Minor Notes: Tyler Dearden and Raynel Espinal win players of the week

Here are this week's minor league notes:

• Unfortunately, the full Minor Notes did not run this week, but if you were keeping up with the SoxProspects.com Twitter account, you have been kept pretty up to date. Apologies for that but we will be back next week with the normal edition of Minor Notes next Tuesday.

• However, we did not want to leave you without this week's Pitcher and Hitter of the Week.

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Players of the Week 5/17-5/23

Raynel Espinal, RHP, Worcester Red Sox 

1 G, 1-0, 5 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 4 BB, 6 K 

Acquired in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft in December of 2019 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Espinal was basically new to the system after a lost 2020 minor league system. After winning the SoxProspects.com Pitcher of the Week honors in just his third active week in the system. On Saturday, the 6-foot-3 righty had his best start of the season, throwing 5 innings of one-run ball on just two hits with a walk with nine strikeouts, picking up the win along the way against Buffalo. The start lowered his season ERA to 4.71 and WHIP to 1.24 while improving his K/9 to an even 9.0. 

Tyler Dearden, OF, Greenville Drive

5 G, 20 AB, 9 H, 3 HR, 3 2B, 7 R, 9 RBI, 3 BB, 7 K, .450/.522/1.050

It wasn't solely a three true outcomes (home run, walk, strikeout) week, but it was close. In his 20 at-bats this week, 13 of them ended with one of those results. After being selected in the 29th round of the draft in 2017, power was not a huge part of his game and didn't necessarily project to be with an athletic but skinny frame. Now at 23, he started off the season with five doubles and five home runs to go along with a .313/4.68/.729 slash line. However, after striking out in over 34% of his plate appearances in 2019 for Greenville, he has continued to show a lot of swing and miss, with a 34% rate again in 2021. Red Sox fans can hope that his high walk total (already almost more than his 2019 total) and newly displayed power can continue to raise his stock. As we wait and see, the 22-year-old can add his Hitter of the Week honors to his trophy case along with his 2018 New York-Penn League All-Star honors.

Photo Credit: Raynel Espinal by Kelly O'Connor

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