Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i Baseball America

Major League Baseball invited the following 60 minor league clubs to affiliate with its 15 American League franchises. MLB organizations hand-picked their desired minor league affiliates, with priority being given to existing affiliations. In addition to its four full-season affiliates, each organization will be permitted as many as two Rookie-level teams at its spring training complex—whether in Arizona or Florida—and as many as two affiliates in the Dominican Republic.…

1. TYLER SODERSTROM, C AGE: 19. B-T: L-R. HT: 6-2. WT: 205. DRAFTED: HS—Turlock, Calif., 2020 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Kevin Mello. TRACK RECORD: Soderstrom surged into the top tier of the 2020 draft class after a blistering summer on the showcase circuit. His rise culminated with the Athletics drafting him No. 26 overall and signing him for $3.3 million to forgo a UCLA commitment. It was the second-largest bonus ever given to a prep catcher, behind only No. 1 overall pick Joe Mauer’s $5.1 million from the Twins in 2001. The A’s promptly sent the 18-year-old Soderstrom into a win-now environment at the alternate training site and watched their top pick hit nearly .500 with three home runs in his first week. He continued to dominate at instructional league,…

1. CORBIN CARROLL, OF AGE: 20. B-T: L-L. HT: 5-10. WT: 165. DRAFTED: HS—Seattle, 2019 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Dan Ramsay. TRACK RECORD: Carroll was viewed as an advanced high school hitter when the Diamondbacks selected him with the 16th overall pick in 2019 and signed him for $3,745,500 to forgo UCLA commitment. He lived up to that billing during his pro debut, hitting .299/.409/.481 as he advanced to short-season Hillsboro. Carroll opened even more eyes with his play at the alternate training site in 2020, when he excelled against far more advanced pitchers. He looked so mature in his all-around game that some wondered, albeit prematurely, if he might be the rare fast-to-the-majors high school player. SCOUTING REPORT: Carroll is undersized physically at a listed 5-foot-10. That gives him…

1. MacKENZIE GORE, LHP AGE: 22. B-T: L-L. HT: 6-4. WT: 197. DRAFTED: HS—Whiteville, N.C., 2017 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Nick Brannon. TRACK RECORD: Gore led tiny Whiteville (N.C.) High to three state championships in four years and won BA’s High School Player of the Year award in 2017. The Padres drafted him third overall and signed him for a franchise-record $6.7 million. Gore’s first full season was interrupted by recurring blisters that sent him to the injured list three times, but he flourished with full health in 2019. Gore posted the lowest ERA (1.69) and WHIP (0.83) of any pitcher in the minors who threw at least 100 innings, and he entered 2020 considered arguably the top pitching prospect in baseball. Gore looked sharp in spring training, but after…

National League • A young D-backs outfielder shows off newfound pop PAGE 44• An athletic Dodgers pitcher follows a well-worn development path in the organization PAGE 45• The ball just sounds different coming off the bat of this young Mets power hitter PAGE 46 ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS Jake McCarthy isn’t trying to swing harder or hit more balls in the air, but after a summer spent gaining strength and retooling his swing, the outfielder enjoyed a successful stint in instructional league in which he showed off his newfound pop. “It seems like when everything in my swing is moving accordingly, I can do what I want without getting out of my comfort zone,” the 23-year-old said. McCarthy chose his words carefully. He knows he still has to improve as a hitter and that the…

So why did one minor league team make it onto Major League Baseball’s list of 120 invited affiliates while another nearby team did not? The answer can be boiled down to four factors: caliber of ballpark facilities, geography, the desires of major league teams and political considerations. All four of those factors played roles in the eventual list of 120 teams. Often, though, those four factors ran counter to one another, which explains why the 120 invitations sent out do not always meet all of those criteria. At the end of the day, the desires of MLB teams largely trumped the other considerations if the factors were in conflict. From the first time MLB announced its plan to reduce the minors from 160 to 120 affiliated, ticket-selling clubs, the league…

1. FORREST WHITLEY, RHP AGE: 23. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-7. WT: 238. DRAFTED: HS—San Antonio, 2016 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Noel Gonzales-Luna. TRACK RECORD: It’s hard to know what to make of Whitley at this point. Drafted 17th overall out of high school in 2016, he ranks as the Astros’ No. 1 prospect for the fourth straight season and has not yet made his major league debut. Whitley ranked as the No. 10 prospect in baseball entering the 2018 season, coming off a year in which he reached Double-A as a 19-year-old. In 2018, Whitley missed the start of the season with a 50-game suspension due to a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug. He then threw just 26 innings in the regular season because he missed time with oblique…

1. JULIO RODRIGUEZ, OF AGE: 20. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-3. WT: 205. SIGNED: Dominican Republic, 2017. SIGNED BY: Eddy Toledo/Tim Kissner TRACK RECORD: Rodriguez signed with the Mariners during the 2017 international period for $1.75 million. After starting his pro career in the Dominican Summer League in 2018, Rodriguez jumped to full-season ball for his first U.S. experience and put up strong numbers at both low Class A West Virginia and high Class A Modesto despite missing nearly two months with a broken left hand. Rodriguez was anything but intimidated by more advanced California League pitchers, batting .462/.514/.738 in 17 games with the Nuts and earning hyperbolic praise from league observers. Rodriguez suffered a hairline fracture in his left wrist diving for a ball during summer camp in 2020 and…

1. BRENDAN RODGERS, SS/2B AGE: 24. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-0. WT: 185. DRAFTED: HS—Lake Mary, Fla., 2015 (1st round). SIGNED BY: John Cedarburg. TRACK RECORD: Rodgers was the top prospect in the 2015 draft thanks to his precocious hitting ability, promising power potential and ability to stick up the middle defensively. The Rockies drafted him third overall, behind Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman, and signed him for a franchise-record $5.5 million. While Swanson and Bregman have found success in the big leagues, Rodgers’ career has stalled due to injuries. Shoulder surgery limited his big league time in 2019 to just 25 games and resulted in him being handled with extreme caution in 2020. A tweaked hamstring suffered at the alternate training site delayed his return to Colorado, where he once…

1. MARCO LUCIANO, SS AGE: 19. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-1. WT: 198. SIGNED: Dominican Republic, 2018. SIGNED BY: Jonathan Bautista. TRACK RECORD: After two years under international signing restrictions, the Giants opened their wallet in 2018 to sign a star-studded international class that included Luciano and outfielders Luis Matos and Jairo Pomares. Luciano was the undisputed gem and quickly showed why in his 2019 pro debut when he demolished the Rookie-level Arizona League, made a cameo at short-season Salem-Keizer and asserted himself as the most promising prospect in the Giants’ system. Luciano got his first look at Oracle Park in January, when he was part of a group the Giants brought in for a preseason minicamp. He got there again when he was added to the 60-man player pool following…

@JJCOOP36 In the major league phase of the 2018 Rule 5 draft, 14 players were selected. Just three of those 14 stuck with their drafting organizations. No. 1 pick Richie Martin played regularly at shortstop for the Orioles. Righthander Elvis Luciano, a 19-year-old plucked out of Rookie ball, was buried in the Blue Jays’ bullpen for all of 2019. Before the coronavirus pandemic arrived, he was ticketed to return to the minor leagues in 2020 to continue his development. The other player who stuck, righthander Brandon Brennan, worked low-leverage relief for the Mariners in 2019, appearing in 44 games. He spent most of 2020 sidelined with an oblique injury. But the Rule 5 draft does not end with the final selection of the major league phase. As soon as the…

FOUNDING EDITOR One of baseball’s redeeming qualities is that it is trapped in a time warp. Basically, the fundamentals of the sport today are the same as they were 50 years ago. Even 100 years ago. That truism hardly applies, though, when the game is viewed through a Baseball America prism. At a time of reflection as we mark the occasion of BA’s 40th anniversary, it’s relatively safe to say that baseball in 1981, in our first year of publication, was hardly the same stable entity we’d always come to expect, just as it wasn’t in 2020, in our 40th year, either. Between the pandemic that brought unimagined chaos to every facet of the game, along with the sweeping, systematic changes administered by Major League Baseball that brought a noble…

1. JO ADELL, OF AGE: 22. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-3. WT: 215. DRAFTED: HS—Louisville, 2017 (1st round). SIGNED BY: John Burden. TRACK RECORD: The 10th overall pick in 2017, Adell made his major league debut in 2020 and flashed some of the tools that made him the organization’s most touted prospect since Mike Trout. In his peak moment, he crushed a 437-foot homer to left field that left his bat at 110 mph and also hit a 107 mph laser off the top of the right field wall in a 16-3 Angels victory against the Mariners. But that performance was more the exception than the rule during an uneven rookie season marked by a high strikeout rate, lengthy power droughts and several defensive gaffes. Adell had just 27 games of…

1. JOSH JUNG, 3B AGE: 23. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-2. WT: 215. DRAFTED: Texas Tech, 2019 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Josh Simpson. TRACK RECORD: The Rangers made Jung the eighth overall pick in 2019 after a star-studded career at Texas Tech. He signed for $4.4 million and got his feet wet with a productive but not flashy 44-game run in the Rookie-level Arizona League and at low Class A Hickory. With the minor league season canceled in 2020, Jung was added to the Rangers’ 60-man player pool and made the most of his time facing older, more experienced players at the alternate training site. He finished the year at instructional league, where he starred as one of the top hitters in Arizona. SCOUTING REPORT: The Rangers believe Jung is going…

1. KEIBERT RUIZ, C AGE: 22. B-T: B-R. HT: 6-0. WT: 225. SIGNED: Venezuela 2014. SIGNED BY: Francisco Cartaya/Pedro Avila. TRACK RECORD: Ruiz trained at the academy run by former all-star shortstop Carlos Guillen in Venezuela as an amateur and signed with the Dodgers for $140,000 when he turned 16. He was known for his defense when he signed, but his offense quickly became his calling card. Ruiz hit .300 or better at each of his first four stops and zoomed up the minors to play a full season at Double-A at age 19 in 2018, when he ranked as the Texas League’s No. 3 prospect. He hit his first speed bump in 2019 when an organizational catching logjam forced him back to Double-A, and he struggled to stay motivated.…

American League • An Astros pitcher looks sharp after a two-year layoff PAGE 40• Meet the young pitcher who could have better stuff than any Twins prospect since Jose Berrios PAGE 41• A Blue Jays outfielder sharpened his swing, his routes and his basestealing at the alternate site PAGE 42 BALTIMORE ORIOLES Righthander Michael Baumann has to regain his health before he can get back on a mound. But a strained flexor mass in his right forearm didn’t keep him off the 40-man roster. The Orioles exempted the 25-year-old Baumann from the Rule 5 draft by including him among the six players added to the roster at the deadline. The move had been anticipated after the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Baumann upgraded his prospect status in 2019 by going 7-6, 2.98 in 24 games between…

DICK ALLEN, a third baseman and first baseman who played in the major leagues for 15 years from 1963-1977 with the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, White Sox and Athletics and won the National League Rookie of the Year in 1964 and the American League MVP in 1972, died Dec. 7. He was 78. Allen made seven all-star teams, posted a .292/.378/.534 slash line, hit 351 home runs and drove in 1,119 runs. In 1972, he led the AL in home runs (37), RBIs (113), walks (99), OBP (.420) and slugging percentage (.603). JAIRO CASTILLO, an international crosschecker for the Dodgers in the Dominican Republic who previously worked for the Brewers and Blue Jays as a scout after playing three seasons in the Dominican Summer League for the Mets from 2007-09, died…