Yordany De Los Santos: slowed flashes, areas of opportunity in Bradenton 2023

Will aggressive push help development for high upside infielder?

Photo Credit: WTM

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been aggressive over the last couple of years in the International market, signing a few highly ranked prospects that have high upside.

One of them made the jump to the state this year, and we quickly got a flash of his immense upside.

You can barely tell by looking at him, but Yordany De Los Santos played the entire 2023 season at just 18-years-old, starting in the Florida Complex League before jumping up to Single-A Bradenton.

Buying too much into numbers into Dominican Summer League numbers can usually lead to disappointment, but a lot of the underlying metrics were screaming that De Los Santos had some legit upside.

His FanGraphs player write up does a great job going into details just why it was worth buying into the hype of a 17/18-year-old who hadn’t played stateside yet.

When putting together a description of what an ideal baseball player might look like, YDLS fits that mold perfectly. There’s plenty of projectable frame left for him to grow into, and he got a pretty good taste of the Single-A level he will likely begin 2023 at.