Cincinnati Reds #18 Prospect: OF Aristides Aquino

For all 2016 Prospect Ranking Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out one a day over the offseason).

Aristides Aquino got out to a tough start in his 2015 season. Over the first week of the year he went 5-26 with 10 strikeouts, hitting .192/.185/.231 for the Dayton Dragons. He had multiple strikeouts in four of the seven games played. Things got better over the next eight games for the outfielder as he went 7-27 with three walks and eight strikeouts, posting a .259/.355/.407 line. On April 24th things went south after Aquino was hit by a pitch in the wrist/lower arm area, resulting in a fracture in his arm. That would cap his April with an overall line of .226/.288/.321 with three walks and 18 strikeouts in 59 plate appearances.

The outfielder would begin rehabbing with the Billings Mustangs on June 28th, just over two months after his initial injury. He would get out to a slow start, going 2-16 in his first four games, but then went on to tear things up over his next nine games, hitting .389/.421/.694 with two walks and six strikeouts in 38 plate appearances before returning to the Dayton Dragons on July 15th.

Things were rough for Aquino in his first week back, hitting just .154, but he only struck out three times in 27 plate appearances. The final eight games would be a nice rebound for the outfielder as he would hit .324/.343/.500 in the final 35 plate appearances of the month. Overall, in his 15 games with Dayton in July he would hit .250/.274/.367 with two walks and seven strikeouts in 62 plate appearances.

After a nice finish in July, things got out to a slow start in August. Over the first two weeks of the month, Aquino hit just .174/.188/.217 with just one walk and with 11 strikeouts in 48 plate appearances. Over the final three-and-a-half weeks of the season he would figure things out and hit .264/.338/.486 with five walks and 17 strikeouts over the final 80 plate appearances.

Consistency was an issue for Aristides Aquino throughout the season, finding hot-and-cold streaks for weeks at a time. His plate discipline concerns probably come into play there. His hot stretches were nice to see, showing his potential, but his cold streaks are going to need to improve moving forward.

*Stats only shown for Dayton*

Scouting Report

[private_subscriber]

Hitting | He didn’t do too much hitting in 2015, but he projects to be better than that in the future. He’s got a slightly below-average hit tool, but one that doesn’t play at that level right now.

Power | Much like his hitting, Aquino didn’t show much power in the 2015 season. He’s got enough pop in his bat to reach 25-30 home runs at his peak thanks to good bat speed, strength and leverage generated.

Running | Aquino is a slightly above-average runner.

Arm | He brings an above-average arm to right field. It helped him rack up 10 assists despite playing in just 71 games.

Fielding | He projects to be a quality right fielder with good range.

The biggest question with Aquino is whether or not he can figure out spin well enough to improve his plate discipline. He can hit a fastball, but he struggles with breaking balls at this point in his career. That did improve as his season went along, as his strikeout rate in the second half with Dayton was just over 18%, but his walk rate still remains lower than you would like to see. There’s plenty of risk with Aquino, but he’s got the upside to be a .265 hitter with 25+ home runs and a solid right fielder if things break right for him in the future. He will be 22-years-old next season and is likely to repeat the season in Dayton, so he will need to take a step forward to stay on track.

Spray Chart

[/private_subscriber]