
Yes, it’s that time. Last week saw the end of the Dominican Summer League season. In fact the Cardinals’ affiliate ended earlier than that, because they did not make the playoffs. The Florida Complex League ended well before that: though unofficial games have been played since then, games with actual recorded stats I can find online stopped in July. I like to cover the leagues as their seasons end and the less leagues I cover, the more players I can list. It will certainly include players who I probably would not bother covering if I needed to cover more teams, but I prefer that over ignoring players who I want to cover, but don’t want to make this 5,000 words. We will start with the DSL.
Dominican Summer League
Sebastian Rojas, C – 17
Stats: 32 G, 139 PAs, .357/.439/.609, 10.1 BB%, 18 K%, .252 ISO, .404 BABIP, 144 wRC+
In a shocking twist, there is another catcher. I genuinely don’t understand this. The Cardinals are growing catching prospects on trees. They just keep popping up in the DSL every year, seemingly limitless. I have followed the minor leagues for over a decade and I can tell you that it did not use to be like this. Catching prospects used to be quite rare in fact, it was the entire reason the Cardinals signed Willson Contreras. They could not find a Yadi replacement.
Jordan Beltran, RHP – 17
Stats: 12 G (GS), 23.2 IP, 34.5 K%, 18.5 BB%, 30.4 GB%, .311 BABIP, 8.37 ERA/6.45 FIP/5.46 xFIP
When hitters step up to the plate against Beltran, nearly 60% of the time, they did not make contact. That’s the good news. The bad news is he was nearly as likely to let a hitter on base for free as he was to strike them out. He had 22 walks and 8 hit by pitches. He had 41 strikeouts. He faced 119 batters all season. He was also quite bad at preventing runners from scoring once they did get on base, with a 53.7 LOB%. But he’s young and he clearly has swing-and-miss stuff and he has a better shot at becoming an elite prospect than probably anyone else on this team. I have no scouting information to back that up, just basing it off his stats.
Michael Cordero, 3B – 17
Stats: 48 G, 199 PAs, .236/.367/.404, 15.1 BB%, 25.6 K%, .168 ISO, .312 BABIP, 90 wRC+
It has been said before that sometimes how much a prospect plays can tell you more than how they actually perform. And Cordero had the most PAs on the team, and it came a season after getting over 100 PAs as a 16-year-old. Ideally, he manages a better hitting line than this of course, but the Cardinals are flashing a neon sign that he’s worth following. He also played some first base.
Juan Garcia, RHP – 18
Stats: 11 GS, 43 IP, 20.5 K%, 5.3 BB%, 38.5 GB%, .309 BABIP, 4.40 ERA/4.40 FIP/4.50 xFIP
And your innings pitched leader on the DSL Cardinals is Garcia. When watching MLB pitchers, I prefer pitchers who don’t walk hitters. When following prospects though, I don’t find these kind of prospects particularly interesting. If you aren’t really striking out a lot at this level, I find it hard to put any sort of investment in the prospect.
Lucas Takahashi, OF – 17
Stats: 43 G, 163 PAs, .264/.521/.321, 33.7 BB%, 19 K%, .057 ISO, .373 BABIP, 142 wRC+
Takahashi played in 12 games last season as a 16-year-old and was basically the same exact hitter. Well this season he actually managed to have a good average. But tons of walks, no power. It is kind of fascinating to see a prospect with the rating bar for patience being 100 and the rating bar for power being 0 though. Hopefully with age comes power or all that walking won’t make much of a difference.
Juan Santillan, RHP – 19
Stats: 15 G (GS), 22.2 IP, 24.5 K%, 14.7 BB%, 30.9 GB%, .232 BABIP, 3.18 ERA/6.37 FIP/5.65 xFIP
By the way, the offensive environment of this league is all kinds of screwed up, because while I wouldn’t actually expect this to be a good pitching slash line, I feel like like the FIP numbers here are weirdly low. Santillan has the lowest ERA on the staff by a good margin.
Luis Estrella, OF – 17
Stats: 24 G, 107 PAs, .306/.439/.576, 15.9 BB%, 29.9 K%, .271 ISO, .404 BABIP, 140 wRC+
It must be easier to find hitting prospects internationally. It’s clearly easier to play in the DSL as a hitter, that is for sure. Each year there are number of notable DSL prospects worth following and they’re always hitters. 17 or younger with good stats. There seem to be around five per year.
Rafeli Moronta, RHP – 16
Stats: 12 G (GS), 25.2 IP, 23.8 K%, 21.8 BB%, 36.6 GB%, .397 BABIP, 11.92 ERA/8.44 FIP/7.56 xFIP
This is what I’m talking about. If I ever stumble on a 16 or 17-year-old pitcher, they always have the worst stats you’ve ever seen. Anyway, Moronta is the lone 16-year-old on the staff and he actually threw the 6th most innings on the team. So he’s a real prospect. But yeah hard to get excited with these stats.
Diego Consecion, 2B/SS – 18
Stats: 41 G, 158 PAs, .294/.462/.496, 23.4 BB%, 25.3 K%, .202 ISO, .423 BABIP, 138 wRC+
Consecion is doing pretty much exactly what you want an 18-year-old to do in this league. The downside is that I don’t really believe in any 18-year-old hitter performing well in this league. But he never got a chance to play at 17, so he’s done all he can do.
Daniel Gomez, RHP – 18
Stats: 11 G (10 GS), 37.1 IP, 23.1 K%, 7.5 BB%, 37.6 GB%, .288 BABIP, 4.10 ERA/5.08 FIP/4.72 xFIP
Trust me when I say that these are elite stats for a pitcher in this league. They are at least elite stats on this team. This is about as good as they get. Well, I don’t need to tell you, you see the evidence.
Misael Sanchez, OF – 17
Stats: 46 G, 183 PAs, .297/.377/.430, 11.5 BB%, 20.2 K%, .133 ISO, .364 BABIP, 97 wRC+
Sanchez is yet another player whose stats I am sharing primarily because of the amount of opportunities they got. They are very mediocre in just about every way, but the Cardinals gave him the 2nd most PAs on the team as a 17-year-old. They see something in him.
Jose Vega, RHP – 17
Stats: 11 G (10 GS), 38.2 IP, 13.8 K%, 14.4 BB%, 50 GB%, .256 BABIP, 5.82 ERA/7.34 FIP/6.73 xFIP
If I shared these stats independent of the rest of this article, you’d wonder why I bothered sharing his stats at all. But you can see how rare it is for a pitcher to have good stats at all, and you might notice the 17 next to his name and also his 10 starts. Which is certainly eye-popping. I’ll also shout out his groundball percentage, which I noticed because just about nobody else has a good one on this team. But he’ll need to miss more bats for sure.
Emanuel Luna, OF – 17
Stats: 9 G, 33 PAs, .417/.576/.875, 24.2 BB%, 18.2 K%, .458 ISO, .467 BABIP, 226 wRC+
Eduardo Mirabel, C – 18
Stats: 7 G, 26 PAs, .333/.462/.667, 15.4 BB%, 19.2 K%, .333 ISO, .400 BABIP, 162 wRC+
Two position players with the smallest sample you could possibly want. In Luna’s case, it appears that he got injured multiple times. But he hit 3 homers in his 9 games. Aside from playing DH, he was also the CF in the games he played in the field. So Luna’s exciting! Mirabel was the backup catcher whose season started at the very end of July, and that’s why he only played in seven games.
Emilio Jimenez, LHP – 17
Stats: 11 G (6 GS), 22.2 K%, 22.2 BB%, 54.2 GB%, .347 BABIP, 9.21 ERA/6.83 FIP/6.58 xFIP
I was on the fence on whether to list these stats until I noticed that he was left-handed, which I actually don’t see very often in the DSL for whatever reason. He is very wild with 12 wild pitches, 3 hit by pitches and a 22 BB%, but I also like how many balls are hit on the ground against him.
Jhon Franganten, OF – 16
Stats: 28 G, 119 PAs, .227/.361/.402, 15.1 BB%, 31.9 K%, .175 ISO, .345 BABIP, 88 wRC+
You know the drill. Look at the age. He got quite a few plate appearances as a 16-year-old and on top of that, he had a good amount of power. Obviously, he had trouble making contact and that’s why he had a below average batting line.
Brayan Amoroso, RHP – 18
Stats: 16 G, 21 IP, 23.8 K%, 20 BB%, 28.6 GB%, .370 BABIP, 8.57 ERA/7.23 FIP/6.70 xFIP
Why am I sharing his stats? Well, he’s a converted position player is why. I thought that was cool. He played the last two seasons as a 1B/OF and could never quite hit, so the Cardinals moved him to pitcher. And while he hasn’t been good, nobody is a good pitcher at this level and he managed to miss 23.8% of bats in his first try pitching. Maybe there’s something here.
Florida Complex League
Hendrick Cana, RHP – 18
Stats (DSL): 5 GS, 19 IP, 29.9 K%, 5.7 BB%, 37.5 GB%, .434 BABIP, 4.26 ERA/3.00 FIP/3.73 xFIP
CPX: 3 G (2 GS), 27.8 K%, 11.1 BB%, 30 GB%, .318 BABIP, 5.87 ERA/3.19 FIP/4.41 xFIP
Oh yeah Cana had good stats at the DSL, but midseason got promoted to the states, which you don’t usually see. He has also thrown a game at Low A, which was on the 19th of August actually. I assume that was a one-off, or I would think he’d have thrown another game since then. It was 2.2 IP of 1 run ball, albeit with 4 walks and 4 strikeouts.
Cristofer LeBron, UT – 19
Stats: 47 G, 179 PAs, .289/.365/.484, 10.1 BB%, 23.5 K%, .195 ISO, .360 BABIP, 105 wRC+
LeBron has played just about everywhere so I was puzzled as to what position to list, but I realized I could just put utility. He has played 13 games in Low A and has struggled to make contact with a 36 K%. I don’t feel the need to list his stats, because I will likely share his Low A stats later when I share stats from Palm Beach.
Jan Cabrera, RHP – 21
Stats: 12 G (6 GS), 42.2 IP, 24.7 K%, 8.1 BB%, 52.9 GB%, .370 BABIP, 2.95 ERA/4.49 FIP/4.28 xFIP
Okay so most of the pitchers with halfway decent stats at this level have been promoted to Palm Beach. Cabrera is no exception. These pitchers usually also have terrible stats at Palm Beach. Again Cabrera is no exception. He’s made 4 appearances and has a 7.90 ERA with not a lot better peripherals. I would prefer not to list those stats out and focus on the positive part of his season.
Yaxson Lucena, OF – 18
Stats: 23 G, 88 PAs, .114/.295/.157, 19.3 BB%, 15.9 K%, .043 ISO, .143 BABIP, 32 wRC+
Lucena had a very good season in the DSL with a 142 wRC+. Clearly he struggled to hit the ball with any kind of authority. His season ended in early June, I suspect for development reasons. Good thing is he’s still just 18-years-old.
Earle Zulueta, RHP – 19
Stats: 12 G (8 GS), 36.1 IP, 22.4 K%, 14.5 BB%, 40.2 GB%, .327 BABIP, 5.45 ERA/6.05 FIP/5.70 xFIP
Zulueta, aside from having an incredibly hard name to spell, had pretty good stats last season in the DSL. Obviously, he struggled in the complex league, although there were positives and he’s just 19-years-old. He also made an appearance in Palm Beach, which was not a good appearance. That was a week ago, I’ll be curious if he pitches again.
Kenley Hunter, OF – 18
Stats: 41 G, 155 PAs, .266/.390/.391, 14.2 BB%, 12.3 K%, .125 ISO, .299 BABIP, 100 wRC+
Interesting fact about Hunter is that he’s displayed more power in the complex league than he did in the DSL. In the DSL he had under a .100 ISO. So not a super exciting line, but he certainly held his own and I imagine he’ll be in Low A next season at 19-years-old.
Xavier Cruz, RHP – 20
Stats: 5 G (2 GS), 15.1 IP, 43.5 K%, 12.9 BB%, 47.4 GB%, .190 BABIP, 3.52 ERA/6.06 FIP/3.19 xFIP
Cruz has been quite unhittable this season. He’s made two multi-inning appearances at Palm Beach as well and has struck out over 40% of batters there too. He’s also getting groundballs. You don’t usually see both at these levels.
Juan Rujano, C – 18
Stats: 22 G, 77 PAs, .224/.325/.343, 9.1 BB%, 28.6 K%, .119 ISO, .302 BABIP, 68 wRC+
After a good offensive season in the DSL, Rujano struggled quite a bit with the bat in the complex leagues. But again, these players all being 18 is really making this a lot more palatable. You can take multiple seasons to adjust to a level when you are that young.
Royelny Strop, OF – 18
Stats: 50 G, 181 PAs, .228/.354/.322, 13.8 BB%, 23.2 K%, .094 ISO, .299 BABIP, 76 wRC+
Strop didn’t really hit in the DSL either, so this is not completely unexpected. He actually significantly cut his strikeout rate in fact, although he also lost some power.
And I’m going to stop there. I forgot that a lot of the good performances in the complex league get promoted to Low A, so not as many players to cover! Good for me though though, because I just watched the Cardinals come back and beat the Dodgers and I need to go to bed!


















