Transitioning away from Monday’s look at the farm system’s hurlers, we can now examine one of my favorite types of prospect. These guys are the neglected hitters, whose swings may have a few peculiarities, or they may simply not have a defensive position, or maybe they only have one loud tool. Each of them face substantial obstacles to success at every point of their baseball journey, more so than even their other teammates on the slog through the lower levels of Minor League Baseball. As a brief reminder that even analytics warlocks still have rules to abide by, here’s the regulatory framework for this exercise:
- Players must be age 22, or younger, on or before 4 May 2021 (Bye Bye, Big Rig)
- Players cannot have previously received an assignment above A+ ball before 2021
- Players cannot be listed on MLB Pipeline’s 2021 Rangers Top 30 Prospects List (Keithron Moss, who was once a hidden gem is #28 on MLB Pipeline’s Rangers Top 30)
In a promising crop of young talent, these four dudes stick out as the forgotten diamonds in the rough, in alphabetical order:
Randy Florentino
Signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2017, Florentino is a 20 year-old catcher that will get his first exposure to full season baseball in 2021.