The Kids are Alright: April 2023 Prospect Debuts

Disclaimer: Besides making me feel REALLY OLD, this is my evaluation of all of the guys that debuted in the MLB this season with no stints in prior seasons (i.e. their first cup of coffee if the bigs!)

Jordan Walker - St. Louis Cardinals (78 PAs, 2 HR, 8R, 11 RBI, .274 AVG, 2 SBs) – 25.6% K, 3.8% BB

- Jordan Walker was a consensus top 5 prospect coming into the season. Known for his prodigious power, large frame (6’6”, 245 lbs.), and keen eye at the plate, Walker put on a show during spring training leading to his placement on the opening day roster. This was quite the accomplishment considering he never played in Triple A. Walker held his own in his first taste of the big leagues as evidenced by the stats above. One would like to see the walk rate be a little higher, but that is par for the course with young kids getting their feet wet in the league; especially when he can’t even legally buy a beer yet! No wonder Bud Light sales have taken a serious downturn in St. Louis. Unfortunately, the Cardinals have struggled out of the gate and found a scapegoat in the form of Walker' defense and poor launch angle resulting in his demotion. For now, Cardinals fans will have to wait to see Walker later this summer after he has fixed his defensive woes and improved that launch angle. Or, maybe, the Cardinals just trade him since it seems they have completely derailed and are doing everything they shouldn’t be doing! I pride myself on being a baseball fan, and not a supporter of any specific team, but this is killing me watching from the outside. I am sure the Cardinal’s faithful are handling this much worse than I am! This is a topic for a separate writing unfortunately, or fortunately. Let me know in the comments if I should do a deep dive on this issue.

Taj Bradley - Tampa Bay Rays (15.1 IP, 3.52 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 13.5 K/9 1.17 BB/9)

- Taj Bradley’s April debut was quite a surprise for a lot of prospect enthusiasts. As a self-proclaimed enthusiast, I was equally shocked. The Rays are fantastic at developing talent but they are also very fickle with their call ups. This seemed like an injury replacement promotion from the inception, and the Rays do not usually use their top prospect debuts for those situations. Bradley got the call and looked every bit the part of a top pitching prospect. He showed off the elite fastball that scouts have raved about for years and a mature command of his entire repertoire. Despite the amazing initial few starts by Bradley, the Rays sent him down to adjust his pitch mix and get him onto a 5-day schedule. While working on his pitch mix in the minors, things were looking bleak considering he had a double-digit ERA and was giving home runs at nauseum. He was then recalled with the Drew Rasmussen injury and has minorly scuffled but has turned in a couple of decent starts since the recall. Taj Bradley is an intriguing arm with a ton of upside, and I think he will have a great remainder of the year considering the track record that the Rays have for developing pitching.

Anthony Volpe - New York Yankees (108 PAs, 2 HR, 11 R, 8 RBI, .217 AVG, 8 SBs) – 28.7% K, 14.8% BB

- Here is another consensus top 5 prospect coming into the season who won the job straight out of spring training. Anthony Volpe came into Spring Training 2023 with a purpose: to win the starting the shortstop job. Boy did he do everything he needed to accomplish that and then some! The only issue is, he is only the second shortstop to debut at the age of 21 in Yankees history. Guess the first…that’s right: Derek Jeter. The Captain. El Capiton. No pressure, right? Those are some tough shoes to fill. I guess the only good news for him is he isn’t wearing number 2. That would have been target practice for Yankee fans. Volpe’s calling card(s) as a prospect were his great plate discipline, sneaky pop, and elite baserunning instincts. Despite having average speed, the kid stole 50 bags between Double and Triple A in 2022 while hitting 21 home runs. Not bad for a 21-year-old, right? Shoot my best stolen base stat in college was that I attempted to steal a base! Volpe, like Walker, struggled with his strikeouts in April in his first taste of The Show. However, there is reason for optimism by looking at the near 15% walk rate. That is elite for MLB veterans. Volpe is just getting used to the speed and experience of the MLB game, so the swings and misses are there at this point. He is being selective in the right situations and is taking advantage of his baserunning instincts when getting on base as highlighted by his 8 stolen bases in April. Unfortunately, I can’t find the stats of Derek Jeter in his first April for comparison, but I can tell you that The Captain only hit .250 in his first 15 games. That isn’t a lot to go on, but it does seem like Volpe has the pedigree and baseball IQ to adjust at a young age and turn his skills into a very exciting career that will be worth watching. Don’t worry about filling the Jeter shoes kid. Wear your own size!

Jared Shuster - Atlanta Braves (8.2 IP, 8.31 ERA, 2.42 WHIP, 5.19 K/9, 9.35 BB/9)

- Shuster was another prospect who made the opening day rotation for the Braves with Kyle Wright on the IL to start the season. As you can see from the stats above, he struggled with his command and gave up some runs because of that in his two outings. He is a lefty who has decently graded off-speed stuff by scouts. I am not sure he will ever develop into Tom Glavine, but I do think that with the Braves development, his story is not completely written yet. He was later replaced in the rotation by Dylan Dodd who did come out looking fantastic with his Fastball/Changeup combination. Both were then sent back to the minors to continue development when the Braves rotation was back to full health. These are two promising arms that are ready whenever the Braves need to turn to them due to a spot in the rotation opening.

Michael Busch - Los Angeles Dodgers (10 ABs, 1R, 1RBI, .100 AVG) – 45.5% K, 9.1% BB

- Busch has been a talked about prospect for what feels like years. He has been touted as a guy with decent pop and decent eye at the plate. He came up for a brief cup of coffee to fill in while the Dodgers had half of their team on the paternity list. I mean it was like 10 guys. Did they have a baby making competition during last year’s All-Star break or something? Article on that? Just kidding. I digress. As you can see, he only had 10 plate appearances and did not do too much with it, but I chalk that up to not having enough time to adjust to big league pitching. He has had continued success at each stop of his minor league career, and I am looking forward to seeing what he can do once given a proper runway in LA later this season.

Tanner Bibee - Cleveland Guardians (5.2 IP, 1.59 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 12.71 K/9, 0 BB/9)

- Bibee is one of the Guardians top pitching prospects who has really gained traction in the prospect community since being drafted in 5th round only two years ago out of Cal State Fullerton. He has had continued success in the minors and Guardians are known for being an organization that is great at developing pitching. Bibee came up and dazzled in his debut. He has command of all 4 of his pitches (Fastball, Changeup, Curveball and Slider). His slider has more vertical break than most sliders and this really threw hitters off in his debut. He has a fastball that he can run up to 97 mph that sits around 93-96. He has shown a mature approach and demeanor on the mound and did not look like he was overmatched. I mean look at that K/9 and no walks! That is just his debut! He has continued that success into May and is going to force the Guardians to make a very tough decision when their veterans Triston Mackenzie and Aaron Civale come back from the injured list.

Edouard Julien - Minnesota Twins (27 ABs, 2 HR, 4 R, 4 RBI, .222 AVG) – 30% K, 3.3% BB

- As a friend of mine once said, Auburn’s finest. Julien is from Canada and attended Auburn for his college ball. Julien had a fantastic World Baseball Classic for Canada hitting .538 with a tournament leading 1.154 OPS. He has sneaky pop for his stature but is best known for his advanced eye at the plate. Some scouts have said that his patience at the plate can sometimes be a detriment as it forces him to go deep into counts, usually with two strikes. Scouts say that he should be more aggressive earlier in the count. You can see this being demonstrated by the 30% strikeout rate that he sported in his brief time in the majors. He was later sent down when Jorge Polanco was healthy. As chance would have it, Polanco is hurt again, and Julien is back up and seems to have taken the instructions to heart and is being more aggressive in his most recent May call up. This will be one to keep an eye on as his big issue is that he is not a great defender at any position, and the Twins have a plethora of talent all over the diamond. It will be interesting if he forces their hand and hits his way into a regular role in this most recent call up.

Logan Allen - Cleveland Guardians (11 IP, 2.45 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 13.09 K/9, 2.45 BB/9)

- Logan Allen is the lowest ranked Guardians pitching prospect that was projected to debut this season. And I have to say, if he is the lowest ranked, I am VERY excited to see the higher ranked guys (not named Tanner Bibee) debut this season. Allen is small statured lefty listed at 6’0” 190 lbs. He doesn’t have the power stuff that Taj Bradley has, but he has found continued success in the minors and majors by his deception and command of his arsenal. He only throws about 90-93 mph, but he was whizzing by hitters in his debut. He has an elite slider as graded out by Stuff+ (a pitching metric developed by Eno Sarris of the Athletic). Does this mean I have to develop my own metric? Okay you twisted my arm! He must be deceptive, and he must be good as noted by his April stats. He has continued that success into May as well, most recently dominating the hard-hitting Orioles over 7 innings of his 3-hit ball with 10 strikeouts. He, like Bibee, is really going to make the decision difficult for the Guardians when those injured guys come back. That is not one, but two arms that offer them more paths to victories than some of the arms they already have.

Zach Neto - Los Angeles Angels (52 ABs, 0 HR, 4 R, 4 RBI, .250 AVG) – 16.7% K, 1.7% BB

- Neto was a surprise call up this year. Many didn’t think he would debut until some point next season, but I commend the Angels for being aggressive. They saw that they had a hole at shortstop and brought up one of their more talented prospects and figured they would let him figure it out and work out his kinks at the major league level. Neto is more a glove first prospect at this stage of his early career but has the upside of some decent pop with some speed in his future. He is said to have a decent eye at the plate as well and that is noted by the low strikeout rate that he is sporting early in his MLB career as well. I guess the good news for Neto is he doesn’t have a generational player’s shadow to play in, right Anthony Volpe?

Mason Miller - Oakland Athletics (8.1 IP, 6.48 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 11.88 K/9, 2.16 BB/9)

- Mason Miller is another surprise call up that was not a premier prospect coming into the season. He was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2021 draft by the Oakland Athletics. He has a really cool story being diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes and only weighed about 150 pounds at the time. He then did some research and learned about the effects of dieting and training with his diagnosis and went on to put another 50 pounds of good weight on and started lighting up the radar guns with triple digit fastballs that lasted deep into his starts. He got the call from A’s in April and hasn’t looked back. He came as advertised. He was blowing 100+ mph fastballs by his opponents but was lacking command of his fastball and secondary pitches – a mid-90’s cutter and an upper 80’s slider. He has a ton of upside despite his low prospect ranking. His fastball grades out in Stuff+ in comparison with a guy who may have the best fastball in the game, Jacob DeGrom. He has battled arm issues early in his career and is already on the IL with an arm injury. Unfortunately, he may have to wait until the A’s change venues and maybe overall front office before he can start developing in his raw skillset. Regardless, I am excited to see what the future holds for this kid. Who doesn’t like watching a guy come in and blow triple digit fastballs for 5+ innings? If you don’t, you’re not a true baseball fan. Don’t @ me.

Johny Brito - New York Yankees (22.2 IP, 5.56 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 6.75 K/9, 4.37 BB/9)

- Brito is one that I had to write about because of the parameters of the article. I am true to my word! Every debut in April with no prior MLB experience. That is not to say that Brito isn’t an exciting young arm in the game. Brito is an older prospect debuting at the ripe age of 25. He has a nasty arsenal consisting of a mid to upper 90’s fastball, average curveball and above average slider and changeup. He was fantastic in his debut shutting out the Giants over 5 innings with 6 strikeouts and 1 walk. From there, the walks increased, and strikeouts dwindled over the rest of the month. However, Brito showed us what he has in the tank if he can correct his big issue that scouts have pegged him for since he signed with the Yankees in 2015, his command. If he can develop that command, he can be another great arm to slot into that Yankee rotation that is dwindling with their big offseason signee, Carlos Rodon, on the IL and not recovering the way they had hoped.

Here are all the guys that made their true MLB debut in April 2023. I hope you guys enjoyed it. If there is anybody I forgot, or if you just have any comments about any of these young up and coming MLB players, drop it in the comments. I look forward to reading them and can’t wait to let you guys know my thoughts on the May debuts! Pitching prospects galore! Until next time!

--Keller Douglas