September 8, 2020 at 3:00 PM
Minor Notes: Scouting report updates & 2015 draft retrospective
Here are Tuesday's minor league notes:
- The 2015 draft was largely a disappointment, highlighted a player who has been a disappointment for the Red Sox thus far in 2020 - outfielder Andrew Benintendi (pictured, right). He was selected seventh overall in this draft class and in Part 1 of the series, SoxProspects.com senior staff writer Jim Crowell takes you through all of the 39 draft selections.
- In Part 2, Crowell lays out some themes and takeaways from the 2015 draft, the last of Ben Cherington's tenure as Red Sox GM. Some themes were focused around repercussions from the picks that were surrendered when signing free agents - that the Red Sox had a small margin for error and that they tried to take some "safe" picks that did not pan out.
- The Red Sox acquired several players around the trading deadline, and that required some work from the SoxProspects.com scouting staff. Up first was the scouting report for outfielder Jeisson Rosario who was acquired in the package for first baseman Mitch Moreland. Rosario may project as a bench outfielder currently, but with his extreme athleticism, there is upside potential far beyond that.
- Next up for a scouting report was the second player received for Moreland, infielder Hudson Potts. He last played in a game in Double-A and the scouting report projects him currently as a power-first bench bat.
- With all that action, we had to get the SoxProspects.com Podcast crew together for a new episode. In Episode #190 they cover all the deadline trades, potential Rule 5 considerations, new rankings, and promotions.
- The Boston Globe would not be left out in profiling the new Red Sox acquisitions and Deyscha Smith breaks down all the new players with quotes from Red Sox GM Chaim Bloom.
- Aside from trades, the Red Sox also added one player after a showcase last month at the University of Hartford. UMass Dartmouth's Nate Tellier caught the attention of Red Sox amateur crosschecker Ray Fagnant by throwing 98 mph and a day later he had a three-year deal. The Boston Globe's Matthew Doherty has the details of the whirlwind signing.
- The Red Sox announced on Thursday that they had claimed catcher Deivy Grullon off of waivers from the Phillies. Grullon got a cup of coffee in 2019 with the Phillies, going 1-for-9 with a double. Over the rest of the year, he had a .851 OPS and 21 home runs and 24 doubles at Triple-A over 108 games. He was ranked 24th in the system by MLB.com and ranked 20th by Baseball America optioned to the Alternate Training Site.
- Recent call-up Bobby Dalbec (pictured, left) went back to school to learn about his swing with Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers as Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe writes. While Dalbec, currently ranked sixth on the SoxProspects.com rankings, has only had five hits in his 26 at-bats thus far, three have gone for home runs.
- The pandemic has made things difficult for most of us and robbed us of some memorable moments that we won't ever get to experience. One of those was the last games at McCoy Stadium, the longtime home of the Pawtucket Red Sox. Brendan McGair for the Pawtucket Times posts the article that would have been written if times were different. The Red Sox Triple-A affiliate is scheduled to move to Worcester next season.
- As ESPN's Kiley McDaniel first reported, the Red Sox have notified nine baseball ops staff members that their contracts would not be renewed. There were four in pro scouting, three in player development, and two in amateur scouting. McDaniels also notes that this seems to be part of regular turnover with a new GM who wants to bring in his own people after existing contracts expire.
- T.J. Quinn, an investigative reporter for ESPN, along with some of his colleagues put out a deep dive into the state of the minor leagues and what may happen to him moving forward. The article makes it sound all but certain that the affiliated teams will be reduced from 160 to 120. A new twist to that decision making is that Quinn says that MLB will propose to convert the teams losing their affiliation into wooden bat leagues for college players and independent professionals.
Will Woodward is a Co-Owner and Senior Staff Writer for SoxProspects.com. Follow him on Twitter @SPWill.