Gavin LaValley had a nice opportunity in spring training with the Cincinnati Reds. As a non-40-man roster player, and a player who wasn’t a non-roster invitee, he was still seeing some action with the big league club early on. Eventually he headed to minor league camp for good, but before the season began he went down with an injury.
He would miss all of April and nearly the first two weeks of May. Once he was able to take the field, the Reds sent him to Dayton. That assignment would turn out to essentially be a rehab assignment as he played five game there, going 4-19 with three walks and seven strikeouts before being promoted to the Florida State League.
Over the first three weeks with Daytona he struggled. In 19 games he went 11-61 (.180) with a slugging percentage of .295. All of that has changed over the last three weeks for the 21-year-old first baseman.
In 17 games he’s hit .364/.397/.697 in 73 plate appearances. He’s drawn five walks and struck out just nine times. The most impressive thing has been that he’s hit for huge amounts of power, and in a league where no one really hits for power. He’s smashed eight doubles, a triple and four home runs in this span as extra-base hits have accounted for 13 of his 24 total hits in the 17 games.
Gavin LaValley has only played in 35 total games for the Tortugas this season, but he’s hitting .276/.333/.504 overall. That compares very favorably to the Florida State League as a whole, which is hitting just .247/.317/.354.
The average and on-base percentage for LaValley are in line with where he was last season in Dayton. It’s the power output that is way up. As noted, the Florida State League suppresses power, so it’s even more impressive that he’s boosted his slugging so much. Coming out of high school he was noted for his above-average raw power, but he struggled to put the ball over the fence while with the Dragons last season. He had 29 doubles, but he only managed four home runs. He’s already surpassed his home run total from last season in about a quarter as many plate appearances.