Boston Red Sox minor league players of the year announced
The Boston Red Sox announced their minor league players of the year on Wednesday. None of them should come as a shock, but they’re all well deserved.
Sure, the minor league season might be over; but there’s still some interesting stuff going on. The Boston Red Sox announced their minor league players of the year awards on Wednesday. With it came little surprises. The players definitely deserved their awards.
Red Sox announce their minor league players of the year: pic.twitter.com/607nUtyILm
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) September 18, 2019
We’re going to go award-by-award in a moment. However, I want to start off by saying that we won’t be talking about the Latin Program players. Truthfully, I don’t know much about them because there’s no way to watch the games.
Darel Belen is a 19-year-old who plays mainly the outfield. The right-handed hitter slashed .281/.370/.430 with 39 RBI, 51 runs scored and 14 steals.
Nixson Munoz is an 18-year-old left-handed pitcher. He tossed 60 innings, posting a 2.40 ERA and striking out 62 batters.
Both certainly had standout seasons, but it’s hard to judge too much as there’s no real tape on them.
The other awards are much easier to discuss though. All the players were featured regularly on the weekly prospect watch and all had shining moments in 2019.
At times, all of them were dominant, and at times they all showed they have plenty of potential that can get them far in their careers. We’ll talk about their 2019 seasons but also look into the future. How far is each of the award winners from the Majors? What should you expect from them next year? Could they be repeat winners?
In the words of Roger Smith, let’s “dive on in” (if you get the joke, just know I love you).
Offensive Player of the Year (Triston Casas)
Triston Casas is 19. That’s something I’m going to have to restrain myself from saying too much because it seems impossible.
In his first full season in the Red Sox organization, he didn’t disappoint in the slightest. The left-handed hitter made the switch to first base (drafted as a third baseman) and absolutely raked.
Casas hit .254 with 25 doubles, five triples, and 19 home runs in 118 games for Full-A. He drove in 78 runs and scored 64 more, stealing three bases and walking 58 times.
Then Casas moved up to Advanced-A, playing two regular season games. He hit .429 (3-for-7) with one double, one home run, three RBI and two more runs scored as well.
All together, that equaled out to a .256/.350/.480 slash line in his first season.
Casas also got to play in the postseason for Advanced-A, going 5-for-19 (.263) with a double and an RBI.
One thing you’ll notice immediately about Casas is his size. An absolute unit at 6’4″, Casas has the frame to be a menace at the plate and a big target at first base. What this makes even more surprising though is his batting stance.
Casas chokes up pretty heavily on his bat. It makes the power all that much more impressive, and you have to love the fact that he’s doing what’s comfortable for him and clearly looking to make contact.
Something that shouldn’t go noticed is his defense. He’s not perfect at first base but he looked great in his first year at the position. Casas posted a .995 fielding percentage and was pretty smooth there.
He’ll most likely spend all of 2020 in the minors. Casas will likely start in Advanced-A but should get called up to Double-A at some point.
Due to the fact that he’ll probably spend the entire year in the minors, banking on Casas winning the OPOY again is a safe bet.
His MLB debut could easily come as early as next year, but 2021 is much more likely. The only way 2020 is happening is if Casas really shows out and Boston has issues at first base.
Defensive Player of the Year (Ryan Fitzgerald)
Ryan Fitzgerald is so easy to root for. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
The 25-year-old shortstop wasn’t even in the minors two years ago. Now he’s winning awards in the Boston Red Sox minor league system.
Fitzgerald hit .271 with career-highs in doubles (25) and triples (7) while adding three homers. He also had career-bests in RBI (65), runs scored (63) and steals (11).
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Defensively, Fitzgerald is smooth. He had a .960 fielding percentage. That might not sound spectacular but there’s a lot that goes into this.
First off, that’s not a miserable number for shortstops. Javier Baez is considered one of the best at his position and he’s rocking a .973 fielding percentage.
Then, of course, there’s the rest of the team. Many people always talk about how a pitcher’s numbers in the minors might get skewed because the fielding in the league simply isn’t as good.
That goes the same way for the fielders though. Fitzgerald, like any shortstop, isn’t always spot on with his throws. A lot of times a first baseman will bail his shortstop out (Anthony Rizzo with Baez for example). In Advanced-A Fitzgerald didn’t exactly have Rizzo picking balls for him.
This is definitely an award Fitzgerald can win again. He makes a lot of flashy plays and tends to make the routine ones as well. He’s going to be in the minors all of 2020 so that helps as well.
As for his MLB prospects, that’s a tough one. Never count him out, as he’s taught us.
However, he’s not a highly-touted prospect. He’s at a loaded position for Boston and with Xander Bogaerts locked down for a while, it’s not opening up anytime soon.
Fitzgerald’s a really useful player that could scratch and claw his way up. I could honestly see him as a really solid utility guy. Good defense and a solid bat with a lot of potential in it.
Not next season, and probably not the year after that either. But Fitzgerald could be playing in Boston at some point in his career. I mean, he’s winning awards in their minors. That’s got to count for something, right?
Pitcher of the Year (Thad Ward)
This one was a little bit tougher. You could make a really strong argument for quite a few pitchers here. Bryan Mata is a stud and Chase Shugart was great.
There was only one real answer for the Red Sox though. It had to be Thad Ward. He was easily the most consistent of all their pitchers. And that consistency was total dominance.
Ward had a 2.14 ERA over 126 1/3 innings combined between Full-A and Advanced-A. The 22-year-old righty had a .198 BAA and 1.16 WHIP and struck out 157 batters. Oh, and this was his first full year in the system.
Ward was constantly putting together scoreless streaks and never went through a serious rough patch.
The future is bright too. Ward doesn’t completely overpower with a fastball. He tops out at 96, which is really good – but my point is, it’s not like he’s just cruising by using a 100-MPH fastball.
He has a decent curveball and a solid slider that made hitters look foolish on occasion. His cutter is the main attraction in my opinion. Mixing it in with his sinker and fastball, Ward has three plus-pitches and it’s really unfair to the hitter.
His fastball and sinker both reach the mid-90s and the cutter sits just below 90-MPH and has a good cut to it. That can really confuse hitters. Throw in the slider and things just get ridiculous.
Ward won’t be in the Majors next year. He’ll likely start in Double-A, maybe start in Advanced-A for a little bit.
However, even if he starts in Double-A, Boston will likely let him develop more. Ward has the potential to be very special. Give him some time in the minors to sharpen his edges. He’s only thrown 157 1/3 innings so far – don’t rush it.
2021 though, that’s a different story.
Baserunner of the Year (Jarren Duran)
This was the easiest award to guess. I mean, it couldn’t have been anyone else at all.
Jarren Duran has elite speed. The outfielder stole 46 bases this year between Advanced-A and Double-A. Seriously, ridiculous.
Duran hit .303 between the two leagues. The left-handed hitter had 24 doubles, eight triples, and five homers. He drove in 38 runs and scored 90 more. The speed is so obviously there. It shows in the 90 runs scored and the 46 steals.
However, it’s not just the steals. Duran does everything well. He’s fantastic defensively and that bat has been legit.
No, he’s never going to get you 20 home runs. Is that necessary though? Not when you can turn a single into a triple by stealing a few bases in the blink of an eye.
There’s really not much else to say about Duran. He’s one of the most exciting prospects in the Boston Red Sox system.
As for where he’ll start next year, this is the easiest to predict. Duran will be in Double-A. He came back down to earth slightly while there. The Red Sox would be smart to give him more time there and see if he can go back to dominating before moving him up.
At the same time though, Duran could be in the Majors at some point next year. The Red Sox have a lot of question marks when it comes to what their roster will look like next year. That could free up a clear path for Duran.
If Duran goes back to that ridiculous domination that he showed in the first half of 2019, in 2020 – he’ll be in Boston.
Lou Gorman Award (Trevor Kelley)
Love it, love everything about it. Trevor Kelley isn’t putting up the best numbers in the Majors, but he has thrown six innings so far.
Believe it or not, even Mariano Rivera had a bad few innings before. It’s not fair to judge someone off a few bad outings.
However, it’s pretty fair to look at someone’s season and career numbers. In 247 minor league innings, Kelley has a 2.37 ERA. Meanwhile, in 65 1/3 innings this year, the 25-year-old righty had a 1.79 ERA.
Kelley is often criticized for a bunch of ridiculous sabermetric stats. Don’t get me wrong, they serve a great purpose. But sometimes people take them too seriously.
Let’s look at the basics. Kelley had a 1.79 ERA, a .216 BAA and a 1.10 WHIP. Those numbers are great. He kept runners off base and didn’t give up runs.
Oh, he allowed a good amount of fly balls? Guess what? A fly ball could be a pop up barely out of the infield or a robbed home run. Let’s not pretend like they’re all the same thing.
Kelley will likely start 2020 in Triple-A though. Unless he really impresses over the last few games he won’t have a realistic shot at the Majors to start the season.
That being said, it’s something that should definitely be in the cards again for 2020. The Red Sox will definitely make some moves with their bullpen but he could easily be considered the “next man up”.
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I know I’m beating a dead horse here. But I truly believe Kelley could be a serious asset to this team in the future. He’s still just 25 and looked better than he ever has in the minors this year. Why can’t we believe he’ll take the next step in 2020.