It may seem a bit strange to say that a player who has already won a league MVP award in his career a guy who could breakout, but here we are. In 2021 Yerlin Confidan made his professional debut and hit .315/.359/.573 with 11 home runs for the Arizona Complex League Reds. That performance earned the then 18-year-old outfielder the Most Valuable Player award for the league. Following that season I ranked Confidan as the Cincinnati Reds 25th best prospect.
In 2022 things got out to a hot start for the outfielder. In the first week he hit .391 with three walk and put up an OPS of .983 for the Single-A Daytona Tortugas. He went into a slump over the next week, though, hitting just .160. Following the game on April 23rd Yerlin Confiden disappeared from the lineup for nearly two weeks before returning to play on May 3rd. After two at-bats he was pinch hit for and a day later he was placed on the injured list with a quad strain. It was be a little more than three months before he would begin a rehab assignment out in Arizona. Confidan didn’t return to Daytona until the final day of August, and six games later the Tortugas season came to an end.
Essentially the 2022 season was a lost one for Confidan. He did see some time on the field, but it was basically for three weeks in April and then a month at the end of the season split up between two stops and one of them was a rehab stint.
There are things to like for Confidan. He’s got big time raw power. He’s got plenty of arm strength. And in a very, very limited sample size of 2022, his walk rate more than doubled from where it was in 2021 (in about half as many plate appearances).
There’s still going to be some swing-and-miss concern. Confidan struck out 25% of the time he stepped to the plate back in 2021 and it jumped up to 30% in 2022 between his time in Arizona and Daytona. That could be the one reason that another breakout of sorts could be tough to come by. But with the kind of power he has in his bat, if his improved walk rate he showed in his limited action in 2022 was an improvement in his pitch recognition skills then that power could really play in a league that is well known to sap power.
I’m not so confidan…
Isn’t today opening day for Louisville?
They play at Nashville tonight, weather permitting.
Cancelled already. Doubleheader tomorrow.
Yeah – I had/have a post started, but I was just waiting around for the roster so I could talk about the team a little bit. Game was postponed by 12:30. Still no roster as of 5:05. Assuming we get a roster tonight, I’ll have a preview up in the morning along with the links and such to watch/listen/follow on Gameday/Statcast. Just waiting around on the official roster.
After 2021 season I remember that Confidan would be considered soon as a Reds top 10 prospect, there were hopes that he still being very young can continue to climb levels up in the farm system ….I think Confidan is in the group of Reds hidden deck ,where other players as Hendrick, Hinds, Callihan, Richardson, Johnson, Roa, Bonnin, Boyle among others exist there waiting to finally show improvements to their upside that carry them to the majors
Are all the MiLB rosters set? I see Confidant on the Tortugas, but where is Cam Collier – don’t see him on any roster? Same for Sal Stewart.
I don’t think any of them are set yet. AAA should be sometime today, as it’s the season opener. It’s postponed, but I’d still think they have to have a set roster at some point today.
Thanks – now that I look, I see some names which have been released, and some additional others missing – I’ll watch the Bats first.
You probably won’t see any rosters except for Louisville until Wednesday or Thursday.