Minor League Baseball League Top 10 Prospects: International League

8. Chance Sisco, C, Baltimore Orioles

While I’ll admit that I’ve never been as big a fan of his work behind the plate, it’s simply hard to deny that Sisco may be in the right organization to be a bat-first catching prospect, as the Orioles seem to be much less focused on many of the defensive catching metrics than other teams in the league.

Sisco was originally drafted out of high school by the Orioles in the 2nd round in 2013. He has a sweet left-handed stroke that really has the look of an approach that could pound gaps and keep an excellent batting average as he fills out, and see him add legit home run power as he matures.

After reaching AAA in 2016, Sisco spent the entire season with Norfolk in 2017, but he seemingly took some steps back, if you just look at the stat sheet. The 22 year-old hit .267/.340/.395 with 23 doubles, 7 home runs, and 2 stolen bases, with a 32/99 BB/K ratio over 344 plate appearances. Much of that line from the surface would seem concerning, but the one thing I did note that was concerning was the swing and miss in his game that really had not been there before, particularly against premium velocity fastballs or hard breaking stuff. He handled even very good slow curves and slower sliders very well, but it just seemed as if he struggled to stay on harder stuff.

Current Orioles starter Wellington Castillo has a $7M player option for next year, but after a season where he’s put up one of the best offensive lines of any catcher in the league and is heading into a very weak free agent class, Castillo may gamble that he could get more than that $7M on the open market. If he does, Sisco could end up taking the majority of the catching time in Baltimore in 2018.

7. Reynaldo Lopez, SP, Chicago White Sox

Lopez had truly moved beyond teammate (and fellow trade partner) Giolito in the eyes of many scouts in 2016. In 2017, they flip-flopped, but just barely. Lopez was signed in 2012 with a fastball that worked in the upper 80s and really learning to pitch, but he very quickly developed not just velocity, but tremendous strides in his curveball, which at times is his most effective pitch.

Part of the trade for Adam Eaton over the offseason, Lopez’s velocity seemed to tick down a hair with Charlotte this season, but it did seem to be perhaps an organizational development thing as he would dial up his velocity late in games when he wanted, so it’s very feasible that the White Sox system worked with Lopez to be able to keep his top velocity deeper into games.

Lopez really has tremendous ability to repeat his delivery, and while the reduced velocity seemed to lead to a few more balls leaving the park with Charlotte this year than he’d seen before in his career, but that could be part of that approach as well, and working into it further will allow him to sequence better to avoid the home runs.

With Charlotte, he had a 3.79 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, and a 49/131 BB/K ratio over 121 innings. Lopez also has made 6 starts in the major leagues this season, showing much better than in 2016, though he’s struggled to get the strikeouts he did in the minors, with a 4.58 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, and a 12/23 BB/K over 35 1/3 innings.

Lopez is 23, but the growth he experienced in 2017 portends a future in the rotation with the White Sox, and he likely will open the 2018 season in that role.