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    Jose Siri (Photo: Doug Gray)
    Photo: Doug Gray

    Cincinnati Reds #8 Prospect: Jose Siri

    Doug Gray 9

    In 2018 Jose Siri’s season got out to a delayed start after a thumb injury cost him nearly two months after injuring it during the first game of spring training after colliding with the center field wall. His bat didn’t quite get going as he split his season between Daytona and Pensacola, hitting .239/.294/.449 with 23 steals between the two stops.

    When the 2019 season began the Reds sent Jose Siri back to the Double-A level, but this time with their new affiliate in Chattanooga. The season got out to a quick start as the center fielder went 6-17 (.353) with a home run, two walks, a steal, and two doubles in the first four games. But he’d go into a slum over the next week, going 1-19 (.053) The final two weeks of the month were a good rebound from there, as he hit .289/.340/.400 in the final 13 games of the month. That week long slump damaged the month’s line, though, as he finished with a .247/.319/.370 line with nine walks and 30 strikeouts in 92 plate appearances.

    The hitting from the final two weeks of April carried over into the first half of May. In the first 14 games of the month Jose Siri went 19-52 (.365) with four doubles, a home run, and he had five walks. Things slowed down in the next 15 games of the month, though. Siri went 12-58 (.207) with just two walks and he had just three extra-base hits. For the month he would finish with a .282/.322/.373 line with seven walks and 38 strikeouts. He did steal a season best 11 bases during the month.

    After missing the first week of June, Jose Siri returned to the field and went 7-16 in the first four games back. He went into a slump over the following week, though, going 4-23 (.174). On June 18th he joined the Louisville Bats, going 0-4 with a walk. But he’d head back to Chattanooga after just one game – the promotion was simply a 1-day fill in as Louisville needed a center fielder for the day. The slump continued for the Lookouts when he came back going 7-34 (.206) in the final nine games of the year. Over the 21 games in June he hit .234/.298/.351 in 85 plate appearances with six walks and 20 strikeouts.

    July started out with a bang for Jose Siri. He hit two home runs against Jacksonville on the 1st, and kept on going the first week, posting an OPS over 1.000 in the first seven games of the month. But he went into a big slump over the next two weeks, going 4-42 with 19 strikeouts in the next 14 games. The month closed out with a hot streak where the now 24-year-old hit three more home runs in the final seven games. His .729 OPS on the month was the best of the season, but he struggled, too, posting a .214 average and a .300 on-base percentage with 12 walks and 40 strikeouts in 110 plate appearances.

    August started out with a 2-4 game against Montgomery, but that was the final game that Jose Siri would play in Double-A on the year. Two days later he was in Louisville to join the Bats for the remainder of the season. Things didn’t start out well for the outfielder, who went 0-15 in the first five games with seven strikeouts and a walk. Things picked up for a small 4-game stretch from August 9th through the 13th as he went 5-15 with two walks and two doubles. It didn’t last long before he went back into an extended slump, hitting .103 over the next 12 games. The season would close out on a high note for Siri, though, who went 10-29 (.345) in the final eight games of the season. He would hit just .206/.261/.265 in the final 30 games of the season.

    For all 2019 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).

    Jose Siri Spray Chart

    Jose Siri Scouting Report

    Position: OF | B/T: R/R

    Height: 6′ 2″ | Weight: 175 lb | Acquired: International FA, September 2012

    Born: July 22, 1995

    Hitting | He’s got an average raw hit tool.

    Power | He has above-average raw power.

    Running | He’s got plus plus speed.

    Defense | He’s a plus defender.

    Arm | He has an above-average arm.

    On a pure tools basis, Jose Siri’s probably got the best array of tools in the farm system. He can run, field, throw, and he can hit for power. But at the plate he’s got an issue that causes his hitting tools to not play up to their raw abilities. His pitch recognition is an issue as he struggles to differentiate the fastball from the slider and can often be fooled on the pitch and chase it out of the zone.

    Defensively he’s a smooth center fielder with big range, tons of athleticism, and a strong arm. He can also cover you in the corners if needed. On the bases he can steal a base or 30 if given the opportunity. Right now, he’s a guy with a profile of a 4th/5th outfielder. He can provide some pop off of the bench, play elite level defense up the middle, and provide plenty of speed off of the bench.

    There are real questions about whether or not he’ll ever hit enough to be more than a bench player. He’ll be out of options after 2020, so there’s not much time to figure it out in the minor leagues. The dream is that he can figure it out enough to be a starter. With a full season of plate appearances, assuming he can hit enough to get there, putting up an All-Star caliber season with plenty of extra-base hits, steals, and big time defense.

    The upside is there to dream on. He could be an explosive player with an All-Star ceiling. And the floor is likely that of a big league bench player who can provide value in a few different ways. But the contact issues have gotten worse as he’s climbed the ladder, making it seem less likely that ceiling is going to be reachable.

    Longest Home Run of the Year

    396 Feet on July 30th.

    Interesting Stat on Jose Siri

    Jose Siri went 7-10 on bunts during the season. Second interesting stat – He had a 106 point advantage in OPS at home versus on the road in 2019. Almost all of that difference came from power, where he had 14 doubles, a triple, and seven homers in 271 plate appearances in home games and just 10 total extra-base hits on the road in 246 plate appearances on the road.

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    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    9 Responses

    2. Siri’s Louisville numbers are frightening and his offseason numbers are no better: .167/.223/.343 for an OPS of .566 with 32 Ks and 8 BBs across 102 ABs. These numbers suggest he is struggling to even reach the floor of a 4th/5th outfielder. At this point in his development, his risk is still sky-high which is pretty unusual for a prospect rated this high. 2020 is a make or break year for Siri. By midseason he could be pushing to make the big league roster or could find himself in DFA limbo.

    3. I think Siri will get a chance with Reds in mid 2020 if he gets off to a good start at Louisville. 2020 is Put Up or Shut Up for him. I think he will put up like Aquino did in 2019 although not quite to that level.

      1. I agree with Old Timer and Bill. By the end of 2020, barring injury, the Reds FO will know what they have in Jose Siri.

    4. Will he be on a Y-Rod or Aquino trajectory? Y-Rod has all the tools, so-so production, never put it together. Aquino showed flashes of dominance in the lower levels only to stall out for a bit after reaching AA. Then he finally put it together last season in AAA/ML.
      2020 will go a long way in answering what kind of player Siri may be.

    5. Siri strikes out too much, and he will have to change that to play in Cincinnati. He hit about .380 last year on ABs in which he did not strike out, so if he could convert about 65 of those whiffs each year to hitting the ball somewhere, including over the fence, he’d get about 25 more hits/year and would make him much more plausible as an option.

      Being bad at pitch recognition causes the secondary problem of always being in pitcher’s counts. If on the first pitch you swing at a slider outside the zone, then you start the AB 0-1 in the count and are already behind the 8-ball. The good news is that progress can come quickly for that same reason. It is yet another example that hitting never gets very far from Ted Williams’s primary rule: Get a good pitch to hit.

      It is encouraging that Siri is walking a lot more than he used to. His walk-rate in his 2017 glory year was a hair over 6%, and it was up to over 8% last year.

      Siri’s case is a pretty good example of what a razor’s edge these Dominican guys are on. Between being on the 40-man and the Dominican Winter League, he makes a decent living by Dominican standards, especially for a 24-year-old. But earning a MLB roster spot for even 3-4 years makes a huge difference in his family’s life. Guys in Siri’s shoes have to be under tons of pressure.

    6. Physical tools is a top 10 but he has failed so often as a hitter that now you just hope his defense is good enough to get him on the roster as a late inning replacement

    7. I have to wonder if a guy who has never shown an ability to hit the baseball in the minor leagues (outside of that streak in single-A a few years back) is ranked as high as the #7 prospect in the Reds organization just goes to show how lacking the system is with quality depth?

      His ceiling is probably a slightly lesser version of Drew Stubbs or Billy Hamilton. I could see him being a 5th outfielder a team plugs in as a defensive substitution in the 9th inning, or a starter in an emergency who you would bat in the nine spot.

      Could be worse, but i’d hope for more from a prospect who sits in an organization’s top-10.

    8. If Jose Siri was to have a career similar to Billy Hamilton, at this point, would that be considered a success?

      1. Two years ago, I would of said that eventually being compared to Billy Hamilton at the end of Siri’s career equals big disappointment. Now, I’m not so sure he evens reaches the Majors. Isn’t this the same guy that was The Futures Game MVP in 2017? Why can’t we consistently develop major league talent? I think we are on the path to correcting that problem with some of the steps that have recently been taken in the area of player development with pitching. Has it been bad drafting or bad development or both?

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