Baseball America Prospect Report—September 20, 2021

Sunday brought to an end the regular season for all Double-A, Class-A and U.S. complex leagues. There will be postseason series this week and Triple-A and the Dominican Summer League will continue to play for a couple of more weeks, but for most of the minors their seasons ended this weekend.

After the completely lost 2020 season, it’s hard to think of a minor league season more anticipated and more needed than this one. MiLB teams are still suffering financially, but they have now cleared the books of any make-goods they faced and can go into the 2022 season hoping that next year will be the first “normal” season in three years.

For the players, 2021 was the chance to make up for lost time or get a start as a professional. There will be a significant number of players whose careers came to an end this weekend—the churn of minor league rosters is unrelenting. But unlike those whose careers finished during the pandemic in 2020, these players got a final memory and a final chance to be part of a team competing for something.

On to the games:

Owen White, RHP, Rangers: In White’s final three starts of the season he struck out 12, 10 and 11 batters. He ended up striking out 33 of the 69 batters he faced this month, capping the month by allowing two runs in 7.2 innings on a two-run Patrick Merino home run. White actually carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning—the only baserunner who reached in the first seven innings was on an error.

Hans Crouse, RHP, Phillies: Crouse has been quite reliable since the Phillies acquired him at the trade deadline. His sixth and final start of the season as part of Double-A Reading’s rotation was the best—he held Binghamton to four hits and a walk in six scoreless innings while striking out nine.

Eduardo Diaz, CF, D-Backs: When Diaz was at High-A Hillsboro, he hit .227/.278/.463. Despite that, the 24-year-old was promoted to Double-A Amarillo. It’s only been a month and a half, but Diaz has hit .316/.387/.633 for the Sod Poodles, capped by Sunday’s 4-for-5 day with two home runs. Diaz had seven home runs and 15 extra-base hits in 26 games with Amarillo. He had only 22 extra-base hits in 56 games with Hillsboro.

Parker Meadows, CF, Tigers: Meadows likely will get to play somewhere other than the very pitching-friendly environment of West Michigan next year, which is some very good news for the younger brother of Austin Meadows. Right now 220 of the 251 pro games Meadows has played have been with West Michigan. He finished a .208/.290/.330 season with an excellent final game, going 3-for-5 with three runs scored, two doubles and a home run.

Bubba Thompson, RF, Rangers: Thompson went 3-for-6 with a triple and a home run in the final game of the regular season. Thompson didn’t have a dominating season, but it was solid and very consistent. Thompson hit no worse than .256 in any month and never hit better in .289 in any month.

Naswell Paulino, RHP, Blue Jays: Paulino never touched 90 mph with his fastball on Sunday, but a heavy dose of quality low-80s sliders kept Clearwater hitless for five innings as he walked three and struck out eight. Dunedin two-hit the Threshers in the season finale for both teams. This is the second time this year where Paulino left with a no-hitter. He worked six hitless innings in early August, but just like today, the first reliever to replace him quickly gave up a hit.

Kyle Wright, RHP, Braves: Wright is stuck in a nether-world of the 4A player for now. He got two starts in the majors this year and allowed seven runs in just 6.1 innings. That raised his MLB ERA to 6.56 in 70 innings. But at the same time, he’s proven he’s capable of getting outs at Triple-A Gwinnett. Wright carried a perfect game into the seventh inning, losing it on a Tyrone Taylor double. He also gave up a Christian Kelly single in the ninth, but those were the only two hitters to reach on him all day. Wright’s complete game shutout gave him his 22nd career win for Gwinnett, lowering his Triple-A ERA for this season to 3.34.

Tyler Black, 2B, Brewers: Black was one of several draftees who put up outstanding numbers with Wright State this season. His introduction to pro ball saw him post similar on-base percentages thanks to plenty of walks, but also saw very little else. But needing a big day in the season finale to finish the year above .200 at Low-A Carolina, Black went 4-for-5 to raise his average from .184 to .222. He finished the year hitting .241/.426/.322 between Carolina and the Brewers complex team.

In Case You Missed It

On Saturday, Indians RHP Daniel Espino held High-A Beloit to two hits in 6.2 scoreless innings. He struck out 10. Opposing hitters are hitting only .170 against him . . . Giants RHP Ryan Murphy has found no issues jumping up to High-A. Murphy’s final start of the regular season saw him only one hit while striking out eight in four scoreless innings. Between Low-A and High-A he’s struck out 164 and walked 26 in 107.1 innings while holding hitters to a .189 average . . . Royals OF Seuly Matias homered twice for Double-A Northwest Arkansas. . . Red Sox LF Devlin Granberg doubled twice and homered for Double-A Portland.

On Friday, Rays C/SS Ford Proctor homered twice with Double-A Montgomery. That gave Proctor 12 home runs in a season in which he has 57 starts at catcher, 24 at shortstop, five at third base and three at second base . . . Brewers 2B Keston Hiura homered twice for Triple-A Nashville and then went 3-for-4 on Saturday with a double. While that’s encouraging, his 45 total games at Nashville are disconcerting. He’s hitting .184 this month despite his great weekend and was hitting .266/.374/.474 overall for Nashville . . . Twins 1B Aaron Sabato homered twice on Friday and once more on Saturday . . . Brewers OF Joey Wiemer homered twice on Friday for High-A Wisconsin. Since Aug. 1, Weimer has 18 home runs in just 39 games . . . The Mets promoted 3B Mark Vientos to Triple-A Syracuse on Thursday, which gives him another 10 games before the season ends. Vientos homered and doubled on Friday in his second game with Syracuse . . . D-Backs SS Ryan Bliss hit for the cycle on Friday with Low-A Visalia.

Over the course of both games of a doubleheader with Low-A Daytona, Reds SS Jose Torres singled, doubled, tripled and homered as he went 4-for-5 between the two games . . . Mariners RHP Jimmy Kingsbury threw the first seven innings and Kelvin Nunez finished off the final two innings of a no-hitter against Stockton. Kingsbury, the M’s 17th-round pick this year out of Villanova, struck out 10 and walked one . . . Mariners LHP Brandon Williamson struck out 10 and walked one for Double-A Arkansas. Williamson allowed six hits and one run . . . Padres LHP MacKenzie Gore’s second start with Double-A San Antonio was another solid outing. He did walk three in four innings, but he struck out eight. He allowed three hits and one earned run . . . Orioles LHP Drew Rom threw five perfect innings against Double-A Altoona.

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