Just over one year ago the Cincinnati Reds signed a new class of international free agents. At the top of that class was Adolfo Sanchez, who got a signing bonus of $2,700,000. At the time of the signing he was considered one of the handful of best prospects that would be signing in baseball.
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After signing in January, Adolfo Sanchez got his professional career started later in the year when the Dominican Summer League got started in early June. In his debut on June 3rd he went 1-3 with a walk. Two days later he picked up another hit. The day after that he went 1-2 with a walk, hit by pitch, and recorded his first RBI. On the 8th he would go hitless, but did draw a walk. In his next two games he would pick up his first double and then his first career home run. He’d keep up his hot hitting over the next two weeks, culminating with back-to-back 2-hit games.
On June 24th he had played in 14 games and was hitting .292/.415/.521. The strikeout rate was a bit higher than you wanted to see during that time, but he was finding hits, drawing walks, and showing some pop. But from June 25th on he went into a big slump. Sanchez played in 31 more games during the season and in only two of them did he have more than one hit. While he walked at a high rate, he only had five extra-base hits and he struck out 38% of the time he stepped to the plate while hitting just .176.
For all 2024 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).
Adolfo Sanchez Scouting Report
Position: Outfield | B/T: L/L
Height: 6′ 1″ | Weight: 185 lbs. | Acquired: International FA (2024)| Born: September 19, 2006
The production at the plate in 2024 for Adolfo Sanchez was not good. While he did walk a lot, he also struck out a lot. A high walk rate in the Dominican Summer League isn’t necessarily something that is a skillset indicator moving forward given the competition level of the league itself. By-and-large, the numbers posted in the league aren’t entirely predictive for future results, either. To compare it to the US, Sanchez was basically playing at the same age he would have been a junior in high school. There is just so much development to be done at that age.
With that said, you still prefer to see successful performance even if it’s not entirely predictive of future success. That being said, once the season came to an end and the instructional league began in the Dominican at the Reds complex, Sanchez worked with the coaches there to make some mechanical adjustments to his swing. The biggest thing you could notice by watching him is that he has added a toe-tap in place of a leg lift then plant (You can see some of the changes here). The idea there is to allow him to be more consistent with his timing and swing through the zone.
When it comes to the tools – everything is still there just like it was a year ago when he signed. He stands out on the field for the raw tools. Defensively he’s a good center fielder, but he relies more on his ability to read the ball and run good routes than pure speed. That could be limiting a bit if he loses a step as his body matures because while his speed is above-average, for a center fielder he’s not fast. If he does eventually have to move out of center, though, his plus arm will work well in right field.
At the plate the hit tool still gets good grades despite the performance in 2024 on the field and could be above-average down the line. He was quite pull happy during his first year, which you can see in the spray chart below. The sample size here is limited, but a majority of the balls he put in play were pulled. His power potential falls into the average to potential plus range depending on who you ask and exactly how much his body fills out over the years.
Overall you’ve got a player in Sanchez who has 5-tool potential. He’s a good athlete who could potentially provide value in all aspects of the game. But he’s also a guy who certainly struggled in some important aspects of the game in his debut. He was just 17-years-old during the season, but the struggles were there and he’s had to make some adjustments to try and improve at the plate.
Stats
Spray Chart
Video
Interesting Stat on Adolfo Sanchez
On Monday’s during the season he hit .357 and slugged .690 (11 games). The only other day of the week that he hit over .160 was Thursday, in which he hit .267. Thursday was also the only other day where he slugged over .200 (.333). Monday and Tuesday were the only days of the week in which he played in double digit games.