Minor League Prospect Report, Week 14: Jordan Westburg gets the call

June has been a very exciting time for prospect promotions around MLB. In just the past couple of weeks, Elly De La Cruz exploded onto the scene with the Cincinnati Reds, catchers Bo Naylor and Henry Davis finally got the call in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, respectively, and Dodgers right Emmet Sheehan tossed six no-hit innings in his debut against a red-hot Giants team who just themselves promoted top outfield prospect Luis Matos. And the train shows no sign of slowing down: on Sunday evening, reports surfaced that the Baltimore Orioles were set to promote top infield prospect Jordan Westburg prior to Monday’s game.

Of course, you wouldn’t have been shocked by any of this if you’d been keeping up with our weekly prospect reports, in which every single one of those guys was highlighted 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 26

Jordan Westburg, 2B/3B, Baltimore Orioles

We went over Westburg in a bit more detail on Sunday, but here’s the skinny: a college star at Mississippi State turned first-round pick, a power surge in the Minors last year shot Westburg way up prospect rankings, and he’s kept on mashing at Triple-A in 2023. The slugger has slashed .295/.372/.567 with 18 homers and six steals in just 67 games at Norfolk this season, and his combination of power, speed and hit tool doesn’t come around too often.

Watching him square off against Cincy’s Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz this week will be must-see TV, and Westburg should be a huge boost to an already-strong O’s lineup. If Baltimore’s offense has had one weakness this year, it’s been at the middle infield spots, where Adam Frazier, Jorge Mateo and Ramon Urias have all posted an OPS below league average. With Gunnar Henderson entrenched at third, Richburg can hold his own at short or, more likely, slot in at second base, where he figures to be at least an above-average defender.

Colt Keith, 3B, Detroit Tigers

Not much has gone right for Detroit’s offense this season, but help could be on the way soon: After laying waste to Double-A over the first two-plus months, infielder Colt Keith was promoted to Triple-A on Sunday.

A fifth-round pick out of Biloxi (Mississippi) High School in 2021, a shoulder injury short-circuited what was shaping up to be a breakout season for Keith last year. He’s back healthy now, though, and he’s shown the ability to add loft and power to the advanced approach and quick swing that scouts always knew were there. The results have been eye-popping: The 21-year-old has torn up Double-A to the tune of a .325/.391/.585 line with 14 homers in 50 games, despite never once facing a pitcher that was younger than he was.

He’ll be even younger relative to his peers in Triple-A, and he may need some time to adjust. But assuming he doesn’t totally fall apart after his promotion, there’s no reason for a Tigers team that’s desperate for any sort of offensive spark to keep him down in the Minors for much longer.

Matt Mervis, 1B, Chicago Cubs

Mervis’ long-awaited promotion to Chicago didn’t go so well, with a .167/.242/.289 slash line before getting sent back down to Triple-A Iowa a couple of weeks ago. That’s obviously not what you want, but a look under the hood — specifically a 13.8% barrel rate, 91-mph average exit velocity and 50% hard-hit rate should — suggests that there’s still a ton of potential here.

The problem for Mervis was an elevated 32.3% strikeout rate and 33.3% whiff rate, along with a 76.7% zone contact rate. There was always some swing-and-miss in his game, and it would make sense if the big lefty needed some time to adjust to Major League pitching — time that a slumping Cubs team couldn’t necessarily afford. But Chicago has turned things around of late while still not getting much out of first base or DH; Cody Bellinger has started getting starts there as he recovers from his knee injury, but that’s not a long-term solution. Mervis should get another shot at some point this summer, and it could be a much different story the second time around.

Robert Gasser, SP, Milwaukee Brewers

Acquired at the Trade Deadline in the deal that sent Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres, Gasser has put together a solid season in Triple-A Nashville — currently leading the International League in strikeouts. That swing-and-miss has come with a 4.24 ERA, but he’s improved as the year has gone on, with a 2.23 mark over his last five starts. The lefty won’t light up any radar guns, but he has a solid three-pitch mix with his fastball, changeup and big, sweeping slider all grading out as at least average to above-average — and a funky low arm slot keeps hitters (especially lefties) from seeing it very well.

It all adds up to easily a Major League starter, and he should get his shot to prove it sooner rather than later. The Brewers currently have Julio Teheran, Wade Miley and Colin Rea holding down the rotation spots behind Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta, but health issues abound in that group — and for as good a story as Teheran has been, he and Rea aren’t the most reliable options for a team trying to win the NL Central.

Justin Foscue, 2B/3B, Texas Rangers

At first glance, Foscue would appear to be all kinds of blocked at the Major League level, with the Rangers having Marcus Semien and Josh Jung firmly entrenched at second and third base, respectively. But the 14th overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft just continues to hit, slashing .277/.405/.488 so far at Triple-A Round Rock. Ezequiel Duran’s hot season has given him dibs at DH in Texas, but Robbie Grossman has been the one glaring hole in the lineup in left field. And even if his future doesn’t come with the Rangers, he’s one of the names to really keep an eye on as Trade Deadline season revs up — Texas will be looking to add pitching, and they could flip Foscue to a team that will give him lots of Major League run down the stretch of this season.

Top 25 prospects to stash for fantasy baseball