This upcoming weekend is the MLB Futures Game kicking off the All-Star festivities. If you are uninitiated to what the Futures Game is, MLB selects a few prospects from each organization to showcase in this exhibition game and the organizations then pick a player or two from that list to send. Often times it is the top prospects for each system that make it but sometimes there are guys further down the rankings that are having a stellar season or two and are shaping up to be better than thought. I wanted to take the time this week to highlight some of the less well-known prospects in the game, or some of the guys I have yet to write about recently.
Jarren Duran, OF BOS - It’s unusual to see a seventh-round draft pick command a nearly $200,000 signing bonus, but that’s exactly what Duran did when the Red Sox took him in the 2018 draft out of Long Beach State. Despite being drafted in 2018, he’s already made it to Double-A this year, having played 27 games for Portland this year. His first pro season saw him hit .357/.394/.516 with three homers, 42 runs, 35 RBI, and 24 steals in 67 games split pretty evenly between Low-A and A-Ball. Now in 2019, over 77 games, Duran is slashing .328/.398/.446 with four home runs, 61 runs, 25 RBI, 23 steals, 16 doubles, and four triples. His Hit-Speed tools combo is what intrigued the Red Sox as he has a plus hit tool and a double-plus speed tool. He uses that speed to play a stellar defense in centerfield with just four errors committed against 259 putouts and eight outfield assists. While all of that is rosy, he does need to get more loft in his swing as he has a career GB rate over 50-percent to this point and needs to be more patient as he works his way up given that he’s striking out 23.7-percent of the time at Double-A this year and hitting .217. It’s clear that Duran is the Red Sox top outfield prospect and the fastest prospect in the system regardless of position. When he comes up he should hit 10-12 homers a year and steal 35-plus bags as a top of the order hitter.
Brady Singer , RHP KC - Singer was rated by almost everyone as the number two rated draft prospect coming into the 2018 June draft, so it was a shock when the Royals were able to get him at 18th overall instead. A three-year starter in the middle of a stacked Florida Gators rotation, Singer has two plus-pitches right now and one other average offering but it’s the command and control ath makes the pitches play up as a whole. He throws a four-seam fastball that sits in the low-90s and touches 95-96 occasionally and pairs it with a mid-80s slider that, when he stays on top of it, has good bite and depth to it and is an out pitch for him. He didn’t have much need for the changeup in college and so that pitch is still developing but it shows promise of an above-average MLB pitch when fully fledged. The Royals, due to overwork and a minor hamstring issue, had Singer take the end of the 2018 season off and therefore he made his Pro debut earlier in 2019 for them but has already advanced to Double-A Northwest Arkansas. This year in 86.1 innings split between High-A and Double-A, he’s posted a 3.34 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 73:23 K:BB ratio and a .279 BAA. Singer has been roughed up in his 28.2 innings in Double-A but once he figures it out, expect Singer to be move fairly quickly up to Triple-A Omaha before making the Royals in the second half of 2020.
Devin Williams , RHP MIL - After being taken in the second round of the 2013 draft and being developed mostly as a starter while battling injuries, he’s now made the transition to a reliever in 2019 and has taken off to the point where he’s been selected for the Futures Game despite not making the top-30 prospects for the Brewers. Now he was previously in the Brewers’ top-30 prospects when he was compiling 288 strikeouts in his first 287 pro innings with a 3.79 ERA but since missing nearly just over a year and a half with Tommy John, he’s fallen out of the ranks. Mainly using the fastball and slider at this point, he’s posting a 2.59 ERA (3.20 FIP) in 48.2 innings at Double-A Biloxi with a 32.2-percent K-rate and a .189 average against all of which are the best marks of his career in the first half. The walks are still an issue, as he’s hovering just below 15-percent walk-rate this year which is in line with his previous career numbers. He also uses a curveball and a changeup as part of his arsenal but uses those less frequently as a reliever when on a pitch count as they are not as polished of offerings as the fastball or slider are. Williams has the ability to be a swing-man for the Brewers when fully healthy and should be up with the big club some point mid next season.
Jordan Balazovic, RHP MIN - Drafted out of the Canadian High School ranks in the 2016 draft, Balazovic has been slowly progressing through the Twins system after spending a few years in the Gulf Coast League given his relatively low level of competition in Canada. He began to make strides in 2018 and those strides have kept coming in 2019 as he’s traversed two levels of the Twins system in A-Ball and High-A. In 65.2 innings he’s posted a 2.74 ERA with 91 strikeouts and 19 walks, a 1.04 WHIP, .202 BAA, and mid-twos FIP. The righty is consistently in the mid-to-upper-90s with the fastball that has nice sink to it and generates a good ground ball rate. The changeup sits in the mid-80s with great life and fade which helps keep hitters honest despite him throwing it too hard at times and creeping it too close to the fastball velocity to be effective. The slider is a go to out pitch and has nice tight break away from righties and in on lefties. The 20-year-old starter still has a way to go in his development but he’s already showing very nice flashes of being able to be a top half of the rotation starter who should be up in Minnesota come the second half of the 2021 season.
Dylan Carlson, OF STL - Don’t look know but the Cardinals have another great outfield prospect on their hands in Carlson who has shot up rankings to be in or around the last few spots of the top-100 in baseball when he wasn’t ranked pre-season. The Cardinals used a first round pick in the 2016 draft, the second of two, on Carlson out of the California High School ranks and put him straight into full-season ball right away, which is aggressive to start. THe switch-hitting outfielder has an advanced approach at the plate that has produced double-digit walk rates from both sides of the plate consistently and that approach is allowing him to really fulfill his full offensive upside. Through 75 games at Double-A Springfield, Carlson is slashing .287/.365/.512 with 12 home runs, 57 runs, 45 RBI, and 11 steals along with 17 doubles and six triples. Defensively, he has a very strong arm and plays a great outfield with just one error committed in those 75 games this year despite playing in right field and left along with mainly center (57 games). Carlson is still just 20 years old but at 6”2” and 205 pounds he already has the frame of a major leaguer and based on his leaps forward in 2019, should be making a push for the Cardinals outfield in early 2021.
Full Futures Game Rosters