June 13, 2023 at 7:00 AM
Minor Notes: Bleis done for the year & Murphy makes MLB debut
It was a week of ups and downs with one of the system's top prospects making an impact at Double-A while another was bitten by the injury bug.
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Bleis done for the season
As first reported by Chris Henrique of the Boston Sports Journal, outfielder and second-ranked prospect in the SoxProspects.com rankings Miguel Bleis will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. The 19-year-old was placed on the Injured List last week after he injured the shoulder, which was believed to have occurred during a swing on May 30. Bleis was hitting .230/.282/.325 this season for Salem, where he will very likely start next season after recovering.
Chris Murphy (pictured, right) was called up on Tuesday by the Red Sox and made his major league debut on Wednesday. Murphy was called upon in the fifth inning and threw 3 and 1/3 shutout innings, allowing two hits and a walk while striking out five. Murphy was optioned back to Triple-A after the appearance, but it was a strong debut for the 25-year-old. Murphy pitched out of the bullpen in his appearance for Worcester right before being called up after starting in each of his first nine appearances of the season. As Director of Scouting Ian Cundall notes, Murphy's fastball was about two MPH faster out of the bullpen and his pitch mix was altered to be almost exclusively fastball/slider.
Mayer plays his first full week in Portland
Showing why he is one of the top prospects in baseball, Mayer made an impression during his first full week playing for the Sea Dogs. On Wednesday, the 20-year-old hit a 406-foot no-doubter of a home run and followed it up on Thursday by hitting another. It was not all roses in the first week as those two home runs accounted for two of just three hits on the week, but he is doing all of this while being extremely young for Double-A. Conor Ryan of The Boston Globe has more about Mayer's first full week in Double-A.
Key Links
Hard at work, the SoxProspects.com podcast team released episode #283 this week where they wrapped up all the happenings in the month of May, or as they aptly named it, the month of May-er.
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With young players early in their development, the Dominican Summer League sometimes gets overshadowed by the more advanced leagues. However, The Boston Globe's Alex Speier believes there is one Red Sox DSL prospect who is generating a lot of excitement in 17-year-old Yoeilin Cespedes.
Speier also wrote this week about Roman Anthony, the Single-A outfielder drafted by the Red Sox in the 2nd round of the 2022 MLB draft. Anthony is currently ranked sixth in the SoxProspects.com rankings.
Players of the Week
5 G, 18 AB, 7 H, 1 2B, 2 HR, 4 R, 2 RBI, 1 SB, 3 BB, 4 K, .389/.500/.778
Meidroth (pictured, left) saw all three games at third base, and coming into Sunday he was hitting .467 on the week while reaching base in every game before going 0 for 3 to end the week. His best game of the week was his first, where he went 2 for 4 with two walks and a home run, leading the Sea Dogs to a 6-2 win. This week is another strong one from the 21-year-old who has hit over .300 in each month thus far this season. Starting the year with Greenville, he hit .338/.495/.460 over 20 games before being promoted to Portland. Despite being almost 3 years younger than the average positional player in the Eastern League, he has not looked overwhelmed, almost matching his performance at Greenville with a .309/.441/.469 line while walking as much as he has struck out. The strong start to the year has seen him fly up the SoxProspects.com rankings, rising from 30 to start the season to 23 now.
Hunter Dobbins, RHP, Greenville Drive
1 G, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K
Dobbins has looked like a different pitcher thus far in his second big league season. After being drafted in the eighth round in 2021 out of Texas Tech University, Dobbins struggled in 2022 in his first year as a pro, with a 5.22 ERA and 1.50 WHIP for Salem. Even with those rough numbers, he started 2023 with Greenville and has dominated -- 2.57 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, and 36 strikeouts to only four walks. This week was no different as he cruised to a win over the Brooklyn Cyclones, throwing seven shutout innings for the second time in three starts. Over those three starts, he has only given up 2 runs in 20 innings with a .375 OPS against.
Photo Credit: Chris Murphy and Chase Meidroth by Kelly O'Connor.
Will Woodward is a Co-Owner and Senior Staff Writer for SoxProspects.com. Follow him on Twitter @SPWill.