February 18, 2019 at 5:30 PM
Fort Report: Full-squad workouts begin
The Fort Report will run every Monday and Thursday through the end of spring training, at which point we will transition back to our Minor Notes columns. Here are Monday's notes from Fort Myers:
- Today marks the first full-squad workout this season for the Red Sox. Pitchers and catchers reported on the 13th, and the first game will take place this Friday at 1:05pm against the Northeastern Huskies.
- It's hard to contain the excitement of the SoxProspects.com podcast team with Ian and Chris recording another episode on Friday taking questions from readers via email and Twitter. Some topics covered were the timeline for Michael Chavis’ debut, Ian talks about the ultimate role of Mike Shawaryn, they discuss the Trey Ball hitting project, and note that Jay Groome is throwing again.
- During the pod, they also discuss some of the recent prospect rankings. One of which was ESPN's Keith Law where he did not rank any Red Sox prospects in his top 100 and also did not mention one in his Impact 20 for 2019. However, one did make his list of players who just missed the top 100, and that was lefty Darwinzon Hernandez (pictured, above) where Law touts the improvement of his stuff but worries about his below average command. Finally, he ranked the 30 teams farm systems and put the Red Sox at 24 for the second year in a row where the positives are the 2018-19 class of draft, and international signings but the negatives are the graduations and injuries to the top prospects in the system.
- They also discussed the FanGraphs 2019 Prospect Rankings. Similar to Law, they did not list any Red Sox prospects on their list of 132 players. Both lists, however, did have several former Red Sox prospects righty Michael Kopech and lefty Logan Allen, and FanGraphs added right-hander Anderson Espinoza.
- FanGraphs also released their Red Sox Top 26 prospects list. Both the SoxProspects.com and FanGraphs list Antonio Flores very aggressively at 8th and 4th respectively. The 18-year-old was signed during 2017 international signing period for $1.4 million out of Venezuela and spent last season in the DSL where he hit .347/.439/.510 over 49 at-bats. He did also add one game in the GCL before participating in the Fall Instructional League.
- The MLB Pipeline Red Sox top 30 was not discussed in the podcast, but that is because it just dropped today, with Michael Chavis topping the list just as he does on the SoxProspects.com rankings. They were also the only ones to rank outfielder Jarren Duran (pictured, left) in their top 10. The Red Sox took the 22-year-old in the 7th round of the 2018 MLB draft, and he has raked in his first professional season, hitting .357/.394/.516 over 283 at-bats split between Greenville and Lowell. He also made an in-season transition from second base to center field where his plus speed should play up.
- MassLive's Christopher Smith labels Denyi Reyes, ranked 24th on the SoxProspects.com rankings, as the most interesting young pitcher in camp. Reyes had a very strong 2018 where he went 12-5 with a 1.97 ERA and 0.91 WHIP with 145 strikeouts and only 19 walks over 155 innings split between Salem and Greenville. His addition to the 40 man roster adds to the narrative for the 22-year-old, but Smith notes that Red Sox GM Dave Dombrowski has said he does not anticipate Reyes pitching in the majors in 2019.
- Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic writes about what she learned in the first week of the pre-season. One of the minor league related items is that she notes the Red Sox are looking for the next Ryan Brasier who was a non-roster invitee to last year's spring training. Some candidates include Erasmo RamÃrez, Ryan Weber, Zach Putnam, Jenrry Mejia, Carson Smith, and Domingo Tapia. McCaffrey also mentions the interesting left-handers added to the 40-man roster this offseason - Darwinzon Hernandez, Josh Taylor, and righty Travis Lakins - and notes that all could have major league impact at some point this season.
Photo Credit: Darwinzon Hernandez & Jarren Duran by Kelly O'Connor.
Will Woodward is a Co-Owner and Senior Staff Writer for SoxProspects.com. Follow him on Twitter @SPWill.