Since this is the mid-season write-up, it's just a quick overview of the player. When we get to the preseason re ranking in the offseason, they'll be a lot more involved.
All stats are current as of 8/4/2019.
All write-ups were published during all-star week.
Prospect #16: OF Jhon Torres
Johnson City Cardinals (Currently out with a hamstring issue)
Acquired from CLE as part of the Oscar Mercado trade
Age 19
I love Jhon Torres. With him, I just.... I just see "IT". I see it in his swing. In his skill-set. I see it in-game. I see a raw baseball player that is just seasoning and reps away from being a top 200-250 prospects in baseball.
Like with Nunez, Torres got a small taste of Peoria about mid-way through the first half of the season. Also like Nunez, Torres was terrible, at first. He was chasing everything and striking out a ton. It actually killed my soul. While Nunez was starting to figure it out a little bit, Torres was still swinging like a jackass at everything thrown his way. It was... not encouraging, let's say.
Then, before he was removed from Peoria and sent back to extended spring training, something natural started to happen. All of the sudden, Torres was doing a better job of identify breaking pitches and understanding how he was going to be attacked. Over his last eight games with Peoria, eight of twenty-one mind you, Torres hit 333/345/444 with three doubles in a small sample of 29 plate appearances. His K% was still an alarming 34.5%, but that was actually down from the 40% that he was putting up over his first 13 games with Peoria. It felt like he was figuring it out, even if only a little bit.
Since being assigned to Johnson City for the start of the short-season affiliated rookie ball, Torres has looked like the hitter that really excelled for the Cardinals after being acquired in 2018. This corner outfielder with a plus arm is back to showing signs of being a dynamic offensive threat. He's been at the top of the JC lineup, too.
As the stats above show you, he's still striking out WAY too much, and often on breaking pitches. That's something that still needs work, and emphasizes just how raw Torres is. But if he figures it out, or, rather, once he figures it out (like he's demonstrated in the past), he's going to be a top 5 prospect in the organization.
Thanks to Fangraph for the stats!
Thanks For Reading!!