Today in the scouting notebook I wanted to take a look at the 2nd youngest player that the Reds had stateside this season. The Reds sent Alberti Chavez to the US this year after he hit .314/.356/.396 in the Dominican Summer League as a 16-year-old in the 2012 season. As I noted back in June, Chavez joined only Juan Duran and Yorman Rodriguez as players to begin their season as 17-year-olds (or younger) in the US from the international side of things going back to 2003 for the Reds. They simply don’t bring guys that young stateside right off of the bat at that age. Ronald Torreyes made it to the US as a 17-year-old, but he had already tore up one of the international rookie leagues before coming over at that age. To add some more interesting things to the story, the Reds felt so comfortable with his baseball ability that when the Bakersfield Blaze needed a fill in on their roster for a week, they sent Chavez up instead of someone older and with more experience.
With all of that said, Chavez did struggle in the 2013 season. Let’s take a look at his stats between Arizona and Bakersfield.
| Team | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | K | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| Reds | 175 | 34 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 29 | .209 | .249 | .245 |
| Bakersfield | 29 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | .172 | .172 | .172 |
| Total | 204 | 39 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 37 | .203 | .238 | .234 |
He struggled almost across the board. His walk rate was low and while his strikeout rate was solid (18.1%), the overall approach was one that needed improvement. He was good on the bases, especially in Arizona where he stole 8 of 9 bases. While he moved around often in the field, playing second base, third base, shortstop, left field and center field at various points during the season, a large majority came between second and third. Despite a young age, he posted a .989 fielding percentage at second and posted a .931 fielding percentage at third. Defensively, from the numbers at least, he was impressive.
Scouting Report
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Given the history of how the Reds have handled players of his age in the past, when I talked with some personnel, I wanted to find out about him to see what separated him from most other guys. He is currently an undersized guy, listed at 5′ 10″ and 170 lbs, but he drew comparisons within the organization of a guy mentioned above, Ronald Torreyes. While he is a little bigger than Torreyes was at a similar age, they profile similarly. Chavez is a good runner with above-average speed. At the plate he shows off a short and compact swing and is a bit aggressive at the plate, though most players his age are. There isn’t a lot of power potential with him, though he is completely without power. Chavez can already use the entire field and in 2013 he really loved to go up the middle. His spray chart is below and you can really see how balanced he is to the outfield spots.
| C | P | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | LF | CF | RF | |
| Spray | 0.6% | 3.2% | 3.8% | 12.7% | 13.9% | 24.7% | 12.0% | 19.0% | 10.1% |
Defensively he can handle the positions up the middle (shortstop, second and center) where he has good hands and a solid arm. He was praised for his high baseball IQ from those within the organization.
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