On Wednesday evening the bad news that was expected finally came as Leo Balcazar was placed on the injured list in Daytona with a torn ACL in his right knee.
On Sunday in the Daytona Tortugas second game of a doubleheader Cam Collier line a walk-off single into right field. Carlos Jorge and Leo Balcazar came around to score on the play. Unfortunately for the 18-year-old Balcazar he suffered an injury just after touching the plate. The details of exactly what happened haven’t been clearly communicated, but the injury happened just beyond the plate after he scored.
Cincinnati’s 22nd rated prospect coming into the season was out to a strong start with Daytona. The shortstop was hitting .324/.427/.471. Along with that line he had five doubles, a triple, a home run, 13 walks, and 22 strikeouts in his 82 plate appearances. Unless there’s some new surgery and recovery I’ve never heard of before, this injury is going to end the season for Balcazar.
On a normal timeline of recovery for a torn ACL he could be back in time to start 2024 assuming there’s nothing more to the injury that we are unaware of. Ronald Acuna Jr. suffered a torn ACL on July 10th of 2021. He returned to the Atlanta lineup on April 28th of 2022. That was 292 days. April 1st of 2024 is 338 days from the injury for Balcazar. Phillies Rhys Hoskins tore his ACL in March and the timeline provided for his recovery was seven to nine months. Things are different for everyone, but that’s kind of the situation you’re looking at and you can adjust from there if needed.
TJ Hopkins remains hot
For the first two weeks of the season with Triple-A Louisville, TJ Hopkins was playing well enough. The outfielder was hitting .273/.304/.432 in his first 13 games with the Bats this season. But since then he’s gone on an absolute tear for Louisville. He’s played 13 games since that point and he’s hit .405/.537/.762 with 11 walks and 14 strikeouts.
On Wednesday against Omaha TJ Hopkins hit a 425-foot home run, giving him four on the season. It was his second hit of the day. He must have rattled the Storm Chasers pitchers because they walked him the next two times he came to the plate. It extended his on-base streak to 14 games (he’s gone hitless in two of the games but walked once in one of them and walked three times in the other).
Elly De La Cruz isn’t heating up
He’s hot. Cincinnati’s top prospect began the season 1-21 after joining the Louisville Bats from extended spring training where he was rehabbing from a hamstring injury. Since that point he’s gone 10-30 in Triple-A, including going 2-5 on Wednesday. In that stretch he’s hitting .333/.375/.567.
Eduardo Salazar is mowing ’em down
Last season didn’t go as well as Eduardo Salazar likely planned. He made 27 starts for the Lookouts and posted an ERA of 5.16. In his 125.2 innings he allowed 130 hits and he walked 64 batters while striking out 111.
This season he was moved into the bullpen for Double-A Chattanooga and the results so far have been outstanding. On Wednesday night he threw 2.1 shutout innings and picked up five more strikeouts. That outing lowered his ERA to 0.79 on the season. In his 11.1 innings over his seven appearances, Salazar has walked just two batters and he’s now struck out 19 of the 48 hitters he’s faced (39.6%). This season he’s also gotten tons of ground balls early on, posting a 61% ground ball rate. Last season he had an above-average ground ball rate – 48.4% – but that isn’t close to where he’s at this year. Of course the sample size is still very small, but it’s worth keeping an eye on as the season progresses.