LAKELAND, FL - MARCH 02: Miguel Cabrera #24 of the Detroit Tigers glove, bat, and batting helmet on the grass during the Spring Training game against the Miami Marlins and the Detroit Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium on March 02, 2018 in Lakeland, Florida. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
LAKELAND, FL – MARCH 17: Isaac Paredes #90 of the Detroit Tigers looks on from the dugout while wearing a green jersey to honor St. Patricks Day during the Spring Training game against the New York Yankees at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium on March 17, 2018 in Lakeland, Florida. The Tigers defeated the Yankees 9-3. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /
Acquired from the Chicago Cubs, the Detroit Tigers infield prospect has found his way all the way to AA at just 19.
With each of our top 10 prospect lists this offseason, we will have a scouting report on one player from that organization’s top 10 list. With our recent review of the Detroit Tigers, we will take a look at infielder Isaac Paredes, the Tigers #3 prospect.
Player Profile
Somehow slipping through the July 2nd scouting circles, Isaac Paredes was signed in June 2016 out of Mexico by the Chicago Cubs for $800,000. Due to being 17 already, Paredes was able to begin his career in 2016, spending most of the year in the Arizona Rookie League before being promoted up to low-A with the Midwest League South Bend team, hitting .296/.350/.425 with 14 doubles, 3 triples, a home run, and 4 steals over 50 games.
Paredes returned in 2017 to South Bend to open the season, and moved to West Michigan once the Detroit Tigers acquired him from the Cubs as part of a July trade. He hit .252/.338/.387 with 28 doubles and 11 home runs, along with 42/67 BB/K ratio over 517 plate appearances.
The Detroit Tigers plugged Paredes into high-A Lakeland in the Florida State League. He worked his way up to AA Erie over the course of the year. Overall his line was .278/.359/.456 with 28 doubles, 2 triples, 15 home runs, and a 51/76 BB/K ratio over 502 plate appearances.
Scouting Report
Size/Build
Paredes is listed at 5’11” and 225 pounds. He is built thick through the legs with a muscular build overall, but has plenty of athleticism in his frame.
Hitting
Contact (55) – Paredes has a simple setup with an excellent ability to put the heart of the bat to the ball, which leads to plenty of balls leaping off of his bat.
Power (50) – Using a line drive swing, Paredes pounds the gaps with impressive exit velocity. While he certainly has the ability to hit for more over-fence power, Paredes’ line drive swing currently will give him plenty of doubles, but may not lead to a ton of home runs. A bit of swing adjustment could lead to big power numbers, though.
Eye (60) – Paredes has excellent zone and pitch recognition. He has been able to keep his strikeout rate below 15% for nearly his entire minor league career while also having a very good strikeout rate. Adding this to his excellent ability to get the best of the bat to the ball allows Paredes to frequently end up on base on pitches that are meant to generate swing and miss.
Base Running/Fielding
Speed (45) – The thick build of his lower half does mean that Paredes does not have the raw speed that you might want from an infielder, but he does have top-end speed that is quite good when underway, and he has very good instincts on the bases, which has allowed him to steal 8 bases out of the 9 times he has attempted a steal in his brief minor league career thus far.
Defense (45) – This grade is based on Paredes at shortstop. While I might stick with just a hair better grade at second due to limited range, Paredes could quickly move up to a 50-55 at third base as his primary position, as he has excellent first-step reactions. He simply doesn’t have the quickness to have the range to be a shortstop long-term. He does use excellent instincts to read the ball well off the bat and handle short fairly well, allowing him to rarely hurt his team badly while playing the position.
Arm (60) – I’ve seen grades on Isaac Paredes’ arm that range from a 50 to a 65, mostly ranging in the 50-55 range. I simply don’t understand how one could not rate his arm at least plus. I’m only putting it at 60 in this spot as I’m comparing it at shortstop, where he does seem to run into some inaccuracy issues at times, likely due to having to hurry a throw because he has less time to gather than an average shortstop would after getting to a typical ball due to his limited range.
From the third base views I was able to get (4 games, roughly 10 throws in those games), Paredes seems much more comfortable in his throwing from the hot corner, which would likely bump him to a 65.
MLB Player Comp
They swing from different sides of the plate, but as I watched Paredes hit, the guy who I continually kept thinking of was Robinson Cano, and I do think as a hitter, that is a potential upside comparison (and there’s some definite body comps as well), but there is a former Detroit Tigers player that actually is a great comparison to what Paredes could be long-term.
In 1987, the Detroit Tigers drafted Travis Fryman out of high school in Florida. While he was able to handle shortstop to some level, he found himself much more suited for third base, winning a Gold Glove at third in 2000. He also had an offensive profile very akin to what I see Paredes falling into in his “likely” projection, a .270 hitter with 30 doubles and 20 home runs.
Future Role
Paredes has moved up the ladder so quickly, you would assume he would need to gather some in the upper levels before being ready for the major leagues, but he’s already put up a .321/.406/.458 line in 39 games in AA, so he very well could move up to AAA to open 2019.
Once Paredes gets to Detroit, it could set a few things into motion. Paredes has been playing a lot of second base in winter ball thus far, and that could be an indication that the Detroit Tigers would like to see Paredes at the keystone, which would make sense as the team has Jeimer Candelario at third base, though Candelario is no elite glove at the hot corner, so Paredes could end up moving him over to first base if that’s his eventual position.
Next. Tigers top 10 prospects for 2019. dark
The Detroit Tigers certainly got the better end of the deal they made in July with the Cubs, getting both Candelario and Isaac Paredes. Both should be fixtures in the Tigers in the infield as the team enters the third decade of the millenium.
