Cincinnati Reds Top Prospects: C Kyle Skipworth

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Kyle Skipworth began his first year in the organization with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in Double-A. He only spent three games there, going 2-8 with a walk, home run and four strikeouts before being promoted to Triple-A. He didn’t play for a week and when he did make his way into the lineup for the Louisville Bats, the rust showed. In the six games he made it into with the Bats to end the month he would go 1-16 (.063). He would rack up three hits in just 24 at-bats for the month of April.

May would see a nice start as the catcher would go 2-4 with two doubles and score two runs in his first game of the month. He would go 0-4 three days later and go 1-1 as a pinch hitter on the 6th. The next day he went back down to Double-A Pensacola and got the start, going 1-3 with a walk. The second week of May was a struggle as Skipworth went 2-14 with two walks in five games. He would rebound in a big way in the third week, racking up hits in five of the six games, hitting .412 and slugging .706 on the week. As hot as that week was, the following four games went as opposite as possible, going 2-13 with eight strikeouts before hitting the disabled list after a 1-7 performance on May 27th. During the game he stepped on a bat while trying to make a play and sprained his ankle. He finished the month hitting .268/.364/.464 in 66 plate appearances, but had 24 strikeouts in that span.

Skipworth would miss nearly the entire month of June, returning on the 26th against Mississippi. The former 1st round pick made up for lost time, going 2-4 with a double in each of his first two games. He would go 0-1 in a pinch hit appearance on the 28th, but come back with a 1-4 game to end the month. In the four games played he would hit .385 with six strikeouts and two doubles.

After going 0-2 in the first game of the month, Skipworth ran off a 4-game hitting streak the rest of the week, but went just 4-16 overall with nine strikeouts in that span. The second week of the month saw that streak go to 5-games, but an 0-3 on the 9th ended things.  On July 10th he would homer in a 1-4 effort. The next time out he did the same thing. He wrapped up the week by homering in his 3rd straight game. While he hit just .222 on the week with 10 strikeouts in 18 at-bats, he slugged .778. On the 15th he returned to the lineup and homered again, going 1-3 with a walk. The next day it was the same story as he extended his homer streak to five. On the 18th the home run streak came to an end, but his hitting streak didn’t as he went 1-3 with a walk. Skipworth would add another homer on the 19th and finish up the week with a .714 slugging percentage. That came with a .238 average and 14 strikeouts in 21 at-bats though as he struggled to make contact, but when he did, he made it count. In the final four games of the month he would manage just one hit in 14 at-bats, finishing up the month with one of the strangest stat lines you will see: .197/.269/.535 with seven home runs and 41 strikeouts in 79 plate appearances.

The slump the ended July continued into August as the catcher hit just .105 in the first week of the month. The second week wasn’t much better, going just 2-14 (.143) with seven strikeouts. Things would turn around somewhat with three hits in 11 at-bats and four walks in the third week, but it didn’t last long. In the fourth week of August he would hit just .105 with 11 strikeouts. The final six games of the season were more of the continued slump with another 2-14 span. Over the final 25 games of the season he would hit just .143/.239/.260 with 36 strikeouts in 88 plate appearances.

For the season there were two things that stood out for Kyle Skipworth: The guy can hit the ball very far and he struggles mightily to make contact with the baseball. He struck out just over 42% of the time he stepped to the plate in 2015 between his time in Pensacola and Louisville. That helped keep his average at .199 and his on-base percentage at .285 on the season. Despite playing roughly half of a season though, he smacked 14 doubles, a triple and 11 home runs. He also had, arguably, his best year behind the plate. He threw out a career best 43% of opposing base runners.

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Hitting | Skipworth has a well below-average hit tool. His swing is very long and he can’t make contact at any sort of acceptable rate. Without big changes in his swing, he’s not going to hit .200 in the big leagues.

Power | This is what stands out in his game. He’s got plus power to work with. He generates a ton of loft on the ball and he’s got strong bat speed that helps the ball carry when he’s able to make contact.

Running | He’s a catcher, so running isn’t ever going to be a part of his game, but he’s only a slightly below-average runner at this point.

Arm | He’s got an above-average arm to work with

Defense | He’s had a problem with passed balls for his entire career and 2015 was no different, allowing 13 in just 79 games behind the plate. When he receives the pitch, he’s not exactly quiet, stabbing at the ball at times. He does a decent job blocking pitches though.

Power is what comes to mind for Kyle Skipworth when trying to describe him. Everything he does seems to be done with power in mind. When he swings, he swings with all of the power he has. When he throws, it’s with all of the power he has. When he receives a pitch, well, maybe it’s not with all of the power he has, but he doesn’t seem to always let it come to him either. Offensively, there’s simply so much work to do in terms of cutting down on his strikeout rate to a point where he could actually play at the next level. Behind the plate he’s also got plenty of work to do in order to compliment his arm strength. There are a few things to like, but the problem areas in his game are quite big and need tons of work before he’s ready to succeed even at the Double-A level.

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