The Week In Bradenton: FCL Middle Infielders

Bradenton offense recovering from promotions

Michell Ojeda Photo Credit: WTM

Considering the hitters they’ve lost to promotion (Konnor Griffin, Will Taylor, Derek Berg) and injury (Axiel Plaz), it wouldn’t be surprising if Bradenton’s offense had cratered. It wasn’t that good to begin with, having spent much of the season last in the ten-team Florida State League in scoring. But they’ve hung on alright and currently rank 8th in scoring and 5th in OPS. (There are a handful of teams clustered in the middle pretty close to one another.)

Edward Florentino has certainly helped. In fact, he has a 1.019 OPS through 15 games, versus Griffin’s .932 through 50. He’s even half a year younger than Griffin, although he has more pro experience to draw on. It’s a worthwhile comparison just to get some perspective on how strong a showing Florentino is making, although, of course, he lacks Griffin’s speed and defensive potential.

Wyatt Sanford had a big first week and a lost second week, but overall, he’s been pretty effective. He has a .755 OPS (.245/.353/.402) in a league where the norm is .687 and where he’s a year and a half younger than the average hitter. He may be gearing it up, as in his last four games, he went 7-for-15 with two doubles and a triple.

One under-the-radar hitter who’s helped the Marauders is last year’s 14th-round draft pick, outfielder Ian Farrow. His status has been something of a puzzle because he didn’t appear in a game until May 15 of this year. There was no indication he was injured until that day, when an IL assignment was retroactively added to his milb.com page along with the activation from the IL. Anyway, in 20 games with Bradenton, Farrow’s batting .263/.364/.596 with five home runs. He also has four doubles and only six singles, along with lots of Ks, so he seems to be an all-or-nothing hitter so far. Apart from the very small sample size, he’ll be 23 in a couple of weeks, but it’s always good to see somebody showing some power.

Among the pitchers, Victor Cabreja had his longest start yet on the Fourth of July, going six innings and allowing just an unearned run and two hits. He didn’t strike out anybody. You have to have reservations about a pitcher, even a lefty, who throws in the upper 90s, doesn’t miss bats, and is 23 in low A. Still, it’s fun to see a guy go 7-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 1.11 WHIP.

Zander Mueth made two starts during the week and had good results, at least on the surface. He went 5.2 IP total and allowed just three hits and an unearned run. He did walk five, though, and threw only 57 strikes out of 102 total pitches, so that’s a concern.

Carlos Castillo has had an uneven season so far, but he had his second straight strong outing last week. He gave up two unearned runs over five innings, with four hits and a walk, and seven strikeouts. He’s allowed just one earned run, eight hits, and one walk in his last 11 innings.

Finally, Matt Ager had his fifth straight good outing. It came in relief in a game started by a rehabbing Johan Oviedo, but it was kind of like a start. He went 4.2 IP, allowing two hits, a run, and a walk, striking out three. In his last 19.2 IP, he’s allowed three earned runs on just nine hits and seven walks, although he’s not missing a lot of bats. So, with Clevari Tejada throwing four shutout innings in his start last week, and six more in relief of a couple rehabbers yesterday, the Marauders’ rotation is shaping up after being pretty makeshift most of the season.

The FCL Pirates, of course, have had to manage without Florentino and Sanford. They’ve made up some of the loss with their middle infield, which consists of Kendrick Herrera and Michell Ojeda. The two have alternated between short and second, although Herrera has gotten the bulk of the time at short.

Ojeda was only activated a month ago. He profiles as a left-handed hitting, offense-oriented second baseman. He got off to a 1-for-22 start, but has recovered well, showing some pull power. Since then, he’s gone 16-for-57 (.281) with a double, a triple, and three home runs. He’s slugging .491 in that time.

Herrera’s been in the FCL all year and has hit steadily, although without much power yet. He’s batting .252/.364/.313 in a league that hits .230/.346/.337, so his hitting is roughly average. On the plus side, he’s 18, one year below the average for hitters, and his BB:K numbers have been good at 23:34.

The FCL team has also gotten some signs of life from Estuar Suero. After a dismal first month, he got benched, probably for some developmental work. Since he returned, he’s hit his first three home runs since 2023. In his last six games, he’s gone 7-for-22 with the three longballs, two doubles, and a triple. In that time, he’s hitting .318/.400/.909. There’s no way to say yet whether he’s really turned things around, but I’m pretty sure he hasn’t had a stretch anything like this since the Pirates acquired him.

The FCL team has also added outfielders Bralyn Brazoban and Raymond Mola from the DSL. They’ve been stateside for less than a week, so we can check on them later, but Brazoban did have a double and a triple yesterday.

The pitching side in the FCL has been less rewarding. The team has heavily used Cesar Aquino and Yulian Quintana as mid-game relievers to provide innings, with the starters not providing many. Quintana has somehow managed a 1.88 ERA despite a WHIP of 1.58 and one more strikeout than walks.

The positive news on the pitching staff mostly remains lefty Reinold Navarro. He missed a couple of weeks in early June, but since then, he’s been shredding everybody. Of the last 30 batters he’s faced, he’s fanned 18 while allowing just one hit. On the season, he’s given up just six hits in 24.1 IP, with 44 strikeouts. If you’re wondering why he’s not with Bradenton, the reason, no doubt, is 16 walks and four hit batsmen. He hasn’t gone more than four innings in an outing yet. The ceiling, obviously, is quite significant.

---

Support the site by becoming a paid member, and get access to all of our premium content, including our Top 25 list with complete player write-ups and video breakdowns, which come out weekly.

It will also give access to my player feature articles from on-site trips.

Bucs On Deck is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.