Minor League Prospect Report, Week 12

You may have heard by now, but this Elly De La Cruz guy seems like he’s going to turn out just fine. The debut of the Cincinnati Reds phenom — now officially the fastest player in baseball at 6’5, in addition to the Statcast-busting exit velocities — highlighted this week in the Minors, but he wasn’t alone, as AJ Smith-Shawver excelled in his first Major League start while Coco Montes got the call for the Colorado Rockies.

Of course, you would’ve known about all of these guys — especially Elly — if you’d been keeping up with our weekly prospect reports, in which every single one was highlighted well before reaching the Majors. (All those graduations have opened up a few new spots on our list of prospects to stash for fantasy baseball, too.) Want to know who’s next? Here’s everything that’s happened on the farm last week.

Prospect report for week of Monday, June 12

Heston Kjerstad/Colton Cowser, OF, Baltimore Orioles

Yet another outstanding Orioles outfielder has entered the chat. The No. 2 overall pick in the shortened 2020 MLB Draft, Kjerstad didn’t make his pro debut until 2022 due to myocarditis after coming down with COVID-19. He began this season fully healthy, though, and he promptly torched Double-A to the tune of a .310/.384/.576 line with 11 homers and three steals in 46 games. That performance earned the 24-year-old a promotion to Triple-A Norfolk last week, where he’ll share the outfield with yet another top prospect who may be getting the call to the Majors very soon.

Cowser would probably be in Baltimore already if it weren’t for a poorly-timed stint on the IL, right as the O’s needed a body to replace the injured Cedric Mullins. But Cowser is now back, and in two games since he’s reached base in six of seven plate appearances with a double and a home run — raising his season-long line to .347/.484/.590 with eight homers and five steals. If the Orioles are still struggling on offense in a week or two, it might be his time.

Sal Frelick, OF, Milwaukee Brewers

Speaking of ill-timed injury: Frelick was on the cusp of a promotion to Milwaukee in late April when a thumb sprain knocked him out for over a month. (It was a loss the Brewers would feel even more acutely when Garrett Mitchell needed season-ending shoulder surgery.) Frelick began a Minor League rehab stint with Milwaukee’s rookie-level team over the weekend, going 1-for-2 with two walks and a double in two games. The former first-round pick out of Boston College is as dynamic as they come in center field, hitting 11 homers with 24 steals across three levels of the Minors in 2022, and once he gets his legs back under him it won’t be long before he’s knocking on the door of the Majors.

Luis Matos, OF, San Francisco Giants

There may not be a single hitter in the Minors hotter than Matos, who got the call to Triple-A in mid-May and has hit a truly unbelievable .416/.454/.693 since — with almost as many homers (six) as strikeouts (seven). Yeah, yeah, small sample size, Pacific Coast League, we know. But still: an 1.147 OPS! Matos looked like a top-tier prospect until injury waylaid him last season, and now that he’s back healthy, he’s getting the chance to show the plus bat speed and athleticism that made him so highly touted in the first place.

San Francisco has a pretty crowded outfield right now, but if they keep hanging around the NL Wild Card race, Matos should get the call rather soon.

Coco Montes, 2B, Colorado Rockies

We spotlighted Montes in this space just last week, and sure enough, the infielder was called up for his Major League debut at Fenway Park on Monday night. A 15th-round pick way back in 2018, Montes wasn’t on really anyone’s radar to start the year — but when a prospect who’ll call Coors Field home starts putting up video-game numbers in the Minors, it’s best to pay attention. The infielder had been on a heater all season prior to his promotion, slashing .317/.398/.551 with 11 homers and three steals across 55 games at Triple-A, while showing off surprising power, and if he can carve out regular playing time in Colorado, he could be a very valuable piece.

Emmet Sheehan, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers

We also gave Sheehan a shout-out last week, and while he’s not in the Majors just yet, the righty did get promoted to Triple-A over the weekend — putting him seemingly next in line for promotion as the Dodgers deal with injuries up and down their starting rotation. A sixth-round pick after an underwhelming career at Boston College, Sheehan had busted out at Double-A this season, with a 1.86 ERA and downright silly 88 strikeouts in 53.1 innings. What he lacks in a premium out pitch, he makes up with in sheer quantity, with a change, slider and curve that are all usable offerings alongside a fastball that sits 95 consistently. It remains to be seen whether he has the command to get it done at the highest level without that kind of eye-popping stuff, but the results so far speak for themselves.

Tyler Soderstrom, C/1B, Oakland Athletics

Drafted out of high school in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft as a hit-first catcher, Oakland has already conceded that Soderstrom probably won’t spend a ton of time behind the plate — but the hitting part of that profile seems to be working out just fine. The lefty struggled mightily at the start of 2022, hitting .159 with a 33% K-rate over his first month at High-A, but he figured it out from there with a .283/.344/.559 line over the next three months. He cut his strikeouts even further after a promotion to Double-A, and hit .297 in a nine-game stint at Triple-A to end the year.

He’s started 2023 in much the same way, lighting up the Pacific Coast League with an .863 OPS and 14 homers over 52 games:

The corners are a bit crowded in Oakland right now with Seth Brown, Ryan Noda and Ramon Laureano around, but the A’s aren’t going much of anywhere right now, and there’s only so much time Soderstrom can spend in the Minors. The approach still needs some work, but if he keeps the strikeouts under control, 25-homer upside with catcher eligibility is on the table.

Top 25 prospects to stash for fantasy baseball