Baseball America Prospect Report—June 15, 2021, Presented By OOTP 22

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Keibert Ruiz, C, Triple-A Oklahoma City (Dodgers): The Dodgers catching situation is an embarrassment of riches. Will Smith is one of the best catchers in the majors. Austin Barnes, his backup, could start for a number of MLB teams. Diego Cartaya in Class A is one of the best young catching prospects in baseball. And sitting in Triple-A ready to go is Ruiz. Ruiz hit his seventh home run of the season on Monday. He’s now hit four home runs in the past five games and is hitting .284/.341/.685 overall for Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Curtis Terry, 1B, Triple-A Round Rock (Rangers): Figuring out the proper assignment for prospects was a tricky part of the 2021 minor league landscape. Take Terry for example. He had finished 2019 in High A Down East, having spent half of that season in Low A Hickory. Having missed the cancelled 2020 season, a logical case could have been made for sending him to Double-A. But Terry is 24 years old, so such an assignment would slow his development. Instead, the Rangers took the risk of having Terry skip Double-A and he’s rewarding their faith in him. Terry his 10th home of the season for Triple-A Round Rock. He’s now hitting .311/.387/.607 and is third in the league in home runs.

Luis Campusano, C, Triple-A El Paso (Padres): Campusano is trying to rediscover his swing at Triple-A El Paso after a very rough stint with the big league club (.088/.184/.088). The recent signs are that he is starting to get comfortable again in the batter’s box. Campusano had two hits on Monday night including a double. That comes a day after a three-hit day. He’s now hitting .318/.400/.545 in June.

Jo Adell, RF, Triple-A Salt Lake (Angels): It’s hard to know what to make of Adell’s season so far. When it comes to making an impact, he’s making as much loud contact as anyone in Triple-A and arguably anyone in the minors. Adell tripled on Monday which was his 24th extra-base hit in just 33 games. His 15 home runs lead the minors. But he also struck out twice on Monday and his contact rates do continue to raise some concerns. He’s striking out in 33 percent of his plate appearances. If he can keep doing the damage he’s doing, that’s a reasonable trade-off, but it does raise a few warning flags about whether he’s ready for a return to the majors.

Jarred Kelenic, LF, Triple-A Tacoma (Mariners): Kelenic homered for the second straight day for Triple-A Tacoma. After going 1-for-12 in his first three games since he was demoted, Kelenic is 3-for-7 with two home runs the past two days.

Hitters 1, Pitchers 0: Considering the ballparks that fuel offenses, every now and then a Las Vegas-Reno game is going to leave every hitter beaming as they leave the park and every pitcher unfortunate enough to enter the game wondering just how bad their ERA has been destroyed. Monday was one of those nights.

Las Vegas scored 11 runs in the third inning on Monday night. And they were the losing team.

You read that correctly. How is it possible for a team to put together one of those innings that comes around once in a player’s career and lose? Well, that’s what playing in the Triple-A West can be like. Las Vegas led 12-6 after its 11-run outburst and tacked on one more run in the fourth, but a five-run Reno comeback in the seventh cut the lead to one, 13-12.

Las Vegas padded its lead with a run in the seventh, 14-12.

So Reno responded with a six-run eighth, 18-14. Las Vegas answered with two in the bottom of the eight to make it 18-16.

At this point, the game had reached the theater of the absurd, but Reno tacked on three more runs in the top of the ninth to pad their lead to 21-16. At that point, Las Vegas finally folded. Miguel Aguilar retired Las Vegas in order in the bottom of the ninth for the 22-16 victory.

The game took 4:14 to play, which qualifies as a brisk pace for a game that included 38 runs, 37 hits, 16 walks, three hit-by-pitches and seven home runs.

Josh Van Meter had two home runs and three hits. Matt Lipka had five hits.

HITTERS

PITCHERS

Scouts On Jo Adell, Jarred Kelenic And Other Graduated Prospects Yet To Establish Themselves

Here is a look at more than a dozen former Top 100 Prospects who have graduated from prospect eligibility but have yet to establish themselves in the major leagues, along with how scouts across the game view them and their outlooks.