Boston Red Sox brothers facing off in minors

A sibling rivalry in the Boston Red Sox’s farm system and a hot-hitting White Sox shortstop headline today’s minor league notes.

Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ rise to the top of the world has all the hallmarks of a great baseball story. He showed promise at a young age, becoming a top-5 prospect at 21-years old. He had an instant impact upon reaching the majors by starting all six games of the 2013 World Series, even though his debut was that August. He also has overcome early growing pains such as the season-long slump of 2014.

Now, Bogaerts is one of the best shortstops in all of baseball and is working on a 25-game hitting streak. But an interesting footnote in his story is that he has a twin brother, Jair, who was also signed by the Red Sox. Jair never made it out of the Dominican Summer League, but that detail adds depth to Xander’s narrative. It also gives us a point of reference to look at another pair of twins in the Red Sox’s farm system.

Meet Luis Alejandro Basabe and Luis Alexander Basabe. (If the names don’t make it difficult enough to distinguish between the two, then their pictures should do the trick.) They’re currently playing for the Greenville Drive, the Red Sox’s Class A affiliate. They were signed out of Venezuela in August of 2012 by a Red Sox scout named…Jair Bogaerts.

Like most twins, they share a lot of similarities—both are switch hitters, for example—but they also have some key differences. Luis Alexander, an outfielder, is the more highly regarded of the two as the Red Sox’s No. 8 prospect according to MLB.com. He is listed as being two inches taller than his brother and hits for more power, finishing third in the New York-Penn League last season with seven home runs.

Luis Alejandro, a second baseman, is more of an on-base threat with a career .373 on-base percentage entering play Wednesday, but he isn’t ranked by either MLB.com or Baseball Prospectus.

So far in 2016, Luis Alejandro has been the more productive hitter. He’s slashing .289/.389/.437 with three home runs entering Wednesday after hitting .260/.387/.310 with zero home runs last season. He’s also cut his strikeout rate from 26.6 percent of plate appearances to 18.3 percent.

Luis Alexander, on the other hand, has struggled this season. Even though he has five home runs, he is slashing just .201/.270/.396 and his K rate (from 26.2% in 2015 to 31.2% in 2016) and walk rate (12.5% to 8.3%) have gone in the wrong direction since last season.

Considering they’re just 19 years old, it would be silly to make a prediction about which brother is more likely to be a successful major leaguer. We’ll let baseball decide as we hurtle into another week of minor league notes.

Next: Triple-A