Overview-Signed as a free agent, Baez has solid tools but is quite raw. He flashed significant potential in his rookie season, but still has a long journey ahead of him.Hitting-Baez has solid bat speed, and his raw power is immense. He has a good swing path that would seem to indicate more consistent hard contact as he matures. His plate discipline and awareness are very raw at this stage, and he'll need to show significant improvement in both areas if he's going to transform into a top prospect with the bat.
Fielding-For a large guy, Baez is very coordinated and composed. He also has a quick first step which leads to surprisingly decent range. Pedro's most obvious defensive tool is his outstanding arm strength, but it can get wild from time to time. Even though it'll be a harder position to play as he fills out more, Baez has all the tools to stick at third in the long-term.
Baserunning-He has good reactions, but his top end speed is below average. He also figures to get at least marginally slower as he matures.
Mental-Nothing to note.
Health-No significant injuries that I know of.
Performance-Once again, with many players who only have half a season of professional baseball under their belt, it's very hard to find any meaning in their statistics.
Other-As evidenced by his coordination and fluidity, Baez is a very good athlete.
Projection-If everything develops according to plan, Baez could easily become a major league regular at third, and has the talent to make All-Star teams. His ceiling is high, but it's still very early in his development, and things can change from year to year.
The Dodgers will try to push him to A- ball this year, but given how raw he is, I expect him to repeat a level at least once somewhere along his path to bigs. To set an arrival date at this point in his development would be nothing more than a wild guess, so i'm going to wait until I see more of him.
Original Story:
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