant. In shallower, mixed leagues, he’s a higher-priority stream option on a bad team.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... 00f6cc9385
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
20. Aiden May, RHP
Ht: 6'2" | Wt: 188 | B-T: R-R
Age: 21
BA Grade/Risk: 45/High.
Track Record: May struggled quite a bit as a sophomore at Arizona, but transferred to Oregon State and had a strong junior season. That performance vaulted him into the second round, where the Marlins signed him for an under-slot $900,000 bonus. Due to a heavy workload and a forearm injury he sustained in college, May did not make his pro debut after signing.
Scouting Report: May is an athletic mover on the mound, though he tends to open up with his front shoulder and falls off to the first base side rather than extending down the mound. His fastball sits 93-96 mph with some armside run, and he holds his velocity deep into starts. His slider is an easy plus pitch with tight, horizontal sweep. He throws it versus either side, and it projects as a wipeout two-strike weapon to righties. His changeup is firm, and its shape can be inconsistent. At times, it’s a flat offering that doesn’t have much velocity separation. At other times, it will show late dive. He has a bulldog mentality on the mound and is generally around the zone, though he sometimes overthrows his fastball.
The Future: May needs to tighten up the consistency on his changeup, but he has the tools to develop into a midrotation starter. He will likely spend most or all of 2025 in the Florida State League.
Scouting Grades: Fastball: 55 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2 ... =preseason
22. Aiden May, RHP,
FCL Marlins, ROK Miami Marlins
AGE: 21 DOB: 04/22/2003
BATS: R THROWS: R
HT: 6' 2" WT: 196
DRAFTED: 2024, CB-Bth (70) - MIA
ETA: 2027
Scouting grades: Fastball: 50 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 55 | Control: 50 | Overall: 40
May's college career took him from Pima (Ariz.) CC to Arizona to Oregon State. His stuff and control looked better than ever with the Beavers last spring, when he missed a month with an elbow strain before recovering to permit just nine earned runs across his final seven starts. The Marlins signed him for a below-slot $900,000 as a supplemental second-rounder and believe he may emerge as one of the best pitching prospects when he makes his pro debut in 2025.
May used his plus mid-80s slider almost half the time at Oregon State, and it comes with high spin rates and so much spin that it locks down both lefties and righties. While his two-seam fastball parks at 93-95 mph and reaches 98, it has more of a sink than carry profile and doesn't miss a lot of bats. His 87-90 mph changeup is firm but drops at the plate and rarely gets barreled.
Working from a low arm slot, May creates deception with a flat approach angle but not much in the way of extension. Given his delivery, he might find more success with a four-seamer that carries up in the strike zone and plays better off his slider. He provides consistent success and has the upside of a mid-rotation starter.
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/marl ... may-801995
11. Aiden May, RHP (Did Not Pitch)
May dealt with a forearm issue his junior year at Oregon State, which may have caused him to slip a bit in the draft. But health permitting—and yes, he’s a pitcher—he should move fairly smoothly through the Marlins org on the way to a back-of-the-major-league rotation outcome. May’s fastball is a very average sinker, but his two glove-side offerings are both potentially plus. His super-spinny mid-80s sweeper is the more notable of the two, but his high-80s cutter is also quite effective. This all comes from an uptempo, torquey delivery, so there’s a chance this looks better in short bursts where May will be perhaps more emboldened to spam the sweeper, which he moves around and manipulates well.
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... ects-list/
Ht: 6'2" | Wt: 188 | B-T: R-R
Age: 21
BA Grade/Risk: 45/High.
Track Record: May struggled quite a bit as a sophomore at Arizona, but transferred to Oregon State and had a strong junior season. That performance vaulted him into the second round, where the Marlins signed him for an under-slot $900,000 bonus. Due to a heavy workload and a forearm injury he sustained in college, May did not make his pro debut after signing.
Scouting Report: May is an athletic mover on the mound, though he tends to open up with his front shoulder and falls off to the first base side rather than extending down the mound. His fastball sits 93-96 mph with some armside run, and he holds his velocity deep into starts. His slider is an easy plus pitch with tight, horizontal sweep. He throws it versus either side, and it projects as a wipeout two-strike weapon to righties. His changeup is firm, and its shape can be inconsistent. At times, it’s a flat offering that doesn’t have much velocity separation. At other times, it will show late dive. He has a bulldog mentality on the mound and is generally around the zone, though he sometimes overthrows his fastball.
The Future: May needs to tighten up the consistency on his changeup, but he has the tools to develop into a midrotation starter. He will likely spend most or all of 2025 in the Florida State League.
Scouting Grades: Fastball: 55 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2 ... =preseason
22. Aiden May, RHP,
FCL Marlins, ROK Miami Marlins
AGE: 21 DOB: 04/22/2003
BATS: R THROWS: R
HT: 6' 2" WT: 196
DRAFTED: 2024, CB-Bth (70) - MIA
ETA: 2027
Scouting grades: Fastball: 50 | Slider: 60 | Changeup: 55 | Control: 50 | Overall: 40
May's college career took him from Pima (Ariz.) CC to Arizona to Oregon State. His stuff and control looked better than ever with the Beavers last spring, when he missed a month with an elbow strain before recovering to permit just nine earned runs across his final seven starts. The Marlins signed him for a below-slot $900,000 as a supplemental second-rounder and believe he may emerge as one of the best pitching prospects when he makes his pro debut in 2025.
May used his plus mid-80s slider almost half the time at Oregon State, and it comes with high spin rates and so much spin that it locks down both lefties and righties. While his two-seam fastball parks at 93-95 mph and reaches 98, it has more of a sink than carry profile and doesn't miss a lot of bats. His 87-90 mph changeup is firm but drops at the plate and rarely gets barreled.
Working from a low arm slot, May creates deception with a flat approach angle but not much in the way of extension. Given his delivery, he might find more success with a four-seamer that carries up in the strike zone and plays better off his slider. He provides consistent success and has the upside of a mid-rotation starter.
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/marl ... may-801995
11. Aiden May, RHP (Did Not Pitch)
May dealt with a forearm issue his junior year at Oregon State, which may have caused him to slip a bit in the draft. But health permitting—and yes, he’s a pitcher—he should move fairly smoothly through the Marlins org on the way to a back-of-the-major-league rotation outcome. May’s fastball is a very average sinker, but his two glove-side offerings are both potentially plus. His super-spinny mid-80s sweeper is the more notable of the two, but his high-80s cutter is also quite effective. This all comes from an uptempo, torquey delivery, so there’s a chance this looks better in short bursts where May will be perhaps more emboldened to spam the sweeper, which he moves around and manipulates well.
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... ects-list/
-
Padres
- Site Admin
- Posts: 4819
- Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 1:00 am
- Location: Wells, Maine
- Name: Jim Berger
Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
White Sox Rule 5 pick Shane Smith generated a lot of enthusiasm in his second outing of the spring for averaging 98.3 mph on the 15 four-seamers he threw. While Smith had reportedly spiked to such velocity heights in the Brewers organization on occasion, it’s a solid four ticks over his four-seamer’s average from last season, and it comes early in the process of stretching out, as the 24-year-old has largely been relegated to the bullpen in the past by injury and circumstance.
As far as early developments go, it’s certainly a lot better than starting out four miles per hour slower than his previous norms. In these parts, considering how things could be worse is never a waste of time, since an awful spring record proved not to be a fluke last season.
In his Cactus League debut, Smith sat 96.8 mph with his heater, but the pitch drew criticism from all fronts. From Smith, he was simply unhappy with the location. Three first-inning walks led the Sox to pull the right-hander rather than allow him to open his spring with a 30-pitch frame, and by the time a minor league extra was done throwing gas on the fire, it was a 9-0 deficit in the team’s Cactus League home opener.
For the White Sox’s pitching leadership, which viewed the Red Sox staff throwing fewer than 40 percent fastballs last season as aspirational, they saw heaters on 23 of 32 pitches as an understandable sin of youth. But turning to velocity when behind in the count with runners on is how Brian Bannister, Ethan Katz, et. al, believe blowup innings happen, even if they understand why it’s a particularly strong urge with Smith.
“The fastball really played last year with Milwaukee,” said Bannister of Smith. “He can really spin the ball, and it’s a natural cut supinator.”
If you limit yourself to judging by results like called strikes and swings-and-misses, the fastball is the only pitch from Smith that was really playing throughout last year in the Brewers organization. It played well enough that later in the year, Smith decided to stop fighting the accidental, glove-side cutting action of his four-seamer and embrace it. And a lot of his spring focus has been tailored around crafting his breaking balls to be better suited to shine in concert with the consistent action from his heater.
“If I want to throw a bullet slider off of a cutter, it’s knowing where that miss should be with the bullet,” Smith said. “If I’m going to pound glove-side heaters, the sliders should be off of that tunnel.”
But if there’s a single point to hone in on for why Smith was available in the Rule 5 draft and why the White Sox also pounced, it’s the right-hander’s changeup. Smith quite plainly didn’t have one at the end of 2024, and without the ability to even throw a typical four-seamer, let alone turn over his wrist to pronate a traditional changeup or “stay inside the baseball,” he wasn’t a good bet to develop one. Without a single pitch moving to the arm side, it was hard for the Brewers to project Smith into someone who could navigate through an opposing lineup twice or more, nor become an impact reliever pre-velocity jump.
Enter the White Sox, who have made developing changeup variants for pitchers who haven’t traditionally been able to throw them in the past their specialty in camp.
“It was electric in his first side, a heavy seam-effects changeup,” Bannister said of Smith. “As we’ve gotten more into the technology and the physics behind newer changeup styles — the kick change, the seam-effects changeups — we have a lot of guys who are really prime candidates to have seam effects on their fastball, tremendous spin and shape on their breaking ball, and then we’ve gotten really creative on creating the changeup side of the equation. There are a lot of guys out there who have really plus qualities in all three of those areas.”
A common description from the likes of Noah Schultz, Sean Burke, Jake Eder and other White Sox pitchers who have embraced a seam-effects changeup over the past year is how the process resembles throwing a cutter, something they’re comfortable with given their pre-existing feel for spinning breaking balls, yet nonetheless produces a pitch that sinks while falling to the arm side. With Smith’s pre-existing proclivities, it feels even more natural.
“I don’t know all the ins and outs,” Smith said of throwing his changeup. “Obviously Bannister does because he’s a very smart guy. I don’t try to get inside of [the baseball] at all. I just try to get it out front and throw it as well as I can. I would say it’s more similar to my fastball and the way I try to release it. Curveball and slider you’re trying to do something to it out front. Changeup, I’m just trying to throw it.”
For Smith, the early returns have resembled a fastball in the sense that he’s throwing his changeup so hard that it’s been registering as a fastball on Statcast and Synergy. Pitch tracking systems have read a low-90s offering with running and dropping action as a sinker, but the sub-1600 RPM spin rate gives it away as the changeup.
Traditionally, to say a pitcher throws a 92 mph changeup is a polite way to say that they lack the feel for taking velocity off to throw the pitch effectively. But the movement allows Smith to operate on both sides of the plate more reliably, and if he’s going to hit the 98-99 mph range with his four-seamer, his changeup is closer to average velocity separation than it appears on first impression.
Even if all it’s generated in games is foul balls and a groundout, the White Sox aren’t exactly couching their praise.
“He’s added a devastating changeup,” said pitching coach Ethan Katz. “Shane Smith didn’t have a changeup, and now he has a plus-plus changeup.”
Smith isn’t established enough to set his goals farther than stretching out for as long as the White Sox tell him to do so. On top of veteran right-handed Bryse Wilson on a guaranteed contract being part of the glut of competitors for the fifth-starter gig, Smith’s bid for a starting role is also inhibited by a light record of professional work — he’s never shoulder 100 innings nor 20 starts in a season — that will have the Sox cautiously building up his workload.
But as often will be the case for this 2025 White Sox roster, the question of what they have in Smith is overshadowed by what sort of template for future projects will they have if this turns into a success story.
“The changeups were blowing me away with how much better they were,” Bannister said of the White Sox arms in camp. “That’s a testament to the PD staff, the coaches, the players being willing to buy in and actually put in the work this offseason to come back with a new weapon. It’ll be fun to see. It’s not just Davis Martin, it’ll be a few other guys who have ticked up a couple notches on their changeup quality.”
https://soxmachine.com/2025/03/what-do- ... ane-smith/
As far as early developments go, it’s certainly a lot better than starting out four miles per hour slower than his previous norms. In these parts, considering how things could be worse is never a waste of time, since an awful spring record proved not to be a fluke last season.
In his Cactus League debut, Smith sat 96.8 mph with his heater, but the pitch drew criticism from all fronts. From Smith, he was simply unhappy with the location. Three first-inning walks led the Sox to pull the right-hander rather than allow him to open his spring with a 30-pitch frame, and by the time a minor league extra was done throwing gas on the fire, it was a 9-0 deficit in the team’s Cactus League home opener.
For the White Sox’s pitching leadership, which viewed the Red Sox staff throwing fewer than 40 percent fastballs last season as aspirational, they saw heaters on 23 of 32 pitches as an understandable sin of youth. But turning to velocity when behind in the count with runners on is how Brian Bannister, Ethan Katz, et. al, believe blowup innings happen, even if they understand why it’s a particularly strong urge with Smith.
“The fastball really played last year with Milwaukee,” said Bannister of Smith. “He can really spin the ball, and it’s a natural cut supinator.”
If you limit yourself to judging by results like called strikes and swings-and-misses, the fastball is the only pitch from Smith that was really playing throughout last year in the Brewers organization. It played well enough that later in the year, Smith decided to stop fighting the accidental, glove-side cutting action of his four-seamer and embrace it. And a lot of his spring focus has been tailored around crafting his breaking balls to be better suited to shine in concert with the consistent action from his heater.
“If I want to throw a bullet slider off of a cutter, it’s knowing where that miss should be with the bullet,” Smith said. “If I’m going to pound glove-side heaters, the sliders should be off of that tunnel.”
But if there’s a single point to hone in on for why Smith was available in the Rule 5 draft and why the White Sox also pounced, it’s the right-hander’s changeup. Smith quite plainly didn’t have one at the end of 2024, and without the ability to even throw a typical four-seamer, let alone turn over his wrist to pronate a traditional changeup or “stay inside the baseball,” he wasn’t a good bet to develop one. Without a single pitch moving to the arm side, it was hard for the Brewers to project Smith into someone who could navigate through an opposing lineup twice or more, nor become an impact reliever pre-velocity jump.
Enter the White Sox, who have made developing changeup variants for pitchers who haven’t traditionally been able to throw them in the past their specialty in camp.
“It was electric in his first side, a heavy seam-effects changeup,” Bannister said of Smith. “As we’ve gotten more into the technology and the physics behind newer changeup styles — the kick change, the seam-effects changeups — we have a lot of guys who are really prime candidates to have seam effects on their fastball, tremendous spin and shape on their breaking ball, and then we’ve gotten really creative on creating the changeup side of the equation. There are a lot of guys out there who have really plus qualities in all three of those areas.”
A common description from the likes of Noah Schultz, Sean Burke, Jake Eder and other White Sox pitchers who have embraced a seam-effects changeup over the past year is how the process resembles throwing a cutter, something they’re comfortable with given their pre-existing feel for spinning breaking balls, yet nonetheless produces a pitch that sinks while falling to the arm side. With Smith’s pre-existing proclivities, it feels even more natural.
“I don’t know all the ins and outs,” Smith said of throwing his changeup. “Obviously Bannister does because he’s a very smart guy. I don’t try to get inside of [the baseball] at all. I just try to get it out front and throw it as well as I can. I would say it’s more similar to my fastball and the way I try to release it. Curveball and slider you’re trying to do something to it out front. Changeup, I’m just trying to throw it.”
For Smith, the early returns have resembled a fastball in the sense that he’s throwing his changeup so hard that it’s been registering as a fastball on Statcast and Synergy. Pitch tracking systems have read a low-90s offering with running and dropping action as a sinker, but the sub-1600 RPM spin rate gives it away as the changeup.
Traditionally, to say a pitcher throws a 92 mph changeup is a polite way to say that they lack the feel for taking velocity off to throw the pitch effectively. But the movement allows Smith to operate on both sides of the plate more reliably, and if he’s going to hit the 98-99 mph range with his four-seamer, his changeup is closer to average velocity separation than it appears on first impression.
Even if all it’s generated in games is foul balls and a groundout, the White Sox aren’t exactly couching their praise.
“He’s added a devastating changeup,” said pitching coach Ethan Katz. “Shane Smith didn’t have a changeup, and now he has a plus-plus changeup.”
Smith isn’t established enough to set his goals farther than stretching out for as long as the White Sox tell him to do so. On top of veteran right-handed Bryse Wilson on a guaranteed contract being part of the glut of competitors for the fifth-starter gig, Smith’s bid for a starting role is also inhibited by a light record of professional work — he’s never shoulder 100 innings nor 20 starts in a season — that will have the Sox cautiously building up his workload.
But as often will be the case for this 2025 White Sox roster, the question of what they have in Smith is overshadowed by what sort of template for future projects will they have if this turns into a success story.
“The changeups were blowing me away with how much better they were,” Bannister said of the White Sox arms in camp. “That’s a testament to the PD staff, the coaches, the players being willing to buy in and actually put in the work this offseason to come back with a new weapon. It’ll be fun to see. It’s not just Davis Martin, it’ll be a few other guys who have ticked up a couple notches on their changeup quality.”
https://soxmachine.com/2025/03/what-do- ... ane-smith/
-
Padres
- Site Admin
- Posts: 4819
- Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 1:00 am
- Location: Wells, Maine
- Name: Jim Berger
Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
A lifetime spent around Major League clubhouses with his father meant many cool experiences for Kyle Karros.
Now that Karros, a third baseman who MLB Pipeline ranks as the Rockies’ No. 21 prospect, is in his first Major League Spring Training, he’s learning the importance of being cool, himself.
Karros, 22, a 2023 fifth-round Draft pick from UCLA, entered Friday batting .400 (8-for-20) with two doubles, five RBIs and three walks against five strikeouts. The spring is a strong follow-up to his Northwest League Most Valuable Player performance with High-A Spokane in 2024, his first full pro season.
Beyond the numbers, Karros -- who observed the big league life growing up while his father, Eric Karros, played his 14-season career, mostly with the Dodgers -- has found value in learning the preparation methods of Major Leaguers. He will carry the lessons into the season, which is most likely to begin with Double-A Hartford.
“I came in with the intent just to learn a ton, whether it's on-the-field stuff or off the field,” Karros said. “The biggest thing I wanted to do was kind of see how they go about their everyday work. And I've seen it. It is very different from the Minor League way of things.”
Before unpacking what Karros means, the statement highlighted that he is capturing the purpose of teams inviting prospects to camp as non-roster players.
Rarely do such players make the Opening Day roster, regardless of their statistics. They need to keep building experience. Last year, the Rockies strategically kept Karros and No. 3 prospect Cole Carrigg in Spokane for the experience of being leaders on a championship team. Now Karros (and Carrigg, who was reassigned to Minor League camp on Wednesday) will be tested at higher levels.
The camp experience is to teach and test, and knock off some of the awe when the call comes. Karros is passing.
“The thing that has stood out for the coaches and me is twofold,” manager Bud Black said. “The performance, both with the bat and with the glove, the baseball instincts -- we've heard that from player development, but it's always good to see it firsthand.
“Secondly, the maturity -- the presence as a player, how he goes about, a consistent nature. I think there's some leadership qualities that are going to emerge -- not only a player, but a guy that players really look to.”
Some of the performance was seen in two recent plate appearances -- a controlled swing for a bases-loaded, two-run double to left during the Rockies’ five-run eighth in their 6-1 victory over the Mariners on March 2, and a bases-loaded walk during a rally in their 8-4 win over the Angels the next day. They were the work of a young player batting to the situation, rather than swinging to impress.
Throughout his life, Karros has seen some of the game’s best players prepare. This year, he is gaining information about what he has seen. He credits Rockies veteran third baseman Ryan McMahon for the education during batting and fielding practice.
Get the latest from MiLB
“I'm hitting with these guys, and they're launching balls all over the place, and it's very easy to get caught up in that,” Karros said. “For about the first week, I was trying to do the same thing. It was a talk with ‘Ry-Mac’ in the outfield while we're watching BP. He was like, ‘Don't compare yourself to other people. Just be you.’
“Since then, I’ve taken my BP at maybe a 30 or 40 percent effort level, just getting good spin on the ball, hitting it on a line. In the game, your effort levels naturally kind of ramp up. But I think the BP has been night and day.”
The same has occurred with fielding. The urge to take infield practice with max effort -- something that high school and college players may have to do in order just to make the throws -- has given way to the urge to slow down and make sure his fundamentals are correct, and will stay that way at game speed.
“I don't think Kyle needed much guidance, though,” McMahon said, smiling. “I've just tried to be open with him, you know, try to make him and some of the other young guys feel real comfortable being who they are.
“But the kid’s got a great head on his shoulders. He knows what he's doing. He's going about his work the right way, and he's been playing really well. Man, I think the future is bright for him.”
https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/kyle-karr ... e-coverage
Now that Karros, a third baseman who MLB Pipeline ranks as the Rockies’ No. 21 prospect, is in his first Major League Spring Training, he’s learning the importance of being cool, himself.
Karros, 22, a 2023 fifth-round Draft pick from UCLA, entered Friday batting .400 (8-for-20) with two doubles, five RBIs and three walks against five strikeouts. The spring is a strong follow-up to his Northwest League Most Valuable Player performance with High-A Spokane in 2024, his first full pro season.
Beyond the numbers, Karros -- who observed the big league life growing up while his father, Eric Karros, played his 14-season career, mostly with the Dodgers -- has found value in learning the preparation methods of Major Leaguers. He will carry the lessons into the season, which is most likely to begin with Double-A Hartford.
“I came in with the intent just to learn a ton, whether it's on-the-field stuff or off the field,” Karros said. “The biggest thing I wanted to do was kind of see how they go about their everyday work. And I've seen it. It is very different from the Minor League way of things.”
Before unpacking what Karros means, the statement highlighted that he is capturing the purpose of teams inviting prospects to camp as non-roster players.
Rarely do such players make the Opening Day roster, regardless of their statistics. They need to keep building experience. Last year, the Rockies strategically kept Karros and No. 3 prospect Cole Carrigg in Spokane for the experience of being leaders on a championship team. Now Karros (and Carrigg, who was reassigned to Minor League camp on Wednesday) will be tested at higher levels.
The camp experience is to teach and test, and knock off some of the awe when the call comes. Karros is passing.
“The thing that has stood out for the coaches and me is twofold,” manager Bud Black said. “The performance, both with the bat and with the glove, the baseball instincts -- we've heard that from player development, but it's always good to see it firsthand.
“Secondly, the maturity -- the presence as a player, how he goes about, a consistent nature. I think there's some leadership qualities that are going to emerge -- not only a player, but a guy that players really look to.”
Some of the performance was seen in two recent plate appearances -- a controlled swing for a bases-loaded, two-run double to left during the Rockies’ five-run eighth in their 6-1 victory over the Mariners on March 2, and a bases-loaded walk during a rally in their 8-4 win over the Angels the next day. They were the work of a young player batting to the situation, rather than swinging to impress.
Throughout his life, Karros has seen some of the game’s best players prepare. This year, he is gaining information about what he has seen. He credits Rockies veteran third baseman Ryan McMahon for the education during batting and fielding practice.
Get the latest from MiLB
“I'm hitting with these guys, and they're launching balls all over the place, and it's very easy to get caught up in that,” Karros said. “For about the first week, I was trying to do the same thing. It was a talk with ‘Ry-Mac’ in the outfield while we're watching BP. He was like, ‘Don't compare yourself to other people. Just be you.’
“Since then, I’ve taken my BP at maybe a 30 or 40 percent effort level, just getting good spin on the ball, hitting it on a line. In the game, your effort levels naturally kind of ramp up. But I think the BP has been night and day.”
The same has occurred with fielding. The urge to take infield practice with max effort -- something that high school and college players may have to do in order just to make the throws -- has given way to the urge to slow down and make sure his fundamentals are correct, and will stay that way at game speed.
“I don't think Kyle needed much guidance, though,” McMahon said, smiling. “I've just tried to be open with him, you know, try to make him and some of the other young guys feel real comfortable being who they are.
“But the kid’s got a great head on his shoulders. He knows what he's doing. He's going about his work the right way, and he's been playing really well. Man, I think the future is bright for him.”
https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/kyle-karr ... e-coverage
-
Padres
- Site Admin
- Posts: 4819
- Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 1:00 am
- Location: Wells, Maine
- Name: Jim Berger
Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
14. Brian Holiday, RHP
Ht: 5'11" | Wt: 190 | B-T: R-R
Age: 21
BA Grade/Risk: 45/High.
Track Record: Before pitching for Oklahoma State, Holiday was part of the 2023 national championship club at Central Florida JC, where he was named the tournament’s most outstanding pitcher. Holiday shoved in his first season with Oklahoma State in 2024 and posted a 2.95 ERA over 113 innings and 16 starts with a 28.6% strikeout rate and 4.2% walk rate, which led Big 12 starters. The Cardinals selected Holiday in the third round and signed him for $800,000. He did not pitch after the draft.
Scouting Report: Holiday is a short righthander with a 5-foot-11, 200-pound frame but standout strike-throwing ability and competitiveness. He uses a unique, high leg-kick delivery and mixes four pitches, led by a low-90s fastball with above-average ride and cut. The fastball is very good against righthanders but was crushed by lefthanded hitters during the 2024 collegiate season. The four-seam sets up his trio of average or better pitches. Holiday’s low-to-mid-80s short slider is his best pitch and he uses it consistently against lefties and righties. The slider produced a high 24% swinging strike rate thanks to perfect tunneling off his fastball. His mid-70s downer curveball is his third pitch and mixed in as a change of look. Holiday only throws his changeup to lefties and it’s sold well with arm speed. Holiday has average command of his arsenal but shows a high level of pitchability that amplifies his entire pitch mix.
The Future: Holliday has back-of-the-rotation upside with fast-moving depth starter as a likely outcome.
Scouting Grades: Fastball: 45 | Curveball: 50 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2 ... =preseason
15. Brian Holiday,RHP,
FCL Cardinals, ROK St. Louis Cardinals
AGE: 21 DOB: 05/29/2003
BATS: R THROWS: R
HT:5' 11" WT: 203
DRAFTED: 2024, 3rd (80) - STL
ETA: 2027
Scouting grades: Fastball: 50 | Curveball: 45 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 40 | Control: 55 | Overall: 40
Holiday bounced between two Florida junior colleges in 2022 and 2023, leading JuCo pitchers with 141 strikeouts in 88 innings for Junior College World Series champion Central Florida the latter year. He moved to Oklahoma State as a junior and led the Big 12 with 128 punchouts in 113 frames. Holiday delivered a complete-game two-hitter in the postseason against Florida in the NCAA Regionals, and the Cardinals selected him in the third round that July. He signed for $800,000, a little below slot, as St. Louis’ second pick of the 2024 Draft.
The 5-foot-11 right-hander may have only sat 90-93 mph (touching 95) with his fastball in college, but his impressive command of the pitch, particularly with carry up in the zone, made it closer to an average offering. His low-80s slider caused batters from both sides of the plate to expand the zone, and he could land it especially well low and to the gloveside. His mid-70s curveball was a serviceable third pitch, while his low-80s changeup was used only against lefties and with unreliable results.
Holiday uses an extremely high leg kick that could rival that of Bronson Arroyo and he makes a stabbing motion with his front foot as it lands, adding some deception. At his size, he isn’t a candidate to add a ton of velocity in pro ball, so he’ll need to continue to pound the zone and throw hitters off in other ways to stick as a starter.
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/card ... day-701509
12. Brian Holiday, RHP (FCL Cardinals)
Over the last three years, the Cardinals have leaned more openly into arm slots that create flatter fastballs, and Holiday very much fits into that mold as a low-VAA, high-IVB type. The 2024 Oklahoma State third-rounder didn’t pitch after the draft and only played one year of Division I baseball after two years at different Florida junior colleges, so there’s less success against higher-level competition than you’d like to see. But there’s nothing in Holiday’s performance record to raise any red flags; he had over a 10/1 K/BB ratio and a sub-3 ERA last year, and he’s a four-pitch guy with a nasty slider and functional curve and change. Because he’s short—listed at 5-foot-11—and has visual effort in his motion, he’s going to carry a future reliever tag until he doesn’t, but if the Cardinals are truly improving on pitcher development, Holiday has the type of arsenal they should start to see more successful outcomes with.
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/
Ht: 5'11" | Wt: 190 | B-T: R-R
Age: 21
BA Grade/Risk: 45/High.
Track Record: Before pitching for Oklahoma State, Holiday was part of the 2023 national championship club at Central Florida JC, where he was named the tournament’s most outstanding pitcher. Holiday shoved in his first season with Oklahoma State in 2024 and posted a 2.95 ERA over 113 innings and 16 starts with a 28.6% strikeout rate and 4.2% walk rate, which led Big 12 starters. The Cardinals selected Holiday in the third round and signed him for $800,000. He did not pitch after the draft.
Scouting Report: Holiday is a short righthander with a 5-foot-11, 200-pound frame but standout strike-throwing ability and competitiveness. He uses a unique, high leg-kick delivery and mixes four pitches, led by a low-90s fastball with above-average ride and cut. The fastball is very good against righthanders but was crushed by lefthanded hitters during the 2024 collegiate season. The four-seam sets up his trio of average or better pitches. Holiday’s low-to-mid-80s short slider is his best pitch and he uses it consistently against lefties and righties. The slider produced a high 24% swinging strike rate thanks to perfect tunneling off his fastball. His mid-70s downer curveball is his third pitch and mixed in as a change of look. Holiday only throws his changeup to lefties and it’s sold well with arm speed. Holiday has average command of his arsenal but shows a high level of pitchability that amplifies his entire pitch mix.
The Future: Holliday has back-of-the-rotation upside with fast-moving depth starter as a likely outcome.
Scouting Grades: Fastball: 45 | Curveball: 50 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 50.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/teams/2 ... =preseason
15. Brian Holiday,RHP,
FCL Cardinals, ROK St. Louis Cardinals
AGE: 21 DOB: 05/29/2003
BATS: R THROWS: R
HT:5' 11" WT: 203
DRAFTED: 2024, 3rd (80) - STL
ETA: 2027
Scouting grades: Fastball: 50 | Curveball: 45 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 40 | Control: 55 | Overall: 40
Holiday bounced between two Florida junior colleges in 2022 and 2023, leading JuCo pitchers with 141 strikeouts in 88 innings for Junior College World Series champion Central Florida the latter year. He moved to Oklahoma State as a junior and led the Big 12 with 128 punchouts in 113 frames. Holiday delivered a complete-game two-hitter in the postseason against Florida in the NCAA Regionals, and the Cardinals selected him in the third round that July. He signed for $800,000, a little below slot, as St. Louis’ second pick of the 2024 Draft.
The 5-foot-11 right-hander may have only sat 90-93 mph (touching 95) with his fastball in college, but his impressive command of the pitch, particularly with carry up in the zone, made it closer to an average offering. His low-80s slider caused batters from both sides of the plate to expand the zone, and he could land it especially well low and to the gloveside. His mid-70s curveball was a serviceable third pitch, while his low-80s changeup was used only against lefties and with unreliable results.
Holiday uses an extremely high leg kick that could rival that of Bronson Arroyo and he makes a stabbing motion with his front foot as it lands, adding some deception. At his size, he isn’t a candidate to add a ton of velocity in pro ball, so he’ll need to continue to pound the zone and throw hitters off in other ways to stick as a starter.
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/card ... day-701509
12. Brian Holiday, RHP (FCL Cardinals)
Over the last three years, the Cardinals have leaned more openly into arm slots that create flatter fastballs, and Holiday very much fits into that mold as a low-VAA, high-IVB type. The 2024 Oklahoma State third-rounder didn’t pitch after the draft and only played one year of Division I baseball after two years at different Florida junior colleges, so there’s less success against higher-level competition than you’d like to see. But there’s nothing in Holiday’s performance record to raise any red flags; he had over a 10/1 K/BB ratio and a sub-3 ERA last year, and he’s a four-pitch guy with a nasty slider and functional curve and change. Because he’s short—listed at 5-foot-11—and has visual effort in his motion, he’s going to carry a future reliever tag until he doesn’t, but if the Cardinals are truly improving on pitcher development, Holiday has the type of arsenal they should start to see more successful outcomes with.
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Carson DeMartini, 3B/SS
This guy flat-out hits. He probably can’t be listed as a shortstop in good conscience anymore, but despite shoulder issues, Carson DeMartini proved he still has the arm strength to play third. A lefty bat with his contact skills and power potential at the hot corner is an incredibly valuable MLB asset, even if he gets forgotten in a strong Phillies system topped by Justin Crawford.
DeMartini’s pro career only consists of 104 PAs, all in Single-A, but in that period he’s shown that he’s capable of carrying forward his collegiate success, and even improving on some of his previous shortcomings.
In three seasons at Virginia Tech, DeMartini never posted an OPS below 1.000 and hit 46 home runs over his 165 game career. The oft-mentioned weakness in his game was a high strikeout rate, but so far in his pro career that hasn’t been an issue–he struck out just 13.5% of the time for Clearwater in 2024. He’s also been able to lift the ball at a good clip, with just a 38.0% groundball rate. The only thing that hasn’t come yet in pro ball is the light tower power, but there’s no reason to believe that’s suddenly disappeared. Once he adds that to an approach that has become less K-prone and more on-base friendly, DeMartini will be an even greater force to be reckoned with at the plate. Our model gives him a 54% chance of being an MLB regular.
https://downonthefarm.substack.com/p/pe ... dium=email
This guy flat-out hits. He probably can’t be listed as a shortstop in good conscience anymore, but despite shoulder issues, Carson DeMartini proved he still has the arm strength to play third. A lefty bat with his contact skills and power potential at the hot corner is an incredibly valuable MLB asset, even if he gets forgotten in a strong Phillies system topped by Justin Crawford.
DeMartini’s pro career only consists of 104 PAs, all in Single-A, but in that period he’s shown that he’s capable of carrying forward his collegiate success, and even improving on some of his previous shortcomings.
In three seasons at Virginia Tech, DeMartini never posted an OPS below 1.000 and hit 46 home runs over his 165 game career. The oft-mentioned weakness in his game was a high strikeout rate, but so far in his pro career that hasn’t been an issue–he struck out just 13.5% of the time for Clearwater in 2024. He’s also been able to lift the ball at a good clip, with just a 38.0% groundball rate. The only thing that hasn’t come yet in pro ball is the light tower power, but there’s no reason to believe that’s suddenly disappeared. Once he adds that to an approach that has become less K-prone and more on-base friendly, DeMartini will be an even greater force to be reckoned with at the plate. Our model gives him a 54% chance of being an MLB regular.
https://downonthefarm.substack.com/p/pe ... dium=email
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
1. Shane Smith, RHP, White Sox
Stats: 1-1, 5.40, 3 GS, 6.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 HBP, 3 BB, 9 SO
The Good: Smith looked dominant in a March 8 appearance against the Dodgers. In a three-inning start, Smith struck out Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith in the first inning. He also caught Chris Taylor looking for a strikeout in the second and struck out Ohtani for a second time in the third inning. He sat at 97 mph and touched 98 while also showing an effective slider and curve with a less effective changeup.
The Bad: Smith’s first start of the spring was a rough one, but all four runs and all three walks he has allowed in three starts came in that first inning. He walked the first two batters he faced and gave up two runs in the first before being pulled after walking a third batter. Two of those runs eventually scored. He was then sent back out to pitch the second (yes, spring training is different) and retired the side in order.
Outlook: There’s no better roster to try to make than the White Sox. Chicago has stretched Smith out as a starter, and he could try to find a spot ahead of more experienced veterans, but he’s on the right track to at least earn a spot as a long reliever/swingman who can slide between the bullpen and serve as a fill-in starter.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... c3ef69e1a5
Shane Smith
Shane Smith was drafted 1st overall in the 2024 Rule 5 draft so his spot on the White Sox Opening Day Roster is essentially guaranteed, especially after his strong Spring thus far. When Smith was selected, I was under the impression that he would be utilized as a reliver given his shallow arsenal, but this may not be the case.
This Spring his pitch mix has evolved in many facets, with the most notable changes coming in the form of a lower arm slot and a substantial increase in velocity. Smith’s lower arm slot has greatly impacted the shape of his pitches. His fastball has transformed from a cutter-like shape to a more cut-ride form that gets a minimal amount of arm-side action with more iVB. On top of the change in shape, Smith is averaging +3 MPH on his fastball. This increase is substantial and one of the largest by any pitcher this Spring. This jump in velocity can be seen through his breaking balls. His slider is getting a bit more ride and less sweeping action while being +2 MPH faster. A similar story can be seen with his curveball as it has deviated from its 2-Plane action to a more 12-6 drop.
The biggest development for Smith this Spring has been his changeup. It’s newer pitch that caught my eye thanks to its standout 107 tjStuff+. The offering sits in the low 90s with a considerable amount of run and depth, which helps it play very well off his fastball. It’s clear that the changeup has flashed incredible potential but Smith has struggled to locate it.
Shane Smith is all but guaranteed to have a spot on the White Sox 26-Man roster and multiple rotation spots are for the taking. Given his intriguing arsenal and strong results, I think he can secure one.
https://tjstats.substack.com/p/spring-s ... dium=email
Stats: 1-1, 5.40, 3 GS, 6.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 HBP, 3 BB, 9 SO
The Good: Smith looked dominant in a March 8 appearance against the Dodgers. In a three-inning start, Smith struck out Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith in the first inning. He also caught Chris Taylor looking for a strikeout in the second and struck out Ohtani for a second time in the third inning. He sat at 97 mph and touched 98 while also showing an effective slider and curve with a less effective changeup.
The Bad: Smith’s first start of the spring was a rough one, but all four runs and all three walks he has allowed in three starts came in that first inning. He walked the first two batters he faced and gave up two runs in the first before being pulled after walking a third batter. Two of those runs eventually scored. He was then sent back out to pitch the second (yes, spring training is different) and retired the side in order.
Outlook: There’s no better roster to try to make than the White Sox. Chicago has stretched Smith out as a starter, and he could try to find a spot ahead of more experienced veterans, but he’s on the right track to at least earn a spot as a long reliever/swingman who can slide between the bullpen and serve as a fill-in starter.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... c3ef69e1a5
Shane Smith
Shane Smith was drafted 1st overall in the 2024 Rule 5 draft so his spot on the White Sox Opening Day Roster is essentially guaranteed, especially after his strong Spring thus far. When Smith was selected, I was under the impression that he would be utilized as a reliver given his shallow arsenal, but this may not be the case.
This Spring his pitch mix has evolved in many facets, with the most notable changes coming in the form of a lower arm slot and a substantial increase in velocity. Smith’s lower arm slot has greatly impacted the shape of his pitches. His fastball has transformed from a cutter-like shape to a more cut-ride form that gets a minimal amount of arm-side action with more iVB. On top of the change in shape, Smith is averaging +3 MPH on his fastball. This increase is substantial and one of the largest by any pitcher this Spring. This jump in velocity can be seen through his breaking balls. His slider is getting a bit more ride and less sweeping action while being +2 MPH faster. A similar story can be seen with his curveball as it has deviated from its 2-Plane action to a more 12-6 drop.
The biggest development for Smith this Spring has been his changeup. It’s newer pitch that caught my eye thanks to its standout 107 tjStuff+. The offering sits in the low 90s with a considerable amount of run and depth, which helps it play very well off his fastball. It’s clear that the changeup has flashed incredible potential but Smith has struggled to locate it.
Shane Smith is all but guaranteed to have a spot on the White Sox 26-Man roster and multiple rotation spots are for the taking. Given his intriguing arsenal and strong results, I think he can secure one.
https://tjstats.substack.com/p/spring-s ... dium=email
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
11. Casey Saucke, OF (High-A Winston-Salem)
Saucke was a three-year starter at the University of Virginia who bounced back from a down sophomore campaign to post a near 1.000 OPS for the Commodores his junior season. He was a young-for-his-class college bat who can handle velocity and hit for power, although both of those traits may be more muted in the pros due to an overly expansive idea of what he can hit. Saucke has already modified his weird hand set up. He’s still very jittery pre-swing, but has the barrel and his hands in a more vertical position and it should allow him to get the barrel through the zone better and let him tap into potentially above-average pull power. Saucke is a plus right fielder with a great arm, and while the bat may be a bit light overall for a corner spot, his added defensive value could help bolster the overall profile into an everyday player —Jeffrey Paternostro
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/
33. Casey Saucke, OF.
The 2024 fourth-rounder saw his power spike his junior season at Virginia. He’ll need to make more contact and curb his swing-and-miss, but he has plus pull power and the arm strength to stick in right field in the long run.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... 0-in-2025/
Casey Saucke, Right Fielder
6´3´´ 210 pounds
Age: 21
First appearance among the South Side Sox Top 100 Prospects
2024 High Level Winston-Salem (High-A)
Age relative to high level -2.1 years
SSS rank among all right fielders in the system 5
Overall 2024 stats 24 games
2 HR 9 RBI .290/.333/.398 6 BB 26 K 2-of-4 (50.0%) SB .976 FLD%
Prior to entering the MLB draft, Casey Saucke played for the University of Virginia and was a staple for the Cavaliers offense for three seasons. He posted career highs across the board for nearly every offensive stat category in 2024, helping him to now rank eighth in career RBIs and doubles on the Virginia baseball leaderboards. Saucke played in three fewer games in his final season compared to the year prior (2023) with roughly the same amount of at-bats (250), though he was able to get 13 more hits, 10 more home runs, and 17 more RBIs.
His slash line was just as impressive (.344/.407/.578), and the .985 OPS showed just how fantastic his offense was last year. This performance was enough, in fact, to earn Saucke an All-ACC Second Team selection and ultimately get drafted by the White Sox as the 107th pick (fourth round) of the 2024 MLB draft. Casey was placed in High-A ball right out of the gate and played 24 games with the Winston-Salem Dash to close out the season.
Although Saucke got just 99 PAs in, his transition into the minors was smoother than one would expect at just 20 years old. The caveat to this was that Saucke was not slugging as well as he was in college ball, posting a .398 slugging percentage and a .731 OPS with the Dash — but again, it was about one month worth of games and his first taste of pro ball. He struck out at a 26% clip compared to a 6% BB%, so there is certainly more work he can do to become more selective and swing at quality pitches as he continues his development. The good news is that the power is still showing itself.
On the defensive end, Saucke originally was a middle infielder but his strong arm pushed him to the outfield at UVA — he played the majority of games in right, and finished his collegiate career with the .982 FLD%. Saucke’s defense translated well into the minors for the most part, finishing with two errors and a combined .952 FLD%, still playing the majority of innings in right. Once he gets some consistent reps in next year and continues to refine his defensive skills, hopefully we can see these numbers improve a bit.
He is fairly average with regards to speed, but Saucke’s arm strength allows him to have the versatility in the outfield and man a coveted right field spot. On the basepaths, he was safe in 80.65% SB attempts in college, and had success in two of four attempts with the Dash.
Saucke’s Baseball Cube player ratings
Hitting 87
Durability 77
RBIs 71
Power 64
Speed 59
XBH 49
Runs 47
Contact 46
Average 62.50
Saucke’s ability to efficiently get on base and drive runners in is clearly shown in his talent ratings, and as he settles in and advances in his career, we can only hope the power category continues to increase. He was known for smashing doubles at Virginia, so ideally he gets back into that groove.
It’s likely that Casey will begin the year in Winston-Salem, and it would be great for him to handle an aggressive assignment being just 21. If he can improve the offensive production and maintain consistency at a higher level you could even see him in Birmingham before summer’s end.
https://www.southsidesox.com/2025/2/10/ ... f-virginia
Saucke was a three-year starter at the University of Virginia who bounced back from a down sophomore campaign to post a near 1.000 OPS for the Commodores his junior season. He was a young-for-his-class college bat who can handle velocity and hit for power, although both of those traits may be more muted in the pros due to an overly expansive idea of what he can hit. Saucke has already modified his weird hand set up. He’s still very jittery pre-swing, but has the barrel and his hands in a more vertical position and it should allow him to get the barrel through the zone better and let him tap into potentially above-average pull power. Saucke is a plus right fielder with a great arm, and while the bat may be a bit light overall for a corner spot, his added defensive value could help bolster the overall profile into an everyday player —Jeffrey Paternostro
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/
33. Casey Saucke, OF.
The 2024 fourth-rounder saw his power spike his junior season at Virginia. He’ll need to make more contact and curb his swing-and-miss, but he has plus pull power and the arm strength to stick in right field in the long run.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... 0-in-2025/
Casey Saucke, Right Fielder
6´3´´ 210 pounds
Age: 21
First appearance among the South Side Sox Top 100 Prospects
2024 High Level Winston-Salem (High-A)
Age relative to high level -2.1 years
SSS rank among all right fielders in the system 5
Overall 2024 stats 24 games
2 HR 9 RBI .290/.333/.398 6 BB 26 K 2-of-4 (50.0%) SB .976 FLD%Prior to entering the MLB draft, Casey Saucke played for the University of Virginia and was a staple for the Cavaliers offense for three seasons. He posted career highs across the board for nearly every offensive stat category in 2024, helping him to now rank eighth in career RBIs and doubles on the Virginia baseball leaderboards. Saucke played in three fewer games in his final season compared to the year prior (2023) with roughly the same amount of at-bats (250), though he was able to get 13 more hits, 10 more home runs, and 17 more RBIs.
His slash line was just as impressive (.344/.407/.578), and the .985 OPS showed just how fantastic his offense was last year. This performance was enough, in fact, to earn Saucke an All-ACC Second Team selection and ultimately get drafted by the White Sox as the 107th pick (fourth round) of the 2024 MLB draft. Casey was placed in High-A ball right out of the gate and played 24 games with the Winston-Salem Dash to close out the season.
Although Saucke got just 99 PAs in, his transition into the minors was smoother than one would expect at just 20 years old. The caveat to this was that Saucke was not slugging as well as he was in college ball, posting a .398 slugging percentage and a .731 OPS with the Dash — but again, it was about one month worth of games and his first taste of pro ball. He struck out at a 26% clip compared to a 6% BB%, so there is certainly more work he can do to become more selective and swing at quality pitches as he continues his development. The good news is that the power is still showing itself.
On the defensive end, Saucke originally was a middle infielder but his strong arm pushed him to the outfield at UVA — he played the majority of games in right, and finished his collegiate career with the .982 FLD%. Saucke’s defense translated well into the minors for the most part, finishing with two errors and a combined .952 FLD%, still playing the majority of innings in right. Once he gets some consistent reps in next year and continues to refine his defensive skills, hopefully we can see these numbers improve a bit.
He is fairly average with regards to speed, but Saucke’s arm strength allows him to have the versatility in the outfield and man a coveted right field spot. On the basepaths, he was safe in 80.65% SB attempts in college, and had success in two of four attempts with the Dash.
Saucke’s Baseball Cube player ratings
Hitting 87
Durability 77
RBIs 71
Power 64
Speed 59
XBH 49
Runs 47
Contact 46
Average 62.50
Saucke’s ability to efficiently get on base and drive runners in is clearly shown in his talent ratings, and as he settles in and advances in his career, we can only hope the power category continues to increase. He was known for smashing doubles at Virginia, so ideally he gets back into that groove.
It’s likely that Casey will begin the year in Winston-Salem, and it would be great for him to handle an aggressive assignment being just 21. If he can improve the offensive production and maintain consistency at a higher level you could even see him in Birmingham before summer’s end.
https://www.southsidesox.com/2025/2/10/ ... f-virginia
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
(17) Cristian Mena, SP, Diamondbacks
Mena has been a little all over the place over the last couple of years, with interesting strikeout rates but walk rates that were a bit much. He threw 4 2/3 shutout innings in his 2025 debut. He got a buttload of ground balls, which could quickly prove to be a blip on the radar but would be a lot of fun if it turned into a skills-related thing that he peppered with some Ks. His fastball would have to improve for that to happen, though, otherwise he’d be a change-of-pace reliever.
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/fant ... st-week-1/
Mena has been a little all over the place over the last couple of years, with interesting strikeout rates but walk rates that were a bit much. He threw 4 2/3 shutout innings in his 2025 debut. He got a buttload of ground balls, which could quickly prove to be a blip on the radar but would be a lot of fun if it turned into a skills-related thing that he peppered with some Ks. His fastball would have to improve for that to happen, though, otherwise he’d be a change-of-pace reliever.
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/fant ... st-week-1/
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Kyle Karros, 3B, Rockies
Karros is a sneaky good prospect and was one of the stars of a High-A Spokane team that took the Northwest League by storm last summer. His .311/.390/.485 line paced the league in all three triple-slash categories, as did his hits (147), doubles (33), extra-base hits (50) and total bases (229). This spring, he’s looked ready to prove himself in his first test at the upper levels. He’s got the bat speed to catch up to velocity and the savvy to stay back on breaking balls, leading to hard contact against plenty of pitch types. Karros’ also shows sound body control in the field and moves well enough at third base to stick there and eventually lay claim to the position in Denver.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... ackfields/
Karros is a sneaky good prospect and was one of the stars of a High-A Spokane team that took the Northwest League by storm last summer. His .311/.390/.485 line paced the league in all three triple-slash categories, as did his hits (147), doubles (33), extra-base hits (50) and total bases (229). This spring, he’s looked ready to prove himself in his first test at the upper levels. He’s got the bat speed to catch up to velocity and the savvy to stay back on breaking balls, leading to hard contact against plenty of pitch types. Karros’ also shows sound body control in the field and moves well enough at third base to stick there and eventually lay claim to the position in Denver.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... ackfields/
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
8. Kyle Karros, 3B, Rockies
Team: Double-A Hartford (Eastern)
Age: 22
Why He’s Here: .300/.500/1.000 (3-for-10), 5 R, 1 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 2 RBIs, 2 BB, 1 SO
The Scoop: Last summer, Karros reached heights unseen by someone from Spokane since Adam Morrison two decades ago. Karros’ name was at or near the top of every offensive category in the Northwest League, and he helped his club win its first championship since 2008. In a short sample, Karros is looking like a beast in the northeast, as well. He had just three hits over Opening Weekend, but he sure made them count. One went for a double, while the other two left the park. After losing one to right field in the first inning in his Double-A debut, Karros put a capper on the evening by shocking a walk-off bomb to left field to send the fans home happy. (JN)
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... et-4-7-25/
Team: Double-A Hartford (Eastern)
Age: 22
Why He’s Here: .300/.500/1.000 (3-for-10), 5 R, 1 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 2 RBIs, 2 BB, 1 SO
The Scoop: Last summer, Karros reached heights unseen by someone from Spokane since Adam Morrison two decades ago. Karros’ name was at or near the top of every offensive category in the Northwest League, and he helped his club win its first championship since 2008. In a short sample, Karros is looking like a beast in the northeast, as well. He had just three hits over Opening Weekend, but he sure made them count. One went for a double, while the other two left the park. After losing one to right field in the first inning in his Double-A debut, Karros put a capper on the evening by shocking a walk-off bomb to left field to send the fans home happy. (JN)
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... et-4-7-25/
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Shane Smith Is a Gleaming Beacon of Hope in a Land of Sorrow
by Michael Baumann
April 10, 2025
If White Sox fans hadn’t already been inured to calamity by now, surely the ending of Tuesday afternoon’s game would’ve sent them into an incoherent, frothing rage. Having made it to the bottom of the ninth inning in Cleveland tied 0-0, Mike Clevinger took the mound. Clevinger, for reasons I do not remotely understand, is Chicago’s closer, and the inning before he’d come in to retire José Ramírez with two outs and the bases empty to preserve the tie.
Clevinger started the inning by allowing an infield single to Carlos Santana, alerting the world to the hitherto unknown fact that Santana can still run at this phase of his career. Then, the once-coveted workhorse walked three straight Guardians on a combined 21 pitches to force in the winning run. By the end of his stint, Clevinger’s fastball velocity was dipping into the 91 mph range. It was the second time in the first 10 games of the season that Clevinger took the decision in a 1-0 defeat, and Chicago’s second walk-off loss in as many games.
A game like this invites many questions, most of them more easily answered by the works of Nietzsche or C.S. Lewis (depending on your philosophical predilections) than baseball analysis. But there is good news, other than the fact that we’re all going to die one day, and when we do, we won’t have to watch the White Sox anymore.
See, Shane Smith was nails. Again.
Never heard of Shane Smith? I don’t blame you. I was in the room when the White Sox plucked him from the Brewers in the Rule 5 draft last December, and I’d all but forgotten about him by the time he made Chicago’s opening rotation. When I saw his name on the schedule, I thought: “Shane Smith, the jackass who cofounded Vice News? No, the other jackass who cofounded Vice News.”
Much to his own detriment in terms of SEO, this Shane Smith is a pitcher, and one with a fairly unusual career path: A monument to odd timing.
Smith went to Wake Forest, which was not quite the pitching factory it’s become, but it was still a good program, and head coach Tom Walter had coached Smith’s father at George Washington in a previous life. Smith sat out all of his first year on campus, 2019, with an injury, and won the closer’s role as a redshirt freshman. He went 2-0 with a save and nine strikeouts against a single hit… and then COVID hit after he’d thrown just five innings.
The next year, Smith moved to the rotation, where he lasted just two starts before he tore his UCL, truncating his entire college career to just 10 1/3 innings. A draft-eligible sophomore, he moved on to professional baseball, where the Brewers signed him as an undrafted free agent. Back when the draft was 40 or 50 rounds, or lasted until everyone passed, it was borderline-impossible for a UDFA to reach the majors. It’s more common now, with a 20-round draft, but not by much.
Still, once his elbow healed, Smith carved up the low minors as a one-inning reliever, and in 2024 the Brewers tried him out as a starter, where he tinkered with his repertoire but suffered a slight drop in fastball velocity.
And just like that, it was his fourth offseason as a pro, so the Brewers had to either add him to the 40-man roster or leave him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft. Counting college, the minors, the Arizona Fall League, and a season of summer ball in the Coastal Plains League, Smith had thrown only 184 1/3 competitive innings since graduating from high school, and Milwaukee couldn’t find a spot for him.
Despite his inexperience, Smith pretty obviously had big league-quality velocity and a big league-quality curveball. That alone, plus his gaudy minor league strikeout numbers (203 in 157 innings across all levels) made him one of the better prospects available in the draft, and nobody batted an eye when the White Sox took him with the first selection.
Given Chicago’s paucity of quality pitching and low team expectations, it seemed like Smith had a good shot not only to break camp with the White Sox, but also to survive on the major league roster all year. But as a reliever. That’s where he’d been most effective, and that’s what Eric Longenhagen wrote him up as at the time of the Rule 5 draft.
The conceit of the Rule 5 draft is that it offers big league opportunities to players who would otherwise be buried in the minor leagues. In practice, most Rule 5 draftees — if not all — are not completely ready for that opportunity when they get it. Most get returned. The pitchers who do stick around all year tend to do so in the bullpen, where they can get by on max effort and their two best pitches, while their manager shields them from high-leverage situations. A few of those guys make it through every season.
But for a Rule 5 pick to survive an entire season as a starter? Well, it happens even less often than an undrafted free agent makes the majors. Last year, the A’s had Mitch Spence in middle relief for the first six weeks of the season, before moving him to the rotation in mid-May.
Spence was OK. He made it into the fifth inning 21 times out of 24 starts, and through the fifth inning 17 times. As a starter, he posted a 4.64 ERA and a 4.37 FIP, and opponents hit .284/.338/.471 off him. That didn’t land Spence on anyone’s Rookie of the Year ballot, but for a rookie without big strikeout numbers, pitching in front of a 93-loss team? It’s hardly embarrassing.
But before Spence, you have to go all the way back to Brad Keller’s monster rookie season in 2018 to find a Rule 5 pick who thrived as a starter in his first major league campaign. And both Spence and Keller started in the bullpen and worked their way into the rotation over time. Smith got dropped straight into the deep end.
You’d never know it by watching him.
In his first start, Smith walked four but allowed only two hits and two runs over 5 2/3 innings. He was even better on Tuesday, striking out six and allowing two hits and a walk over six scoreless innings. Smith has now put together consecutive starts of two or fewer hits, two or fewer runs, and at least 17 outs.
That might not sound like much, but it’s a pretty rare achievement. It’s only the fifth instance of a White Sox pitcher hitting those marks in consecutive starts this decade; it’s only happened 13 times total since the strike and 18 times since 1901. Garrett Crochet never did it, nor did Lance Lynn or Jose Quintana or Jack McDowell or Early Wynn. Mark Buehrle never did it, even when he set a record for consecutive batters retired. Chris Sale only did it twice. If Smith comes out and hits his marks again on Sunday, when he’s scheduled to oppose Crochet of all people, it will be the first streak of three games meeting those criteria in all of franchise history.
As thrilling of a development as this is, I’m inclined to be somewhat conservative in my enthusiasm. Mostly because it’s a two-start sample at the beginning of the season, and as a matter of general principle I don’t believe anything in a baseball season is real until Memorial Day. Nobody ever went broke betting on Chris Shelton to regress to the mean.
Nestled into the small-sample caveat is the fact that Smith has not faced especially strong competition. The Twins are so lost they risk running afoul of the Hare Krishna joke from The Muppet Movie. And the Guardians had scored just 34 runs in nine games before they had the misfortune of encountering the unhittable Smith.
It’s also too early to draw sweeping conclusions about various pitches’ effectiveness. Smith hasn’t thrown any of his pitches more than 66 times, and what could look like a major uptick in whiff rate might just be one hitter coming up to the plate with a wonky contact lens.
I will say two things in his favor: First, the fastball velocity is not overpowering, but it’s solid. Smith is averaging 94.6 mph on his four-seamer, and hitting 97. He’s losing some velocity his second time through the order, but when he struck out Kyle Manzardo to close out the bottom of the sixth on Tuesday, that marked the furthest Smith had pitched into a start since high school at least. He’s a big guy; I’m willing to be patient as he builds up some stamina.
The second is that Smith is getting four distinct movement patterns on all four of his pitches, across three clear velocity bands. The four-seamer rises in the mid-90s, the changeup breaks arm side and the slider breaks glove side, both in the upper 80s, and the curveball drops like a brick in the low 80s.
As much as I’m still inclined to be circumspect after two starts, I don’t see anything here that says Smith can’t be an average major league starter. For a team with as many needs as the White Sox have, that’d be a massive coup. For such a massively underexperienced Rule 5 pick, it’d be nothing short of astonishing.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/shane-smith ... of-sorrow/
by Michael Baumann
April 10, 2025
If White Sox fans hadn’t already been inured to calamity by now, surely the ending of Tuesday afternoon’s game would’ve sent them into an incoherent, frothing rage. Having made it to the bottom of the ninth inning in Cleveland tied 0-0, Mike Clevinger took the mound. Clevinger, for reasons I do not remotely understand, is Chicago’s closer, and the inning before he’d come in to retire José Ramírez with two outs and the bases empty to preserve the tie.
Clevinger started the inning by allowing an infield single to Carlos Santana, alerting the world to the hitherto unknown fact that Santana can still run at this phase of his career. Then, the once-coveted workhorse walked three straight Guardians on a combined 21 pitches to force in the winning run. By the end of his stint, Clevinger’s fastball velocity was dipping into the 91 mph range. It was the second time in the first 10 games of the season that Clevinger took the decision in a 1-0 defeat, and Chicago’s second walk-off loss in as many games.
A game like this invites many questions, most of them more easily answered by the works of Nietzsche or C.S. Lewis (depending on your philosophical predilections) than baseball analysis. But there is good news, other than the fact that we’re all going to die one day, and when we do, we won’t have to watch the White Sox anymore.
See, Shane Smith was nails. Again.
Never heard of Shane Smith? I don’t blame you. I was in the room when the White Sox plucked him from the Brewers in the Rule 5 draft last December, and I’d all but forgotten about him by the time he made Chicago’s opening rotation. When I saw his name on the schedule, I thought: “Shane Smith, the jackass who cofounded Vice News? No, the other jackass who cofounded Vice News.”
Much to his own detriment in terms of SEO, this Shane Smith is a pitcher, and one with a fairly unusual career path: A monument to odd timing.
Smith went to Wake Forest, which was not quite the pitching factory it’s become, but it was still a good program, and head coach Tom Walter had coached Smith’s father at George Washington in a previous life. Smith sat out all of his first year on campus, 2019, with an injury, and won the closer’s role as a redshirt freshman. He went 2-0 with a save and nine strikeouts against a single hit… and then COVID hit after he’d thrown just five innings.
The next year, Smith moved to the rotation, where he lasted just two starts before he tore his UCL, truncating his entire college career to just 10 1/3 innings. A draft-eligible sophomore, he moved on to professional baseball, where the Brewers signed him as an undrafted free agent. Back when the draft was 40 or 50 rounds, or lasted until everyone passed, it was borderline-impossible for a UDFA to reach the majors. It’s more common now, with a 20-round draft, but not by much.
Still, once his elbow healed, Smith carved up the low minors as a one-inning reliever, and in 2024 the Brewers tried him out as a starter, where he tinkered with his repertoire but suffered a slight drop in fastball velocity.
And just like that, it was his fourth offseason as a pro, so the Brewers had to either add him to the 40-man roster or leave him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft. Counting college, the minors, the Arizona Fall League, and a season of summer ball in the Coastal Plains League, Smith had thrown only 184 1/3 competitive innings since graduating from high school, and Milwaukee couldn’t find a spot for him.
Despite his inexperience, Smith pretty obviously had big league-quality velocity and a big league-quality curveball. That alone, plus his gaudy minor league strikeout numbers (203 in 157 innings across all levels) made him one of the better prospects available in the draft, and nobody batted an eye when the White Sox took him with the first selection.
Given Chicago’s paucity of quality pitching and low team expectations, it seemed like Smith had a good shot not only to break camp with the White Sox, but also to survive on the major league roster all year. But as a reliever. That’s where he’d been most effective, and that’s what Eric Longenhagen wrote him up as at the time of the Rule 5 draft.
The conceit of the Rule 5 draft is that it offers big league opportunities to players who would otherwise be buried in the minor leagues. In practice, most Rule 5 draftees — if not all — are not completely ready for that opportunity when they get it. Most get returned. The pitchers who do stick around all year tend to do so in the bullpen, where they can get by on max effort and their two best pitches, while their manager shields them from high-leverage situations. A few of those guys make it through every season.
But for a Rule 5 pick to survive an entire season as a starter? Well, it happens even less often than an undrafted free agent makes the majors. Last year, the A’s had Mitch Spence in middle relief for the first six weeks of the season, before moving him to the rotation in mid-May.
Spence was OK. He made it into the fifth inning 21 times out of 24 starts, and through the fifth inning 17 times. As a starter, he posted a 4.64 ERA and a 4.37 FIP, and opponents hit .284/.338/.471 off him. That didn’t land Spence on anyone’s Rookie of the Year ballot, but for a rookie without big strikeout numbers, pitching in front of a 93-loss team? It’s hardly embarrassing.
But before Spence, you have to go all the way back to Brad Keller’s monster rookie season in 2018 to find a Rule 5 pick who thrived as a starter in his first major league campaign. And both Spence and Keller started in the bullpen and worked their way into the rotation over time. Smith got dropped straight into the deep end.
You’d never know it by watching him.
In his first start, Smith walked four but allowed only two hits and two runs over 5 2/3 innings. He was even better on Tuesday, striking out six and allowing two hits and a walk over six scoreless innings. Smith has now put together consecutive starts of two or fewer hits, two or fewer runs, and at least 17 outs.
That might not sound like much, but it’s a pretty rare achievement. It’s only the fifth instance of a White Sox pitcher hitting those marks in consecutive starts this decade; it’s only happened 13 times total since the strike and 18 times since 1901. Garrett Crochet never did it, nor did Lance Lynn or Jose Quintana or Jack McDowell or Early Wynn. Mark Buehrle never did it, even when he set a record for consecutive batters retired. Chris Sale only did it twice. If Smith comes out and hits his marks again on Sunday, when he’s scheduled to oppose Crochet of all people, it will be the first streak of three games meeting those criteria in all of franchise history.
As thrilling of a development as this is, I’m inclined to be somewhat conservative in my enthusiasm. Mostly because it’s a two-start sample at the beginning of the season, and as a matter of general principle I don’t believe anything in a baseball season is real until Memorial Day. Nobody ever went broke betting on Chris Shelton to regress to the mean.
Nestled into the small-sample caveat is the fact that Smith has not faced especially strong competition. The Twins are so lost they risk running afoul of the Hare Krishna joke from The Muppet Movie. And the Guardians had scored just 34 runs in nine games before they had the misfortune of encountering the unhittable Smith.
It’s also too early to draw sweeping conclusions about various pitches’ effectiveness. Smith hasn’t thrown any of his pitches more than 66 times, and what could look like a major uptick in whiff rate might just be one hitter coming up to the plate with a wonky contact lens.
I will say two things in his favor: First, the fastball velocity is not overpowering, but it’s solid. Smith is averaging 94.6 mph on his four-seamer, and hitting 97. He’s losing some velocity his second time through the order, but when he struck out Kyle Manzardo to close out the bottom of the sixth on Tuesday, that marked the furthest Smith had pitched into a start since high school at least. He’s a big guy; I’m willing to be patient as he builds up some stamina.
The second is that Smith is getting four distinct movement patterns on all four of his pitches, across three clear velocity bands. The four-seamer rises in the mid-90s, the changeup breaks arm side and the slider breaks glove side, both in the upper 80s, and the curveball drops like a brick in the low 80s.
As much as I’m still inclined to be circumspect after two starts, I don’t see anything here that says Smith can’t be an average major league starter. For a team with as many needs as the White Sox have, that’d be a massive coup. For such a massively underexperienced Rule 5 pick, it’d be nothing short of astonishing.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/shane-smith ... of-sorrow/
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
William Bergolla, MI, Chicago White Sox, 20, AA
Bergolla is one of the better pure hitters in the minors and does not get much love. The White Sox assigned him to Double-A Birmingham despite not turning 20 years old until last offseason. Bergolla has hit the ground running and had four hits on Sunday, which included two doubles and he even reached a fifth time via walk.
Being on the smaller side, Bergolla uses a leg kick as a timing mechanism and leads his swing with his lower half. He does a good job getting extended, but his swing path is more geared for ground balls and line drives. Bergolla goes to the opposite field more often than the pull side, limiting his home run power.
The exit velocities are well below average, as Bergolla posted a 98 mph 90th percentile exit velocity in 2024, basically, 20-grade power. The hit tool, on the other hand, might be a present 70-grade, as he ran a 90 percent overall contact rate. The interesting thing is that Bergolla reached 110 mph with a batted ball as a 19-year-old, something most his age have not done.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2& ... 9246590203
Bergolla is one of the better pure hitters in the minors and does not get much love. The White Sox assigned him to Double-A Birmingham despite not turning 20 years old until last offseason. Bergolla has hit the ground running and had four hits on Sunday, which included two doubles and he even reached a fifth time via walk.
Being on the smaller side, Bergolla uses a leg kick as a timing mechanism and leads his swing with his lower half. He does a good job getting extended, but his swing path is more geared for ground balls and line drives. Bergolla goes to the opposite field more often than the pull side, limiting his home run power.
The exit velocities are well below average, as Bergolla posted a 98 mph 90th percentile exit velocity in 2024, basically, 20-grade power. The hit tool, on the other hand, might be a present 70-grade, as he ran a 90 percent overall contact rate. The interesting thing is that Bergolla reached 110 mph with a batted ball as a 19-year-old, something most his age have not done.
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
White Sox Shane Smith has a new sinker. He broke it out today, exclusively versus Alex Bregman the second and third time he faced him. The shape looks good—93.5 mph with ~7.5” vertical break 17” arm-side movement, more arm-side than the average sinker at slightly below average velocity. I’d expect this pitch to be used more on the inner third versus other righties, especially to set up his slider down-away to righties. Smith’s four-seam is still somewhat of a limiter, relying on off-barrel contact in-zone for his overall level of success. He’s been aggressively locating the pitch middle to either handedness. The success of that pitch is where my concern lies from a full-season POV, but if the White Sox get ~1.5 WAR out of his arm over ~130 IP, it was a smash of a Rule 5 pick. 
https://lancebroz.substack.com/p/rays-j ... hane-smith
https://lancebroz.substack.com/p/rays-j ... hane-smith
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Kyle Karros, 3B, Rockies
Karros strung together an impressive series against a Double-A Portland pitching staff featuring two rehabbing big leaguers in Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito, plus several other interesting arms. He worked walks against both Bello and Giolito despite falling behind in counts, singled off an 0-2 Bello slider and crushed a Connelly Early slider for a long double. Karros’ defensive chops and bat-to-ball skills were already well-regarded. If he can handle spin better than expected, which was a point of emphasis entering the season, his hot start is worth filing away.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... e9435cfb24
Karros strung together an impressive series against a Double-A Portland pitching staff featuring two rehabbing big leaguers in Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito, plus several other interesting arms. He worked walks against both Bello and Giolito despite falling behind in counts, singled off an 0-2 Bello slider and crushed a Connelly Early slider for a long double. Karros’ defensive chops and bat-to-ball skills were already well-regarded. If he can handle spin better than expected, which was a point of emphasis entering the season, his hot start is worth filing away.
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
White Sox: RHP Shane Smith
Smith was the top pick in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft and really a testament to the entire White Sox organization for researching and selecting the right player. Through his first three starts, the right-hander had allowed the fourth-lowest batting average against offspeed pitches at .094 (3-for-32) and while he had walked seven, did not give up more than two earned runs in any of those three starts. It’s very early but the 25-year-old looks to be a burgeoning part of this rotation and rebuild moving forward. -- Scott Merkin
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-newcomer-i ... -team-2025
Smith was the top pick in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft and really a testament to the entire White Sox organization for researching and selecting the right player. Through his first three starts, the right-hander had allowed the fourth-lowest batting average against offspeed pitches at .094 (3-for-32) and while he had walked seven, did not give up more than two earned runs in any of those three starts. It’s very early but the 25-year-old looks to be a burgeoning part of this rotation and rebuild moving forward. -- Scott Merkin
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-newcomer-i ... -team-2025
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Everyone understands that the team innings leader has a value that can outpace their pure stuff, or even their results.
In an occupation defined by injury, pacing the club in innings means they were healthy enough to take the ball, and that they remained enough of a credible option to be repeatedly asked. And so by pacing all White Sox minor league pitchers with 132 innings last season, 24-year-old left-hander Tyler Schweitzer has already shown signs of both qualities early in his career, with a promotion to the Triple-A Charlotte rotation this week putting him on the doorstep of the majors.
"My high school coach, one of them said I had a rubber arm, and some of the guys here say I bounce back pretty quickly, so that's a good compliment to have," Schweitzer said by phone. "Honestly the biggest thing I've noticed is I listen to my arm. Just, 'Dang, I'm really sore today, I'm going to take a day. My arm needs it.'"
Martín Pérez's inflamed left elbow is just the latest in a scourge of injuries to candidates to make starts in Chicago this year that has already taken out Drew Thorpe, Ky Bush, Mason Adams and Juan Carela (who has since re-signed with the White Sox) for the year. With Schweitzer starting the year piggybacking with Grant Taylor in Double-A (but still throwing five innings per outing and preparing like a starter), he'd certainly forgive you for not thinking of him as an option right off the bat.
His reaction to this interview request wasn't too far removed from how he responded to scouts approaching him at Ball State, where he once threw 150 pitches in a conference tournament game.
"A Red Sox scout was talking to me and my first response was 'Are you sure you've got the right guy?'" Schweitzer said. "I wasn't the biggest guy, so velo wasn't really there. So I really pride myself on doing the same thing every time with my mechanics, which led to all my pitches being right around the same exact slot and thinking the same thing over and over again."
But a funny thing happened while Schweitzer has reliably accumulated innings, reps and stacked productive offseasons of adding strength on top of each other after being a below-the-radar fifth round pick: He's gotten better, and he's seen an early stuff jump that's more relevant because it's backed by a reliable track record of strike-throwing.
After two full minor league years of reliably running strikeout rates in the mid-20s, and working in a low-90s velocity band that legally requires him to be described as crafty, Schweitzer touched 96 mph in his last outing in Birmingham. Over two games and 10 innings with the Barons to start the year, Schweitzer struck out 14 and allowed just four hits while sitting 93-95 mph. More than the fastball, it's the boost to his secondaries that might be the most valuable long-term.
"My curveball has been my bread and butter for most of my life, but early on in the season, my slider has taken some big strides," Schweitzer said. "The velo has ticked up four miles per hour and the movement on it has been a lot sharper and better. The way it feels in my hands, I just feel like I know where it's going at all times. The curveball I'm also throwing harder and a power curveball is better. The Clayton Kershaw-style curveball is kind of dying out. A 72 mph pitch isn't a great pitch anymore, so we have to adapt."
The natural whippiness of Schweitzer's left arm reveals itself with his long drawback motion that keeps the ball hidden behind his head for an extended period of time before snapping through a high three-quarters slot. The extra deception of the motion has spurred the White Sox to prod Schweitzer to simply stick with his delivery, and the lefty has happily complied.
A natural supinator, Schweitzer talks about accumulating a feel for pre-setting the ball in his glove and seamlessly toggling between his intent to turn over a low-80 curve, ripping a mid-80s slider, cutting his fastball to work inside to a righty, or pulling straight down to backspin a four-seamer. Accordingly, the White Sox have given Schweitzer a mid-80s seam-effects changeup that he professes to still be working on the finer details of, but has also induced 10 whiffs on 21 swings so far while adding a crucial element of arm side movement to his game.
The larger suite of options has aided Schweitzer's embrace of 'attack early, expand late' approach to working in the strike zone many Sox pitchers have espoused this year. But Schweitzer says the best thing the org has added to his game is reminding him that he shouldn't be surprised by the attention is starting to draw.
"The biggest thing they taught me was conviction in every pitch," Schweitzer said. "They're always all about 'We drafted you for a reason. You are good. Trust your stuff."
Schweitzer's father played college basketball, also at Ball State, and without a scholarship offer going into his senior year, he reasoned that unless he could match his dad's accomplish by playing at the Division I level, he would just quit baseball. But after working his way up from the bullpen in college, holding his own against other pro prospects in the Northwoods League and becoming the ace of the Ball State staff by his junior year, Schweitzer thinks he's already displayed a level of versatility and durability that will serve him well in whatever pro ball can throw at him.
And he's singing a different tune about his long-term prospects.
"I was a fifth-rounder, so there were a couple hundred picks before me," Schweitzer said. "So I always have a chip on the shoulder thinking like, hey, these guys didn't pick me. So therefore I need to keep working harder, because all those guys above me they probably have a better chance than me to make the majors. I've got to prove them wrong."
https://soxmachine.com/2025/04/white-so ... ure-option
In an occupation defined by injury, pacing the club in innings means they were healthy enough to take the ball, and that they remained enough of a credible option to be repeatedly asked. And so by pacing all White Sox minor league pitchers with 132 innings last season, 24-year-old left-hander Tyler Schweitzer has already shown signs of both qualities early in his career, with a promotion to the Triple-A Charlotte rotation this week putting him on the doorstep of the majors.
"My high school coach, one of them said I had a rubber arm, and some of the guys here say I bounce back pretty quickly, so that's a good compliment to have," Schweitzer said by phone. "Honestly the biggest thing I've noticed is I listen to my arm. Just, 'Dang, I'm really sore today, I'm going to take a day. My arm needs it.'"
Martín Pérez's inflamed left elbow is just the latest in a scourge of injuries to candidates to make starts in Chicago this year that has already taken out Drew Thorpe, Ky Bush, Mason Adams and Juan Carela (who has since re-signed with the White Sox) for the year. With Schweitzer starting the year piggybacking with Grant Taylor in Double-A (but still throwing five innings per outing and preparing like a starter), he'd certainly forgive you for not thinking of him as an option right off the bat.
His reaction to this interview request wasn't too far removed from how he responded to scouts approaching him at Ball State, where he once threw 150 pitches in a conference tournament game.
"A Red Sox scout was talking to me and my first response was 'Are you sure you've got the right guy?'" Schweitzer said. "I wasn't the biggest guy, so velo wasn't really there. So I really pride myself on doing the same thing every time with my mechanics, which led to all my pitches being right around the same exact slot and thinking the same thing over and over again."
But a funny thing happened while Schweitzer has reliably accumulated innings, reps and stacked productive offseasons of adding strength on top of each other after being a below-the-radar fifth round pick: He's gotten better, and he's seen an early stuff jump that's more relevant because it's backed by a reliable track record of strike-throwing.
After two full minor league years of reliably running strikeout rates in the mid-20s, and working in a low-90s velocity band that legally requires him to be described as crafty, Schweitzer touched 96 mph in his last outing in Birmingham. Over two games and 10 innings with the Barons to start the year, Schweitzer struck out 14 and allowed just four hits while sitting 93-95 mph. More than the fastball, it's the boost to his secondaries that might be the most valuable long-term.
"My curveball has been my bread and butter for most of my life, but early on in the season, my slider has taken some big strides," Schweitzer said. "The velo has ticked up four miles per hour and the movement on it has been a lot sharper and better. The way it feels in my hands, I just feel like I know where it's going at all times. The curveball I'm also throwing harder and a power curveball is better. The Clayton Kershaw-style curveball is kind of dying out. A 72 mph pitch isn't a great pitch anymore, so we have to adapt."
The natural whippiness of Schweitzer's left arm reveals itself with his long drawback motion that keeps the ball hidden behind his head for an extended period of time before snapping through a high three-quarters slot. The extra deception of the motion has spurred the White Sox to prod Schweitzer to simply stick with his delivery, and the lefty has happily complied.
A natural supinator, Schweitzer talks about accumulating a feel for pre-setting the ball in his glove and seamlessly toggling between his intent to turn over a low-80 curve, ripping a mid-80s slider, cutting his fastball to work inside to a righty, or pulling straight down to backspin a four-seamer. Accordingly, the White Sox have given Schweitzer a mid-80s seam-effects changeup that he professes to still be working on the finer details of, but has also induced 10 whiffs on 21 swings so far while adding a crucial element of arm side movement to his game.
The larger suite of options has aided Schweitzer's embrace of 'attack early, expand late' approach to working in the strike zone many Sox pitchers have espoused this year. But Schweitzer says the best thing the org has added to his game is reminding him that he shouldn't be surprised by the attention is starting to draw.
"The biggest thing they taught me was conviction in every pitch," Schweitzer said. "They're always all about 'We drafted you for a reason. You are good. Trust your stuff."
Schweitzer's father played college basketball, also at Ball State, and without a scholarship offer going into his senior year, he reasoned that unless he could match his dad's accomplish by playing at the Division I level, he would just quit baseball. But after working his way up from the bullpen in college, holding his own against other pro prospects in the Northwoods League and becoming the ace of the Ball State staff by his junior year, Schweitzer thinks he's already displayed a level of versatility and durability that will serve him well in whatever pro ball can throw at him.
And he's singing a different tune about his long-term prospects.
"I was a fifth-rounder, so there were a couple hundred picks before me," Schweitzer said. "So I always have a chip on the shoulder thinking like, hey, these guys didn't pick me. So therefore I need to keep working harder, because all those guys above me they probably have a better chance than me to make the majors. I've got to prove them wrong."
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Brooks Baldwin doesn’t profile as a future star, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have a long and productive major league career. Versatility is a big reason why.
A poor man’s Ben Zobrist, the 24-year-old switch-hitter has played every defensive position besides first base, catcher, and pitcher since debuting with the Chicago White Sox last summer. It may be only a matter of time before those three are added to his résumé. Counting his days as a North Carolina prep and a UNC-Wilmington Seahawk, there isn’t anywhere he hasn’t played.
The versatility dates back to his formative years.
“I’ve been playing all over the field since I was 10 years old,” explained Baldwin, who was announced as a third baseman when the White Sox selected him in the 12th round of the 2022 draft. “It’s something my dad instilled in me, not restricting myself to one position. He played pro ball a little bit [in the Cleveland Guardians system], and before that in college at Clemson. He did the same thing.”
Chuck Baldwin’s son has seen time at first base in the minors, and the other two missing positions at the major league level are ones he’s well acquainted with. The chip off the old block caught “pretty often” in his freshman and sophomore years of high school, and pitched all four years. Primarily a starter, he had a fastball in the upper-80s as a senior.
Baldwin has been switch-hitting since he was eight or nine years old. His father’s high school coach, Linwood Hedgepeth, made the suggestion. After watching the naturally-left-handed hitter in the batting cage, the member of the North Carolina Baseball Hall of Fame told the elder Baldwin,’This kid can switch it.’”
His hitting skills have proven to be solid at more advanced levels. Baldwin slashed .284/.358/.430 with 23 home runs over 876 minor-league plate appearances, and so far this season he is 19-for-73 with four two-baggers and three dingers. But again, the bulk of his value comes from being a utility man supreme. And while he’s unlikely to match Zobrist’s best with the bat — the erstwhile Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs stalwart had three seasons with 20 or more home runs, and seven with a wRC+ of 120 or better — that’s not his goal.
“That part doesn’t really matter to me — being a star and whatnot — it’s about being productive for your team,” said Baldwin, who was comped to Zobrist by White Sox farm director Paul Janish in an interview that ran here in February. “I don’t need to be the guy that everybody leans on. I have a solid bat, but I also take a lot of pride in my defense and being versatile. Being able to play all those positions is big for me.”
Which brings us to a question I had to ask: Would he like to play all nine positions in the same game (something that has been done five times throughout MLB history)?
“I did it once in high school, in summer ball,” Baldwin said to that question. “Maybe somewhere down the road it will come up where I can do that.”
According to his manager, that probably won’t happen in a White Sox uniform. Then again, circumstance abound in the game of baseball.
“If it helped us win that day,” Will Venable said of the possibility. “I’m not going to do that just to be able to say that we did it. But he is our emergency catcher, so you never know.”
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/sunday-note ... verywhere/
A poor man’s Ben Zobrist, the 24-year-old switch-hitter has played every defensive position besides first base, catcher, and pitcher since debuting with the Chicago White Sox last summer. It may be only a matter of time before those three are added to his résumé. Counting his days as a North Carolina prep and a UNC-Wilmington Seahawk, there isn’t anywhere he hasn’t played.
The versatility dates back to his formative years.
“I’ve been playing all over the field since I was 10 years old,” explained Baldwin, who was announced as a third baseman when the White Sox selected him in the 12th round of the 2022 draft. “It’s something my dad instilled in me, not restricting myself to one position. He played pro ball a little bit [in the Cleveland Guardians system], and before that in college at Clemson. He did the same thing.”
Chuck Baldwin’s son has seen time at first base in the minors, and the other two missing positions at the major league level are ones he’s well acquainted with. The chip off the old block caught “pretty often” in his freshman and sophomore years of high school, and pitched all four years. Primarily a starter, he had a fastball in the upper-80s as a senior.
Baldwin has been switch-hitting since he was eight or nine years old. His father’s high school coach, Linwood Hedgepeth, made the suggestion. After watching the naturally-left-handed hitter in the batting cage, the member of the North Carolina Baseball Hall of Fame told the elder Baldwin,’This kid can switch it.’”
His hitting skills have proven to be solid at more advanced levels. Baldwin slashed .284/.358/.430 with 23 home runs over 876 minor-league plate appearances, and so far this season he is 19-for-73 with four two-baggers and three dingers. But again, the bulk of his value comes from being a utility man supreme. And while he’s unlikely to match Zobrist’s best with the bat — the erstwhile Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs stalwart had three seasons with 20 or more home runs, and seven with a wRC+ of 120 or better — that’s not his goal.
“That part doesn’t really matter to me — being a star and whatnot — it’s about being productive for your team,” said Baldwin, who was comped to Zobrist by White Sox farm director Paul Janish in an interview that ran here in February. “I don’t need to be the guy that everybody leans on. I have a solid bat, but I also take a lot of pride in my defense and being versatile. Being able to play all those positions is big for me.”
Which brings us to a question I had to ask: Would he like to play all nine positions in the same game (something that has been done five times throughout MLB history)?
“I did it once in high school, in summer ball,” Baldwin said to that question. “Maybe somewhere down the road it will come up where I can do that.”
According to his manager, that probably won’t happen in a White Sox uniform. Then again, circumstance abound in the game of baseball.
“If it helped us win that day,” Will Venable said of the possibility. “I’m not going to do that just to be able to say that we did it. But he is our emergency catcher, so you never know.”
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/sunday-note ... verywhere/
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Padres
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Carolina Mudcats catcher Marco Dinges was named the Carolina League Player of the Week on Monday.
Dinges is coming off a monster opening weekend in which he hit .471 (8-for-17) with two extra base hits including a home run. The 21-year-old also drove in seven against Columbia last week.
Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the fourth Round of the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft, Dinges enters his first full season with Carolina after playing the final 13 games of the season with the Mudcats last year.
https://www.milb.com/news/dinges-named- ... f-the-week
C - Marco Dinges
A fourth-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Marco Dinges has wasted no time making his presence felt. As a member of the ultra-talented Single-A Carolina Mudcats — a roster featuring names like Jesús Made, Luis Peña, and Eric Bitonti — it would be easy for Dinges to get lost in the shuffle. Instead, he's making it extremely difficult to overlook him.
Through the opening stretch of the season, Dinges has quietly put together a standout performance, slashing .362/.500/.553 with one home run and 14 RBIs. His plate discipline and ability to drive the ball to all fields have drawn early praise, signaling a hitter whose approach is already more polished than most would expect for a first-year pro.
It’s not just the bat that makes Dinges intriguing. His defensive versatility — splitting time between catcher and the outfield — offers the Brewers an added layer of value. Still early in his professional journey, Dinges is already flashing the tools, mindset, and production that suggest he could eventually carve out a path to the major leagues.
On Monday afternoon, Dinges was named the Carolina League Player of the Week for the week of April 21-27. In six games against the Columbia Fireflies last week, Dinges posted a .471 AVG, a 1.271 OPS, and collected 7 RBI. He joins Josh Adamczewski as the second Mudcat to win Player of the Week in 2025.
https://reviewingthebrew.com/3-underval ... jsyrxrzc56
Dinges is coming off a monster opening weekend in which he hit .471 (8-for-17) with two extra base hits including a home run. The 21-year-old also drove in seven against Columbia last week.
Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the fourth Round of the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft, Dinges enters his first full season with Carolina after playing the final 13 games of the season with the Mudcats last year.
https://www.milb.com/news/dinges-named- ... f-the-week
C - Marco Dinges
A fourth-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Marco Dinges has wasted no time making his presence felt. As a member of the ultra-talented Single-A Carolina Mudcats — a roster featuring names like Jesús Made, Luis Peña, and Eric Bitonti — it would be easy for Dinges to get lost in the shuffle. Instead, he's making it extremely difficult to overlook him.
Through the opening stretch of the season, Dinges has quietly put together a standout performance, slashing .362/.500/.553 with one home run and 14 RBIs. His plate discipline and ability to drive the ball to all fields have drawn early praise, signaling a hitter whose approach is already more polished than most would expect for a first-year pro.
It’s not just the bat that makes Dinges intriguing. His defensive versatility — splitting time between catcher and the outfield — offers the Brewers an added layer of value. Still early in his professional journey, Dinges is already flashing the tools, mindset, and production that suggest he could eventually carve out a path to the major leagues.
On Monday afternoon, Dinges was named the Carolina League Player of the Week for the week of April 21-27. In six games against the Columbia Fireflies last week, Dinges posted a .471 AVG, a 1.271 OPS, and collected 7 RBI. He joins Josh Adamczewski as the second Mudcat to win Player of the Week in 2025.
https://reviewingthebrew.com/3-underval ... jsyrxrzc56
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Padres
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Re: 2025 Padres prospects news and notes
Ethan O’Donnell, OF, Cincinnati Reds 23, AA
You might have seen O’Donnell take a pretty significant leap in my prospect rankings that dropped earlier this week. Games like Wednesday are why. O’Donnell was a player that I got some good feedback on this offseason, and once again, I am seeing why. He has made leaps in several areas, and on Wednesday, we saw O’Donnell blast his first two home runs of 2025.
It was O’Donnell’s seventh multi-hit performance in 21 games this year and his fourth in the last six games. While the contact rates are a little lower than we would like to see, O’Donnell has a good approach and some sneaky pop in the profile. While he has just two stolen bases, there is plenty of speed there, and he is solid in the outfield.
It would not be surprising at all if O’Donnell wound up in Cincinnati at some point this year.
https://www.thedynastydugout.com/p/top- ... dugout.com
You might have seen O’Donnell take a pretty significant leap in my prospect rankings that dropped earlier this week. Games like Wednesday are why. O’Donnell was a player that I got some good feedback on this offseason, and once again, I am seeing why. He has made leaps in several areas, and on Wednesday, we saw O’Donnell blast his first two home runs of 2025.
It was O’Donnell’s seventh multi-hit performance in 21 games this year and his fourth in the last six games. While the contact rates are a little lower than we would like to see, O’Donnell has a good approach and some sneaky pop in the profile. While he has just two stolen bases, there is plenty of speed there, and he is solid in the outfield.
It would not be surprising at all if O’Donnell wound up in Cincinnati at some point this year.
https://www.thedynastydugout.com/p/top- ... dugout.com
