Boston Red Sox Prospects: Player at each level that needs more attention

Triple-A: Boston Red Sox outfield prospect Devlin Granberg

Like I said before, Triple-A was tough. Because when you’re knocking on the door to the Major Leagues, you’re going to be getting at least a semi-decent amount of coverage.

That being said, it feels like Devlin Granberg hasn’t been getting the attention he deserves for years now. He might not jump out at you as a potential superstar. But everything about him screams professional hitter that you want on your team.

The right-handed hitting outfielder looked phenomenal in 2018 and 2019. Then in 2021 he took a massive step forward. Playing in both High-A and Double-A, Granberg saw basically all his numbers rise. He hit .297 and posted a career-best 17 home runs. The run production was great too, driving in 74 runs and scored 69 more.

In 2022, the power has been down a bit. Maybe that’s why people aren’t talking about him as much as they should be. Having appeared in both Double-A and now Triple-A, Granberg is slashing .291/.402/.426. The slugging is down from .515 last season, but that’s a career-high in OBP at the moment. In fact, it’s a pretty significant leap.

Granberg has just two home runs, but he’s already roped 16 doubles and tied his career-high with five triples. He’s driven in 21 runs, scored 39 more, and his seven steals is one off tying his career-best.

The Dallas Baptist product doesn’t strike out much, and gets on-base. He has more power than he’s shown this season, and even if the homers aren’t falling he finds gaps. There’s not crazy speed or anything, but he has more-than enough to leg out lots of doubles and sneak in some steals. Put him in Fenway and he could get you a lot of wall-ball doubles.

Meanwhile, Granberg is pretty sound defensively in the outfield. And he can play first base as well.

The numbers this season have been great. They aren’t an outlier either, he’s produced every year at every level. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s 26 that is turning some fans off. But Granberg has always looked more mature at the plate than everyone else at his levels. So it’s not like it took him a while to get going. It’s just a case of a guy getting drafted out of College, then getting hit with that COVID year.

Is Granberg going to come up to the Majors and be the next Mike Trout? Probably not. But he can be more-than serviceable. He’ll get on-base a lot and probably win over a lot of fans quickly. And just one stop away from Boston, you’d think he’d be getting extra love. Especially with the Red Sox issues at first base and (to a much lesser extent but still sort of there) outfield depth.