More Prospect Promotions!
Earlier this week I shared some quick-hitting thoughts on a few recent prospect promotions. That was fun, I thought. Maybe I’ll do it again when some more prospects get promoted in a few weeks.
A few days later here we are. Let’s dive in.
Jarren Duran, OF, Red Sox — Over the offseason I wrote about what I learned from “Jarren Duran Mania.” The full story is in the linked article, but as a Red Sox fan I developed an attachment to the then-burgeoning prospect. He later threw me a ball at Fenway, so I’ll always be a fan of him personally.
Fantasy-wise, I still have some concerns. I’m trying to not over-correct from where I was at a year ago, but Duran was absolutely exposed in his first taste of the big leagues last summer. He hit .215/.231/.336 with a 35.7 K% and a 3.6 BB%. He was simply overmatched.
Duran once again re-worked his swing entering 2022, readjusting his hand position to be able to cover more of the strike zone, in addition to reducing his leg kick.
The reason for the changes was due to big league pitchers murdering him with fastballs high in the zone:
The adjustments didn’t slow down his Triple-A production this spring as the 25-year-old was hitting .397/.478/.638 before his promotion. He then served as Boston’s leadoff hitter on Friday night and was once again challenged with high heaters.
I think he has a real opportunity to win an everyday job over these next two weeks, but it’s going to be a “sink or swim” situation versus the fastballs.
Juan Yepez, 1B/OF, STL — Younger, high-end prospects like CJ Abrams and Jarred Kelenic have struggled in the majors in recent years, but we might have reason to believe that more-developed hitters will better handle the transition. Jose Miranda fit the description earlier this week and I think Yepez could fall right in line.
The 24-year-old was probably ready to join the Cardinals coming out of spring training, but St. Louis was committed to a Corey Dickerson/Albert Pujols platoon at DH this April. So Yepez kept dominating at Triple-A and was called up when the Cards needed an offensive jolt.
Since the promotion he has hit 5th in all three games the Cardinals have played entering Saturday. It’s a promising sign, and his recent track record makes him a player to monitor moving forward.
Royce Lewis, SS, Twins — Friday was a whirlwind day for Lewis’ fantasy value in redraft leagues. Early in the morning it was believed that Carlos Correa would, at minimum, require an IL stint for a non-displaced fracture of his finger. We later learned that not only did Correa avoid a fracture, but he wouldn’t even necessarily need an IL stint!
Nonetheless, Minnesota still promoted Lewis, who went 1-for-4 with a single on Friday night. The No. 1 pick from the 2017 draft, Lewis played well in 2018 but disappointed the following season. He then missed two consecutive years of action due to the pandemic and a torn ACL.
Promisingly, his plus-plus speed returned to begin 2022. Lewis hit .310/.430/.563 with 3 homers and 8 steals in 24 games at Triple-A before Friday’s call-up. It remains to be seen how long he sticks with the Twins now that Correa isn’t seriously hurt. Without much game action the past two seasons it wouldn’t be surprising if Minnesota chose to option him back to the minors.
If for some reason Lewis remains in the majors he has the pure talent to become the best of these past two waves of prospect call-ups. We’ll see how the Twins play it.