Deyvison De Los Santos Has Rare Power

Pick a batted-ball metric—average exit velocity, max exit velocity, hard-hit percentage—and there’s a good chance third baseman Deyvison de los Santos will be at or near the top of the leader board in the Diamondbacks’ system.

“He hits the ball as hard as anybody in our organization—and that’s big leagues down,” D-backs farm director Josh Barfield said.

The results reflect that. In 24 games in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League, de los Santos hit .321/.409/.605 with 11 extra-base hits, including five home runs, in 93 plate appearances.

The D-backs promoted the 18-year-old to Low-A Visalia in early August.

Though he struck out nearly 26% of the time in the ACL, de los Santos had also shown a willingness to take his walks. He drew 12 before his promotion.

His hitting coach Mark Reed said he has seen improvement from his pupil when it comes to recognizing and hitting breaking balls.

Reed expects there likely always will be some swing-and-miss to de los Santos’ game, but he also has seen the sort of off-the-charts power potential that would be worth the tradeoff. Reed said he has watched the righthanded-hitting de los Santos hit balls over light towers on the backfields at Salt River Fields.

“I’ve been around a big league team for a long time and seen some guys with huge raw power,” said Reed, former big league bullpen catcher. “At his age, it’s the most I’ve ever seen.

“I’m telling you, the guy will miss-hit some stuff and they’ll be homers to right-center field. That’s how strong he is.”

De los Santos, who signed for $200,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2019, has a high leg kick and a lot of movement before his swing. He is still learning to sync up consistently to stay on time. He is said to be a hard worker with a good daily routine and a student of the game.

As a bat-first prospect with some risk of moving to first base, there is a lot of pressure on de los Santos’ bat. But his ability allows the D-backs to dream on him becoming a middle-of-the-order bat.

“It’s a long way away from (the majors), but yeah he does have some tools that you don’t see from many people, especially the raw power,” Barfield said.

SNAKE BITES

— Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, who was hitting .151 for Double-A Amarillo, was placed on the development list and transferred to Salt River Fields to rework his swing.

— Righthander Bryce Jarvis has been out since mid July with a left oblique strain, but Barfield said he is making progress in his recovery and should be back by the end of August.