The Week in Bradenton: Different Trends with Marauders, FCL Outfielders
Some good, some bad in Bradenton
Bradenton has mostly struggled on offense this season in spite of having two of the Florida State League’s top hitters in Konnor Griffin and Axiel Plaz. Still, they’ve had some players making progress. Others have gone the wrong way.
One who’s made a lot of progress, as we’ve discussed here recently, is Will Taylor. After a huge week, in which he went 11-for-22 with three doubles and two home runs, he’s now batting .341/.426/.537 on the season. (All stats here are through games of June 2.) He’s a little short of qualifying due to some missed time early in the season; otherwise, he’d be leading the FSL in batting and OPS.
Taylor is something of a relief to watch because he adjusts to the pitch and goes gap to gap instead of selling out for pull power on every swing. He does drive the ball, including the other way. I could see him as a 10-15 home run guy. I can’t imagine he’ll be in Bradenton much longer.
Another guy who hasn’t drawn much discussion is catcher Derek Berg. A 10th-round pick from West Point, he didn’t hit much in brief action late last year or in April this year. Over the last four weeks, he’s hit .255/.407/.489, as he’s started driving the ball more, and he’s obviously drawing a lot of walks. Overall, he’s hitting .220/.341/.376 in a league that hits .234/.337/.355. Berg is a good defensive catcher — he’s currently in a C/1B rotation with Plaz — and he’s throwing out 43% of base stealers. If he can keep moving forward with his offense, he could turn into a Jacob Stallings-type prospect. He’s going to need, though, to cut his 37% K rate by a lot.
One guy not making progress is Jhonny Severino. Acquired from Milwaukee for Carlos Santana, Severino looked like a good prospect heading into this season, but things haven’t gone well at all. He had a miserable month of May in which he hit .145/.195/.309, and then he started June going 0-for-4 with three whiffs. Overall, he sits at .186/.225/.337, with a 31% K rate.
Severino can be maddening to watch because he doesn’t seem to adjust to pitches even when he sees the same thing over and over, a problem that’s been common to hitters at Bradenton in recent years. One illustration is his at-bat in the bottom of the ninth on June 1. With the score tied, the bases loaded and one out, he got to a 3-2 count, then fouled off five straight pitches in on his fists, all to the third base side. Even seeing the same pitch that many times, he couldn’t seem to adjust to put it in play. In the end, he fanned on a slider over the middle.
A final Marauders note: Wyatt Sanford’s promotion provided some good news. He wasn’t tearing up the Florida Complex League, batting .256 with three extra base hits (one of each) in 79 plate appearances. A boatload of walks and hit batsmen (he doesn’t crowd the plate, so I have no idea what’s up with that) boosted his OBP to .487. Sanford has 13 steals in 14 tries and could be the best defensive infielder in the system.
It’s possible the Pirates were influenced by what seems, to my untrained eye, to be a very high baseball IQ. There’s the strike zone judgment and the steals. Sanford is also a very good and aggressive baserunner, apart from the steals, with good judgment about taking extra bases when possible. And his actions in the field are extremely efficient. He’s also very vocal on the field and appears to take a leadership role. Maybe this is just baloney, but it’s possible a guy like that will be better able to manage a challenging assignment than a guy who has to worry about all that other stuff in addition to picking up high-spin sliders.
The team Sanford just left, the FCL Bucs, has an abundance of outfielders. (Infielders are another matter; they added IF Michell Ojeda from the DSL to replace Sanford.) One of the Pirates’ persistent problems under Ben Cherington has been getting offense out of the outfield. The problem starts in the FCL. In particular, every year the Pirates pay out moderate to large bonuses to one or (usually) more outfielders from Latin America, but none of them ever seems to hit. So, apart from Edward Florentino, will any of this year’s outfielders hit?
Florentino, happily, is doing fine. He’s hitting .273/.385/.509 with three home runs. The K rate, currently 26%, could be better, but it’s not alarming. Florentino is mostly playing center and seems capable there. I had the idea he’d be more of a 1B type, but that wasn’t correct. He runs reasonably well.
Of the other outfielders, the one getting the most playing time, slightly more than Florentino even, is Estuar Suero. The Pirates got him in a five-player trade (involving Rich Hill) from the Padres, and scouts have been high on him due to perceived projection, but it hasn’t happened. Suero is currently hitting .172/.275/.241 with a 46% K rate. It’s difficult to watch him hit because he’s just not picking up much of anything.
Cristian Jauregui is doing the best of the outfielders not named Florentino. He’s a speedy guy who can play center. Currently, he’s hitting .257/.409/.314. Obviously, he’s not driving the ball.
Eduardo Oviedo is also showing some signs of progress, although he’s only played in five games. He’s one of those toolsy outfielders who got a fairly large bonus, in his case in 2022. He had a good season in the DSL in 2023, then had a terrible time in the FCL last year, striking out in over half his plate appearances. This year, he’s started 5-for-17 (.294) and, importantly, has fanned only three times.
A rare signee from Haiti, Carl Calixte didn’t play at all after signing last year, then skipped the DSL to join the FCL Bucs. That’s probably a pretty challenging assignment, and he’s batting .160 and striking out in half his plate appearances. He does show some gap power when he makes contact, and he runs well.
Finally, there’s Ian Farrow, a 14th-round pick out of college who’s been playing regularly since being activated recently. He’s batting .208/.387/.375 in eight games, and hit his first pro home run on June 2.
To end on a positive note, to me, the most disappointing season-opening assignment in the system was catcher Richard Ramirez returning to the FCL, where he had a strong season last year. The assignment looked prescient when he started the season 2-for-24 with ten whiffs. Since then, he’s gone 15-for-39 (.385) with five doubles and a home run. On the season, he’s now at .270/.360/.413. Ramirez is another guy who could be a candidate for promotion, especially if Plaz moves up to Greensboro.
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I maybe should have edited this (it was done before the Marauders game last night) to add something about Sanford's home run (just for fun) and to note that Sanford played second and Griffin short. With YDLS also there, I don't know what the plan is, but it's one of those good problems. Griffin is likely to go to Greensboro, maybe YDLS too, while Sanford is still at Bradenton. If there are periods where they have a logjam, it's just something to figure out. I'm happy to see these guys getting challenged by facing progressively better competition.
I absolutely don't agree, though, with the notion that Griffin inevitably needs to move to CF. If that ultimately works the best for the Pirates, fine, but I haven't seen a single solitary thing to make me think he can't be an above avg SS going forward.
Was going to mention this because it’s kinda funny. Kendrick Herrera will probably get about all the time at SS now with Sanford promoted. Yesterday there was a routine grounder to SS. Herrera fielded it, took several hops toward first, stopped, didn’t throw, then took several more before throwing. Looked bizarre unless you noticed the batter was dogging it down the line. Herrera was making him run.
Rookie ball can be a hoot.