Minor League Baseball League Top 10 Prospects: International League

With the minor league baseball season over, it’s list season, and we’ll start the league top 10 lists with the International League

Minor league baseball has concluded its regular season and playoffs at this point in the most part, so we will be starting our series of league top 10 prospects here at Call To The Pen. This series will be keyed by Benjamin Chase through extensive video research and discussion with scouts and those within the game. Certainly, there are other opinions on these players and the order, but this is his list. Each list will start with a review of the season for that league and some of the leaders in each league. One note: to be eligible to be on this list, a player must have qualified for the league stat leaders (2.7 PA/league G for hitters, 0.8 IP/league game for pitchers) in order to be considered.

Season Wrap

After having the best record in minor league baseball in 2016, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was the top team in the International League in the regular season, but as it should, the top two teams ended up meeting in the finals as the only other team with a .600+ winning percentage on the season, the Durham Bulls, were the matchup. The Bulls won the matchup three games to one to capture the league championship. –

Some of the league leaders:
AVG – Yandy Diaz, Columbus, .350
OBP – Yandy Diaz, Columbus, .454
SLG – Rhys Hoskins, Lehigh Valley, .581
HR – Bryce Brentz, Pawtucket, 31
SB – Roemon Fields, Buffalo, 43

W – Aaron Slegers, Rochester, 15
SV – Pedro Beato, Lehigh Valley, 33
K – Ryan Yarbrough, Durham, 159
ERA – Steven Brault, Indianapolis, 1.94
WHIP – Tom Eshelman, Lehigh Valley, 0.94

Now to the top 10…

10. Jake Bauers, 1B/OF, Tampa Bay Rays

Bauers made a lot of noise during spring training by really hitting well throughout spring training, even as the competition level rose as other players were sent to minor league camp. He’s a lefty-swinging hitter with a powerful swing, but he does have impressive athleticism for his strong build.

Originally drafted by the Padres in the 7th round of the 2013 draft by the San Diego Padres, the Rays acquired Bauers as part of the big trade of Wil Myers to the Padres. Coming into the season, he was the #70 overall prospect with Baseball America and #75 prospect with MLB Pipeline.

The 21 year-old spent the entire season with Durham this year, playing a roughly 60/40 split of corner outfield to first base. Overall, his slash line may not be one that blows away, but it was quite solid as he hit .263/.368/.412 with 31 doubles, a triple, 13 home runs, and 20 stolen bases. He also had a 78/112 BB/K ratio.

9. Chance Adams, SP, New York Yankees

Part of an impressive 2015 Dallas Baptist pitching staff in 2015, Adams was the Yankees’ 5th round selection that season. He’s seen his entire breadth of his stuff step up since that initial season. Originally with minimal starting experience in college, Adams has truly blossomed in the Yankees system.

Adams works with a power combination as his primary pitches, with a fastball that can run into the upper-90s with excellent late life and a hard slider with tremendous bite. His change up took a big step forward this season from a fringe average pitch to a feasible plus pitch as much progress as it’s made.

What is really most impressive with Adams is his modality on the mound. He truly has an old-school “bulldog” mentality on the mound, competing hard in every start, even when he has a day when his slider or change isn’t at its best.

Adams opened 2017 with 6 starts at AA Trenton, but he spent the majority of the season with AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The 22 year-old had an 11-5 record at the level, with a 2.89 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over 21 starts and 115 1/3 innings at AAA, with a 43/103 BB/K ratio. He could push for the New York rotation in 2018.

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.

6. Lucas Giolito, SP, Chicago White Sox

Originally drafted in the first round by the Washington Nationals in 2012 out of Harvard-Westlake High School in California, Giolito was known to need elbow surgery when he was drafted, and the Nationals brought him into their system knowing this. he developed into one of the elite prospects in the game going into the 2016 season before some odd handling by the Washington coaching staff led to Giolito losing velocity on his fastball and bite on his breaking stuff.

When the White Sox acquired him, I was very pleased to see what he could do with White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper working with him. Roughly the only coach that I’d more have wanted to see him with would have been Ray Searage in Pittsburgh.

As I figured would happen, Giolito started the season slow, working with a new system and getting used to it still. His velocity was picking back up, touching 97-98 multiple times over the games I viewed, and his curve had the break back that it had exhibited in the low-minors, with a hard, deep drop to the pitch.

With his 6’6″, 250+ pound frame, Giolito presents an intimidating presence on the mound. He is able to generate excellent sinking action on his fastball and change, and with the plane back on his curve, he is difficult to drive when he’s going well. Giolito’s performances picked up as the season went on in the minor leagues.

The 22 year-old finished with a 4.48 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP over 128 2/3 innings, with a 59/134 BB/K ratio. He’s really shown well at the major league level since being called up, with a 2.56 ERA and 0.95 WHIP over 5 starts and 31 2/3 innings, posting a 11/26 BB/K ratio.

Giolito will likely join Lopez in the White Sox rotation to open 2018.

5. Willy Adames, SS, Tampa Bay Rays

While Adames build has seemingly had scouts waiting for the moment he’d be forced off of shortstop since he was signed initially by the Detroit Tigers, but even as he’s filled out and significantly added in his lower half, he’s been able to stay in the field as a shortstop. He may not be an elite defender at the position, he’s certainly a starting caliber shortstop in the upper minors and has shown that he could stick at the position in the major leagues.

Adames was originally signed in 2012 by the Tigers out of the Dominican Republic and came to the Rays organization in the 2014 deal that sent David Price to the Detroit Tigers. He’s developed power while keeping an excellent eye at the plate, but he’s also seemed to stall for a couple of seasons now in his development in hitting skills.

Adames hit .277/.360/.415 with 30 doubles, 5 triples, 10 home runs, and 11 stolen bases with Durham this season in 130 games. He posted a 65/132 BB/K ratio, which is his lowest walk rate since his first full season in 2014. The strikeout rate also ticked up from his 2016 season, though it was nothing terrible at just under 23%.

Adames could make a legit challenge for a position in Tampa Bay in 2018, and some felt that the move of Tim Beckham at the deadline was in part to allow for Adames to be on the roster to open 2018.

4. J.P. Crawford, SS, Philadelphia Phillies

From the word go in his minor league career, Crawford has been known for his defense and ability to take a walk. When he struggled with making contact in the upper minors, he started to see his star fade some from a top-5 prospect in some circles to missing the top 50 in some lists at the midseason point of this year.

Crawford really turned it on from the midway point of the season in 2017 for Lehigh Valley, and the big thing that he had not shown at any level previous was an ability to drive the ball with authority. On the season, he hit .243/.351/.405 with 20 doubles, 6 triples, 15 home runs, and 5 stolen bases. He posted a 79/97 BB/K ratio over 474 at bats.

Crawford still is a high-level defender, though his range and arm have led the Phillies to consider the idea of having him work as an elite defensive third baseman, though I still am not sold on his AAA power translating, and I see him more as a good defender with good OBP and not much for power or speed to offer to a lineup.

The Phillies are likely going to do some trade work this offseason to create space for Crawford in the lineup, whether at third base or shortstop.

3. Brent Honeywell, SP, Tampa Bay Rays

Honeywell made his big splash as a prospect in the Arizona Fall League last fall after progressing well up the system since being drafted in 2014 in the competitive balance B round of the draft by the Rays. Eschewing typical Rays level-by-level progress, Honeywell moved up both A-ball levels in 2015, went through high-A and AA in 2016 and AA and AAA in 2017.

The Rays got to watch Honeywell on display at the Futures Game as he was the talk of the game with his impressive pitch mix keeping hitters off balance, even the best prospects in the game in a showcase game like the Futures Game.

Honeywell works with a screwball, a pitch seldom used in the major leagues, though in that impressive Futures Game display, he stated that he only used one screwball in the entire appearance. Honeywell’s entire repertoire is elite before adding in the screwball. His fastball sits in the mid-90s with plenty of late life, and he can dial it up to 97-98 at the top end. He has an excellent changeup that is at least a plus pitch, if not a fringe double-plus pitch. He also works with a curve and a cutter, giving him a balanced 5-pitch mix with multiple directions his pitches can move, whether it’s vertical or horizontal in break, alterations in speed, and changes in when the break occurs on his pitches as everything has some movement to it.

Honeywell will likely challenge for the Rays rotation in 2018 after Alex Cobb leaves in free agency and the Rays likely look to move one of Chris Archer or Jake Odorizzi in the trade market this offseason before they get more expensive.