In this weeks State of the Farm feature we will look at the shortstop position. To see the other positions you can click here. We will continue to move down the line each week as we get deeper into spring training (OF, SP and RP still remain).
For the first time in this series we are going to go all the way down to the Dominican Summer League to take a look at a player. This is an exception because the player is Alfredo Rodriguez. He signed with the Cincinnati Reds in early July for $7M out of Cuba as a 22-year-old. It had been about 18 months since he had last played in a competitive game before he took the field on July 12th for the DSL Reds. Things started out well enough for Rodriguez, he went 6-13 in his first four games with two doubles. Things slowed down from there, and a week later he was on the disabled list after being hit in the elbow by a pitch. He missed the next two weeks before returning. Once again, he started out well, going 5-15 with a double. Over the next two weeks he slumped, going 4-29 before the season ended. In total, he hit .234/.333/.299 with nine walks and 16 strikeouts over 93 plate appearances. Given his age, that’s terrible for the league as he was four years older than the average player. At the same time, he had essentially two different two-week lengths of playing time after a very long layoff. It’s tough to put anything into the numbers because of that. You would have liked to have seen better performance, of course, but the circumstances at hand don’t really tell us much of anything from the numbers.
Moving up to the United States we head over to the Arizona Rookie League where Carlos Rivero had the majority of the playing time at the position. The 19-year-old was making his stateside debut after spending two years in the Dominican Summer League. Rivero struggled at the plate, hitting just .240/.280/.273 with seven walks and 23 strikeouts in 167 plate appearances. It was actually his best offensive season of his career, which is a good sign as the step up in competition is actually quite large. He was rather solid in the field, at least from a fielding percentage standpoint as he posted a .943 fielding percentage – which is quite high for complex level baseball.
Hector Vargas began his year in Dayton in April. He struggled at the plate, hitting .194/.215/.240 in 36 games while playing multiple positions. In June he went back to extended spring training and then joined the Billings Mustangs a few weeks later when their season began. Things went much better with the Mustangs for Vargas. He spent all of his time there as a shortstop when he was in the field, starting 53 games. At the plate he went on to hit .352/.365/.538 in 222 plate appearances. He only drew six walks, but he also only had 19 strikeouts. The 21-year-old also stole 12 bases (and he had four more in Dayton). His approach could use some refinement – he’s going to absolutely have to walk more than he’s currently doing as he moves up, even if he’s rarely striking out. Defensively between the two stops he posted a .936 fielding percentage – but he was much better in Dayton at the spot, though it was just 12 games worth of data.
Luis Gonzalez took a majority of the playing time in Dayton at shortstop. It was his second year with the Dragons. The 21-year-old was recovering from a broken ankle and surgery that he suffered at the very end of the 2015 season. He was essentially the same hitter as he was the year before, with a little bit more power. Gonzalez hit .228/.261/.323 with 18 walks and 87 strikeouts in 404 plate appearances. The approach needs improvement as that strikeout-to-walk ratio isn’t going to be good enough to allow him to hit moving forward. Defensively he made a big time improvement in his error rate. He moved from a .935 fielding percentage in 2015 to a .959 mark this past season.
Daytona saw almost all of their playing time at shortstop go to Blake Trahan. He started 124 of the 140 games for the team at the position. After a slow start to the season in April (.384 OPS), he turned things around the rest of the season and hit quite well. For the season Trahan hit .263/.325/.361 with 49 walks and 73 strikeouts in 587 plate appearances. That wound up being better than the league average, where the Florida State League had an OPS of .677 for the year. The 22-year-old also stole 25 bases and was caught just eight times. In the field he posted a .974 fielding percentage.
Pensacola, much like Daytona, only had one majority player at shortstop. Zach Vincej started 98 games for the Blue Wahoos at the position and played in 121 games overall. At the plate he was solid, but unspectacular. He hit .281/.329/.378 with 25 walks and 85 strikeouts in 438 plate appearances. After the regular season he went to the Arizona Fall League. In 71 at-bats he crushed the ball. He hit .352/.425/.676 with more home runs, four, than he hit in entire regular season, three. In the field the 25-year-old was outstanding. He only made four errors on the season, posting a .991 fielding percentage.
The Blue Wahoos saw another shortstop at times during the season. Calten Daal played exclusively at shortstop for Pensacola in 2016. Unfortunately, he was riddled by injuries. In his first game of the season, in the first trip to the plate, he was hit in the helmet by a pitch. It was the second plate appearance in a row that he was hit in the helmet by a pitch, as his 2015 season ended in the same manner. This would cost him a few weeks on the disabled list before he returned late in April. When he returned from the disabled list he hit very well, posting a .337/.387/.372 line in 25 games. However he hit the disabled list with a shoulder strain on June 3rd. He returned 11 days later, but his stay wasn’t for long as he went back to the disabled list with the same injury on July 9th and saw his year come to an end. Daal would only play in 40 games, but hit well – posting a .310/.365/.379 line as a 22-year-old. There’s not much power there, but he’s got tools to work with.
Louisville saw a mix of a handful of players at the shortstop position. It was led by Jose Peraza, but no one saw a bunch of time at the position.
Overall Thoughts
The Cincinnati Reds currently have Zack Cozart as their starting shortstop. Jose Peraza looks to be the current near-term plan for the future at the position. In the minor leagues there is some depth at the position. With that said, all of the current minor league shortstops have some uncertainty in their game when it comes to profiling as a starter. Many of them have more of a look as a utility player who can move around to several positions. With that said, given the options at the big league level, there may not be a need to rush anyone and it can give them more time to develop their skills and possibly get more from them in the long run. It’s that lack of certainty that holds down the positional grade at this point.
Grade: C/C+
Top 3rd Base Tools
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| Tool | Top Player |
| Hitting | Blake Trahan |
| Current Power | Zach Vincej |
| Raw Power | Hector Vargas |
| Speed | Alfredo Rodriguez |
| Defense | Alfredo Rodriguez |
To say that there’s a lack of power in the system at shortstop would be an understatement. Defensively there are some interesting guys. Alfredo Rodriguez stands out among the group for his flashy defense. Behind him Calten Daal looks like a strong defender as well. Guys like Blake Trahan, Zach Vincej, Luis Gonzalez and Hector Vargas can all hold their own at the position, too.
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