Bradenton Recap: Five players who stood out during my trip
Five 'under the radar' players who stood out during my time in Bradenton
After over a week of watching games down in Bradenton, I saw many of the usual names that you would expect to stand out, but today, I wanted to go over some names that may not be as well known who stood out and are worth watching going forward.
You have probably heard some of these names before, especially if you have been following along during my trip. However, I wanted to put together something collective on some players who stood out during my time in Florida.
Reinold Navarro
He’s someone who instantly became interesting once we knew he was making the jump stateside, and Reinold Navarro didn’t disappoint. The 18-year-old lefty struck out eight over four innings, walking one and allowing a hit.
Navarro threw 59 pitches, 35 for strikes, while getting nine whiffs. That’s good for a 16.7% swinging strike rate. He was able to attack hitters in the zone, setting up the slider that got some ridiculous swings from left-handed batters.
I talked to a scout after the game, and he mentioned that Navarro was 94-96 during the start, topping out right under 98. Add in what we saw with some of the talk from Baseball America, the Pirates may have another pitching prospect with power stuff to watch.
Eddie Rynders
He isn’t as under-the-radar as when he was drafted, but Eddie Rynders might be the player with the biggest up arrow of anyone I saw in Bradenton.
It was solid at-bat after solid at-bat for Rynders, who struck out once in the games I saw (and has twice as many walks to punchouts this year). Outside of a swinging bunt single in the first game, Rynders made consistent, flush contact throughout the week.
Overall, it was a much more advanced approach than I was expecting, and once his body starts filling out, that flush contact will turn into over-the-fence power.
Kendrick Herrera
It didn’t initially start to show on the statsheet, but Kendrick Herrera really impressed me with the consistent, solid contact he was getting. For someone known more for his defense, I was impressed with the type of contact he was getting.
There was some bad luck there, as he hard hit into a couple of lineouts right to defenders, but things have started to drop for him more recently, and he has more walks than strikeouts.
The defense has been good after a bit of a shaky start in the first game. It’s a very fluid motion out there, with a strong arm. That Florida Complex League team has a stacked infield.
Clevari Tejada
I saw Clevari Tejada during spring training and he was perhaps the best pitcher in a game that featured Matt Ager, Garrett McMillan, and Isaias Uribe, getting close to double-digits whiffs against the Orioles team that had some High-A players on it.
He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning of his game last week against Lakeland, and struck out five batters overall.
Tejada is still a little newer to pitching but is starting to show a feel for at least three pitches, attacking hitters with a east/west sinker/slider combination, and mixing in a change-up.
There were a couple of instances where he barreled his sinker in on righties to set them up for the slider away. He has a way to go, but I’m starting to buy him a little more and more.
Cam Janik
I mentioned strong at-bats with Rynders and Herrera, but there wasn’t a player who put together more professional ABs than Cam Janik.
As a college hitter, he probably should be doing well against Low-A pitching, but his approach and hittability was impressive. He struck out 4% of his plate appearances his final year at Illinois, and has more walks than punch outs right now with Bradenton.
He hasn’t hit for too much power, but the contact is there and it looks like he’s adjusted well to moving to the outfield full-time after catching in college (he did play some outfield on campus).
I’m not sure there are a lot of players on Bradenton that are screaming for a promotion, but Janik would be right up there.
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Eddie Rynders on that Cooper Pratt arc without getting the bonus baby treatment.
How did Janik's hits look? I've been box-score watching him for a while and was excited until I started paying close attention to exit velos. I could be wrong, but from what I've seen they've been consistently very low