Ethan Salas is one of baseball’s top prospects. Currently playing for the Arizona Fall League’s Peoria Javelinas, the left-handed-hitting catcher is not only No. 7 on The Board, he won’t turn 19 until next summer. Signed as an international free agent out of Venezuela by the San Diego Padres in January 2023, Salas is both precociously talented and mature beyond his years.

He is also still figuring things out. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound backstop was refreshingly candid on that front when I spoke to him on my recent visit to the AFL. More advanced defensively than he is with the bat — a scouting assessment he agrees with — Salas readily admits that there areas in which he needs to improve.

“I would say more consistency on game management stuff would be the biggest one right now,” said Salas, who has caught only 870 professional innings. “Calling pitches, situations in the game, seeing things before they happen, how to prevent big innings. I need to be more efficient in those areas.”

Salas’s physical attributes are undeniably plus, which brings us to an interesting aspect of how he operates behind the dish. It came to the fore when I asked if he is one-knee-down or more traditional in his setup. Read the rest of this entry »

Tre’ Morgan is one of the most promising prospects in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Drafted 88th overall last year out of LSU, the 22-year-old left-handed-hitting first baseman slashed .324/.408/.483 with 10 home runs and a 158 wRC+ in 437 plate appearances between three levels this season. Moreover, he’s only upped his profile by continuing to rake in the Arizona Fall League. As our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen wrote on Tuesday, Morgan “is making a case to be elevated into the back of this offseason’s Top 100 list.”

Morgan — a New Orleans native with a well-deserved reputation for being both personable and thoughtful about his craft — talked hitting prior to taking the field for the AFL’s Mesa Solar Sox earlier this month.

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David Laurila: Who are you as a hitter? In other words, how would you describe your style and approach?

Tre’ Morgan: “As a a hitter, I’m definitely contact over power. Swinging and missing is something that just shouldn’t happen too often. That’s how I was taught to hit, by my dad really. If I run into one, it sometimes goes pretty far, but I kind of stick to gap-to-gap, trying to play with the barrel.”

Laurila: What is your father’s background?

Morgan: “He played football, mostly — he played college football and had a couple of tryouts for the NFL — but he taught me everything I know about baseball. He said that he was better than me [at baseball] when I was growing up.”

Laurila: You said that the ball sometimes goes far when you run into one. What have you had in terms of exit velocities and distances? Read the rest of this entry »

Andrés Muñoz has been one of baseball’s best relievers over the past three seasons. During that span, the Seattle Mariners right-hander has a 2.49 ERA, a 2.68 FIP, and a 34.7% strikeout rate over 176 games, comprising 173 1/3 innings. Acquired from the San Diego Padres as part of a seven-player trade in August 2020, Muñoz missed the entirety of that year and all but the final game of the 2021 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. He posted a 2.12 ERA and 22 saves in the just-completed campaign, both career bests.

Muñoz’s M.O. on the mound is power. Per Statcast, his four-seamer averaged 98.4 mph this season, while his two-seamer averaged 97.5 mph and his slider 87.6 mph. The velocity — but not his overall effectiveness — was actually down from the previous two years. In 2023, Muñoz’s four-seamer averaged 99.2 mph, and in 2022 it averaged 100.2 mph. His slider is his most-thrown pitch, and its speed has also ticked down a tad, although not to his detriment. With a caveat that his slider wasn’t always sharp this season, it elicited a .138 BAA, a .191 wOBA, and a 48.5% whiff rate.

The 25-year-old native of Los Mochis, Mexico sat down to talk about his repertoire and approach at Fenway Park earlier this year.

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David Laurila: The last time we talked, you told me that you’re a bit of pitching nerd. To what extent?

Andrés Muñoz: “Yes. We have all this information, but I don’t want to put it all in my head. I try to make it simple. At the same time, I want to know where to attack the hitters. Where are their weaknesses? I use that. Like everybody, I like to have the information, but by the time I am on the mound, I’m not thinking about all the information. I’m thinking more about, ‘OK, where am I supposed to throw the pitch?’ I feel like that is the best thing for me, to have a plan for every hitter.”

Laurila: What about your pitch profiles and how you can optimize them? I assume you pay attention to that when you’re not on a game mound. Read the rest of this entry »

Boyhood allegiances typically go away after a player is drafted and signs with a team other than the one he (or she) grew up following. Drew Gilbert isn’t necessarily an exception to that rule, but the 24-year-old St. Paul native does retain a soft spot for the Minnesota Twins.

“I think that happens a little more so as you get older, not necessarily exactly when you sign,” said Gilbert, whom the Houston Astros drafted 24th overall in 2022 out of the University of Tennessee. “You move around a lot. I went from Minnesota to Tennessee, and then once you get drafted you go around the country with different affiliates. I don’t want to say you lose the fandom, but it naturally goes away a little bit. That being said, when [the Twins] were in the playoffs last year it was still super fun to watch. Of course, any time you get playoff baseball, no matter who you’re rooting for, it’s a cool thing to watch.”

The 2023 Twins aren’t the only team he’s had reason to root for in the postseason. The Astros won the World Series in his 2022 draft year, and his new organization’s parent club has a chance to do so this year. The New York Mets acquired Gilbert as part of last summer’s Justin Verlander trade deadline deal. Read the rest of this entry »

The St. Louis Cardinals got more than just the 2023 Texas League MVP when they acquired Thomas Saggese from the Rangers as part of the five-player Jordan Montgomery deal at last year’s trade deadline. They also got a young hitter who is attuned to the mechanics of his craft. For Saggese — Texas’ fifth round pick in the 2020 draft out of Carlsbad High School in California — getting on plane with a pitch and driving it is the goal. The manner in which he positions his body in space is what allows him to do that.

A middle infielder listed at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, Saggese doesn’t look the part of a player who went deep 26 times in 2023 and another 21 times this past season. But regardless of his appearance, the pop is there, as is what our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen has described as a “feel to hit [that] has been the lynchpin of his prospectdom since high school.” Moreover, Saggese has youth on his side. While his slash line with Triple-A Memphis was a humble .253/.313/.438, those numbers came at age 22 (he won’t turn 23 until April). The Cardinals clearly recognize his upside. Saggese got a big league call-up in September and logged 10 hits, including his first big league home run, in 52 trips to the plate.

Saggese — currently suiting up with the Glendale Desert Dogs — talked hitting following an Arizona Fall League game earlier this week.

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David Laurila: How do you feel that you profile as a hitter? Looking at your numbers, I see more home runs than I might have expected.

Thomas Saggese: “I think my best swings just happen to be balls in the air. I feel like I get the ball in the air pretty well and can hit some homers. I don’t think it’s going to be anything crazy, but I would like to hit 20 a year — .300 with 20 homers every year. That’s kind of my goal.” Read the rest of this entry »

Cleveland’s baseball club was known as the Blues when the American League was formed in 1901, but that’s far from what Guardians fans were singing following Thursday’s ALCS Game 3. Two days before A Tribe Called Quest and other musical luminaries are to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Progressive Field erupted in rapture as David Fry circled the bases in the bottom of the 10th inning to cap a stunning comeback and give the Guardians a 7-5 win.

More on that in a moment.

The first inning featured missed opportunities — both teams stranded a pair of runners — as well as a pitch clock violation on a chagrinned Juan Soto and a sliding catch by Guardians center fielder Lane Thomas. That those happenings barely qualify as footnotes says a lot about what would eventually transpire. Ditto a second inning that saw Alex Verdugo chop a ball over first baseman Josh Naylor’s head and leg out a sliding double on a play where second base umpire Jansen Visconti ruled that Brayan Rocchio had a foot blocking the bag (that was debatable). Anthony Volpe advanced to third on the hit, then scored on a Jose Trevino groundball single that made it 1-0 Yankees. Guardians starter Matthew Boyd proceeded to pick off Trevino, which helped to limit the damage. Read the rest of this entry »

Cole Young is one of the shining stars of Seattle’s system. Slotted in at no. 2 with a 50 FV grade when our Mariners Top Prospects list was published in mid-summer, the 21-year-old middle infielder is coming off a second full professional season during which he slashed .271/.369/.390 with nine home runs and a 119 wRC+ over 552 plate appearances with Double-A Arkansas. Displaying above-average contact skills — a selling point when he was drafted 21st overall out of Wexford, Pennsylvania’s North Allegheny High School in 2022 — he had a 15.8% strikeout rate to go with a 12.1% walk rate.

The extent to which he will hit for power as he continues to mature was on my mind when I spoke to him prior to an Arizona Fall League game this past weekend (Young has since been removed from the Peoria Javelinas roster; per a source, he was dealing with wrist discomfort, an issue dating back to the regular season). Back in July, Eric Longenhagen wrote that Young has “added considerable bulk to his frame” since entering pro ball, and noted that “changes he’s made to his swing have resulted in him trading some contact for power.”

Asked about our lead prospect analyst’s observations, Young said that he now weighs 200 pounds, up from 190 a year ago, and is “a lot stronger after going to lifting camp” over the offseason. He sees his ideal weight in the 195-200 pound range, allowing him to “still be athletic, but also be able to hit the ball hard.” Read the rest of this entry »

Zyhir Hope is one of the youngest and least experienced players participating in the Arizona Fall League. Acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the January deal that sent Michael Busch to the Chicago Cubs, the 19-year-old outfielder has just 315 professional plate appearances, in part because he missed three months this season with a shoulder injury. The raw tools are impressive. Since being selected in the 11th round of last year’s draft out of Stafford, Virginia’s Colonial Forge High School, Hope has slashed .289/.419/.492 with a dozen home runs and a 143 wRC+.

How he would define himself as a hitter is a question he wasn’t quite sure how to answer when I posed it to him on Wednesday.

“I try my best,” responded Hope, who is suiting up for the Glendale Desert Dogs. “I have amazing coaches and a lot of resources to kind of help me find myself, find my swing. I’m working every day, trying to stay consistent, trusting the process.”

Asked if his setup and swing are essentially the same as when he signed, he said that they are. As for how much he studies the intricacies of his craft, let’s just say that Hope is a believer — at least to this point of his young career — in keeping things as simple as possible.

“I don’t really think about that stuff, about mechanics,” explained Hope, who takes his cuts from the left side. “I just go out there and swing, to be honest. I love to just go out there and swing. It’s just feels, man. Just feels. I’ve been that way my whole life. See ball, hit ball.” Read the rest of this entry »

Colson Montgomery learned a lot about himself as a hitter this season. The result of that introspection? He’s going back to the approach that not only helped make him the top prospect in the Chicago White Sox system, but also has him ranked 17th overall on The Board. Striving for more pull-side power, the left-handed-hitting shortstop slashed a disappointing .214/.329/.381 with Triple-A Charlotte. And while the 22-year-old did hit a career-best 18 home runs, he also fanned 164 times while logging a 28.6% strikeout rate. With the caveat that the 2021 first round pick was one of the youngest players in the International League, Montgomery clearly underperformed expectations with the bat. A readjustment was in order.

Montgomery, who is currently doing some fine-tuning with the Arizona Fall League’s Glendale Desert Dogs, discussed his learning-curve season earlier this week.

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David Laurila: What has the development process been for you in terms of your mechanics and approach?

Colson Montgomery: “Earlier in your career, it’s kind of an experiment of who you are as a hitter. You don’t really know yet, because you probably haven’t faced adversity or failure. Also, when you’re a lot younger, you aren’t facing the best arms. The sooner you can go against the best of the best arms is when you can learn a lot about yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

After the Detroit Tigers beat the Houston Astros in the opener of their Wild Card series, I wrote that while Tarik Skubal wasn’t perfect, he was very good, and that was enough to lead his team to a 3-1 win. The same was true in Game 2 of the ALDS, although this time he wasn’t the biggest story. On an afternoon where the ace left-hander hurled seven scoreless innings, Kerry Carpenter came off the bench and hit the biggest home run of his life against a lights-out closer. When the dust had settled, the Tigers had evened their series against the Cleveland Guardians at one game apiece with a 3-0 win.

The matchup between Skubal and Matthew Boyd offered both a contrast in styles and, at least on paper, a mismatch. After undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, the 33-year-old Boyd wasn’t offered a major league contract during the offseason, and he remained unsigned until June, when he signed a one-year deal with Cleveland for an undisclosed salary. He appeared in only eight big league games during the regular season. As it turned out, Boyd ended up matching this season’s likely American League Cy Young winner pitch-for-pitch for four-plus innings before the Guardians turned to what has been baseball’s best bullpen this season.

The early frames accentuated the contrast in styles. Through three innings, Boyd relied heavily on soft stuff, throwing more changeups than fastballs, while Skubal relied primarily on high-90s heaters, mostly leaving his own plus changeup in his back pocket. Hitters on both sides were left floundering. By the time the Guardians batted in the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers had the game’s only four hits, and one of them was of the infield-dribbler variety. Read the rest of this entry »