Minor League Thread 2024

Heating up in the bullpen

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A lot of good things happening in the system. Seems like a good time to speculate on promotions, timelines to MLB call-ups, and such.
Anthony, Mayer and Teel are all having good to great seasons in AA. And Blaze Jordan isn't far behind them.
Lugo already tore up AA and started to do the same in AAA before getting hit by a pitch on his wrist.
Yorke, despite pedestrian numbers in AA had some good stats under the hood, and since his recent promotion to AAA has been lights out.
Kavadas is having a great year in AAA.
And don't forget Chase Meidroth and his .448 OBP in Worcester -- kid just doesn't make outs.
Kristian Campbell was great in Greenville and has continued that in a short time since being promoted to Portland.
Cutter Coffey in Greenville has boosted his OPS from .591 to .820 in a week with homers in six straight games (seven HRs total in those games). I'm not sure a one-week hot streak warrants promotion, especially after so much subpar play, but let's keep an eye on him to see if he's made some real changes to improve his game.
Also in Greenville, Jhostynxton Garcia, older brother of injured catching prospecr Johanfran, is putting up a 1.044 OPS in 14 games after going .882 in 24 games in Salem.
And the Sox #5 prospect, Bleis-a-roni, is starting to get his footing in A+ after his recent promotion.
Both those guys will probably get the rest of the season in Greenville.

Now to speculation... when do these guys get promoted?

AAA guys
Kavadas, Lugo, Meidroth, Yorke -- none are on the 40-man, so unlikely they'd be called up. Kavadas has the further impediment of being a LHH, same as Casas and Casas' fill-in Dom Smith. Lugo, Meidroth and Yorke are all RHH with a bit of positional versatility, so a slim chance one could get the call if a lot of chips fell the right (or wrong) way in Boston.

AA guys
Anthony, Mayer, Teel; Jordan -- it's not hard to make the case that they all look ready for the next challenge. A BOLD statement by the Sox would be to move AMT together. Has there been a time since '75 with Rice and Lynn when multiple Sox rookies were promoted together? Seems unlikely to happen, but I think it would be awesome if these three guys kept developing together and made the show together (and went on to finish 1-2-3 in ROY voting in 2025!).
Blaze -- he's got 339 AA PAs; they gave him 415 in A and 428 in A+. Assume similar in AA and he'll be ready to move up after another 20-30 games.
But the other question is whether there's room in Worcester, where fungible AAAA roster fodder guys like Heineman, Contreras, Alvarez et al are holding positions. The Sox value flexibility. Does moving up these four guys make the Worcester roster a little too stiff?
Campbell - He's played 14 games for Portland, he'll get the rest of the season there.

A+ guys
Coffey -- if Mayer were to be promoted, I could see them moving him to Portland, otherwise no. He's only got 200 A+ PAs, and except for one hot week hasn't proven much.
Garcia -- like Campbell, just 14 games since promotion to this level, so he'll get the rest of the year here.
Bleis -- even less A+ time than Garcia. Hopefully he'll have a great remainder of the season in Greenville and be ready for Portland nest year.
 

JM3

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I like to start at the bottom when I think about this stuff even though it's probably not how it actually works in real life.

When the FCL season ends in like 5 or 6 weeks there are going to be some players they absolutely want to keep playing, including Yoely who is so hot right now they may move him up even sooner.

I'll use my last rankings (even though they're already stale) because they go past 60, but will order the players more based on how likely I think they'll want to get them to A-Ball then by my rankings.

Will also include their wRC+ & in parens the positions they've played this year & # of starts.

Post seems to be just about hitters, so will stick to hitters for this one. Will include literally all of them, though...

Current promotion predictions in bold.

FCL to Salem
#4 YOELY - 176 (SS - 8, 2B - 6)
#19 Arias - 127 (SS - 16, 2B - 7)
#40 Musett - 139 (C - 9, 1B - 9)
#72 Kleyver - 79 (C - 11, 1B 8)
#126 KDiaz - 93 (CF - 13, RF - 7, LF - 3)

#82 Yosander - 100 (LF - 8, CF - 4, RF - 4)
#145 Raimundo - 102 (CF - 13, 2B - 7, 3B - 1)
#59 Starlyn - 68 (3B - 6, SS - 2)
#152 Ayubi - 141 (RF - 14, LF - 6)
#105 GRod - 186 (LF - 4, C - 3, 1B - 1)
#138 Sierra - 75 (LF - 8, 1B - 3, RF - 3)
#184 Franyer - 106 (3B - 8, 2B - 3, LF - 1, RF - 1)
#170 Jimenez - 132 (1B - 8)
#172 Linarez - 41 (3B - 13, 2B - 4)

So I think it's safe to say they'll need to make room for 2 MI types, as well as 1 or 2 C-1B types, & I wouldn't be surprised if they added an OF or two.

Salem to Greenville next post... whenever that may be.
 

greenmountains

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Portland Promotions to Worcester.....I can't find the date of the Eastern League All Star game, but there are no games scheduled from July 15th to July 18th (so I'm assuming it's during that time). The International League has the same off days.

Would a post all star game promotion for the big three make sense? Play in the Eastern League All Star Game and then shuffle off to Worcester. If it's done individual....in my opinion - Teel is ahead of Mayer who is ahead of Anthony. But that doesn't factor in Teel's defense and handling of pitchers.
 

JM3

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Thanks for the follow-up. I always appreciate your thoughts.
Yeah, I admit I’m not following the pitchers much, nor the lower levels.
Yeah, most people care a lot more about the top prospects, & our hitters are definitely overall much more interesting than our pitchers, but I just wanted to go through the flow of how I think it should hopefully look by the end of the year. I'll get to the good stuff when I'm not so swamped with work lol
 

Apisith

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So when do we think the promotions for Anthony, Mayer and Teel will happen? Sometime in July seems right, no? Or would that be too aggressive for Anthony?
 

Heating up in the bullpen

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So when do we think the promotions for Anthony, Mayer and Teel will happen? Sometime in July seems right, no? Or would that be too aggressive for Anthony?
PAs for AMT in Portland -- 2023 / 2024 / Total
Anthony -- 44 / 221 / 265
Mayer -- 189 / 266 / 455
Teel -- 39 / 239 / 278

By PAs, Teel and Anthony are pretty similar, so I wouldn't think a call-up for Anthony to be any more aggressive than a call-up for Teel. Teel has the added challenge of catching and all that entails.
Looking at their offensive numbers, they all appear to be squarely meeting the challenge of AA pitching and ready for the next challenge.
But as noted above, any promotions will come with a diminishment of AAA/AAAA roster flexibility -- removing AAAA guys from the roster who could serve as fungible MLB fill-ins.
As @greenmountains notes above, the All-Star breaks are often a time to make promotions. My guess is Mayer gets promoted first (with the most AA PAs), maybe at the All Star break. Anthony and Teel maybe get moved up late August/September.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Good article on Meidroth:
https://www.masslive.com/worcesterredsox/2024/06/meet-chase-meidroth-the-hitter-wearing-down-pitchers-across-the-international-league.html
During a game earlier this month in Buffalo, WooSox manager Chad Tracy felt like his leadoff hitter, Chase Meidroth, was taking especially good at-bats. He said so to his hitting coach, Rich Gedman.
“Geddy’s sitting there and he says ‘well, he’s seen 44 pitches tonight,’” Tracy recalled.
While seeing nearly one-fifth of the pitches thrown by the Bisons that night might seem like an outlier (and it is - Tracy said he can’t recall a player seeing that many pitches before), it’s a testament to the excellent plate discipline Meidroth has shown all season long.
Chase won't chase.
Meidroth came into Thursday’s WooSox game tied for the most walks of any player across all of the minor league levels with 56 in 278 plate appearances. He added a pair of walks in Thursday’s shortened contest.
He’s also seen the 12th-most pitches of any MiLB player this year. The 22-year-old’s .446 OBP is good for third in the International League, and his 20.1% walk rate ranks second below just Jackson Holliday.
This season, he’s made contact with an impressive 94% of pitches he’s seen inside the zone, and made contact on 91.4% of his swings overall.
That kind of plate discipline and zone recognition is “one of the biggest translators” Tracy sees when it comes to minor leaguers making the jump to the majors.
“Simply put, he just doesn’t swing unless you throw it over. He’s that good,” Tracy said. “It’s not just the walks, it’s what he can do when he gets to two strikes. They’re throwing him tough pitches around the fringes of his zone and he’ll just stand there and foul them off and have a 10, 11-pitch at-bat every time he walks up there. It wears the pitching down.”
Edit:
Mediroth is on a 31-game on-base streak. Since May 12, he has 38 hits and 31 walks in those 31 games, generlly getting on base multiple times every game. Yesterday he went 3-for-5. He’s now hitting .294 with an .841 OPS in AAA.
 
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LoLsapien

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Good article on Meidroth:
https://www.masslive.com/worcesterredsox/2024/06/meet-chase-meidroth-the-hitter-wearing-down-pitchers-across-the-international-league.html


Chase won't chase.


Edit:
Mediroth is on a 31-game on-base streak. Since May 12, he has 38 hits and 31 walks in those 31 games, generlly getting on base multiple times every game. Yesterday he went 3-for-5. He’s now hitting .294 with an .841 OPS in AAA.
Thanks for posting, this is great stuff!
 

The Gray Eagle

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Thanks for posting, this is great stuff!
Thanks!

In less fun news, the Athletic noted that Andrew Politi got released last week.

Right-hander Andrew Politi, who posted a 12.19 ERA in 11 appearances this season, was released last week. Politi, a 2018 15th-rounder, had been selected in the Rule 5 draft by the Baltimore Orioles in 2022, but was returned to the Red Sox in March 2023. Politi posted a sub-2.50 ERA throughout 2022 between Worcester and Portland, but hasn’t found the same success since with a 4.45 ERA in 54 appearances last year in Worcester.
So long Scritti Politti, not exactly the Perfect Way for it to end for him here.
 

LoLsapien

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Was there an injury involved? Kind of surprising to me that they didn't give him more of a chance to figure things out. Seems like getting jerked around different systems could get you out of wack. But, hopefully that speaks to the quality of our pitchers in the minors, rather than Andrew being completely broken. Good luck to him in his future endeavors!
 

JM3

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Was there an injury involved? Kind of surprising to me that they didn't give him more of a chance to figure things out. Seems like getting jerked around different systems could get you out of wack. But, hopefully that speaks to the quality of our pitchers in the minors, rather than Andrew being completely broken. Good luck to him in his future endeavors!
Roster spots are limited with the reduced Domestic Reserve List & he's a 28 y/o RP in his 3rd year at AAA with a 12.19 ERA. Not a lot of upside there at this point.

View: https://twitter.com/ByAndrewParker/status/1803435948174135366
 

JM3

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Some odd choices, but mostly ok.

View: https://twitter.com/EdHand89/status/1813602402366284173

Here are my midseason 2024 Red Sox Farm System All-Stars

First team C- Kyle Teel (AA) 1B- Niko Kavadas (AAA) 2B- Nick Yorke (AAA/AA) SS- Marcelo Mayer (AA) 3B- Chase Meidroth (AAA) OF- Matthew Lugo (AAA/AA) OF- Roman Anthony (AA) OF- Jhostynxon Garcia (A+/A) UT- Kristian Campbell (AA/A+) SP- Luis Perales (AA/A+) SP- Elmer Rodriguez (A) SP- Zach Penrod (AAA/AA) SP- Hunter Dobbins (AA) RP- Ryan Zeferjahn (AAA/AA) RP- Max Carlson (A) RP- Luis Guerrero (AAA)

Second Team C- Mickey Gasper (AAA/AA) 1B- Bryan Gonzalez (A+) 2B- Franklin Arias (FCL) SS- Yoeilin Cespedes (FCL) 3B- Blaze Jordan (AA) OF- Allan Castro (A+) OF- Andy Lugo (A) OF- Miguel Bleis (A+/A) UT- Nick Sogard (AAA) SP- Hayden Mullins (A+) SP- Connelly Early (A+) SP- Blake Wehunt (A+/A) SP- Noah Dean (A) RP- Jonathan Brand (AA/A+) RP- Jedixson Paez (A+/A) RP- Michael Sansone (A)
 

mwonow

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Which do you find odd? The position players seem to make sense, at leastforteam 1. Tbh, I have kind of lost track of the arms this year.