4. Yadier Alvarez, RHP
Birthday (age on opening day 2018): 3/7/1996 (22)
2017 teams/levels played for: high-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, AA Tulsa Drillers
2017 Stats: 21 G, 18 GS, 92 1/3 IP, 4.68 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 12.1% BB, 23.4% K
Info: Many in baseball were surprised when the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Alvarez $16 million because he had struggled to even make the Cuban team due to his wildness.
Alvarez has all the tools you’d want as a scout or pitching coach
Alvarez has all the tools you’d want as a scout or pitching coach with a great frame for pitching, good physicality, long arms and legs, and an easy delivery that generates triple digit velocity.
Paired with his power fastball, Alvarez throws a hard slider with plenty of movement. He also has a change that works in the upper 80s with good movement, but Alvarez’s control was so bad that he could not make great use of any of it.
If Alvarez can put even average control together with all three pitches, he could end up an elite starter. If he can work up to fringe-average, he could be a dominant closer. The Los Angeles Dodgers will open Alvarez at AA to hopefully hone that control.
**Writer’s note: For the Dodgers, I truly think #4-7 are interchangeable. I’ve had them in basically every order possible along the way, and any argument for their order is completely defensible to me.**
3. Keibert Ruiz, C
Birthday (age on opening day 2018): 7/20/1998 (19)
2017 teams/levels played for: low-A Great Lakes Loons, high-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes
2017 Stats: .316/.361/.452, 411 PA, 8 HR, 25/53 BB/K
Info: Already defensively gifted as a young teenager, the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Ruiz $140K to sign out of Venezuela in 2014. He’s exploded with the bat ever since to become one of the top catching prospects in all of baseball.
Those elite defensive skills have never been in question, with premium athleticism and a good build to both get body in front of the ball, yet also be quick laterally to get out on balls to the side as well. His arm is average to maybe a tick above-average, but what hurts him is that he often sets up to maximize his blocking and framing behind the plate and leaves his feet in poor position when he does that, leading to subpar pop times in the run game.
At the plate, Ruiz is a switch-hitter who has the chance to be a special talent for a catcher with the bat. His contact abilities are a definite plus grade from both sides of the plate, getting good bat to ball from both sides, though he tends to get much better barrel to ball from the left side, resulting in better power output.
Ruiz is still a teenager, so it’s not surprising that he has work to do yet in his defense and in getting his best swing on balls, but if he can do those things, he could be the type of guy who puts up quality average, 20+ home run seasons behind the plate. One scout quickly tossed out Jorge Posada as a comparison, but then quickly added that he thought Ruiz could have even more upside than Posada offensively due to his ability to make consistent contact.
Ruiz is truly a special talent that could end the season as one of the top 10-15 prospects in the entire game. The Los Angeles Dodgers will move him up to AA to open 2018, but with one of the deepest catching systems in the game, they won’t have to rush his development by any means.
Next: #1 and #2