The Cleveland Guardians’ farm system has plenty of talent, particularly when it comes to position players.
Chase DeLauter, who returned to the lineup on Sunday after a couple of days of rest due to lower-body soreness, and Travis Bazzana get most of the attention, but fellow first-rounder Ralphy Velazquez is slowly hitting his way into that tier.
The talent is comparable, at least when strictly talking about offense.
Velazquez, taken by the Guardians with the No. 23 pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, is slowly starting to tap into his potential with each passing week.
The sweet-swinging first baseman/left fielder is not only enjoying a fantastic spring with a .500 batting average and two doubles, but is also starting to get some much-deserved national attention.
The folks at Bleacher Report named each team’s best power-hitting prospect, and they went with Velazquez as the Guardians’ representative.
Yes, ahead of DeLauter, Bazzana, and others.
And you know what? Velazquez has a pretty strong argument for having the most raw power in the system.
“The Guardians’ pick is a toss-up between Velazquez and outfielder Chase DeLauter, and while DeLauter is the more polished player, Velazquez owns a slight edge in pure power. The burly 6’3″, 240-pound masher took a step toward turning potential into production with an .839 OPS and 22 home runs in 2025, including a .330/.405/.589 line and five long balls in 28 games after a late promotion to Double-A,” Joel Reuter wrote.
Maybe DeLauter has the quicker wrists, but Velazquez can send a ball further away and has actually done it 20 times in the same year, with 22 long balls in 2025 between High-A and Double-A.
Both of them represent the future for an offense-starved Guardians team that will likely have both in the MLB lineup at some point in the summer, if Velazquez continues to develop as he recently has.
The Guardians will likely assign him to Double-A to start the year, to force him to show he can do what he did last season, but over a longer sample.
If he can master Triple-A, and the evidence and the talent suggest he can, it’s a matter of time before we see him at Progressive Field.
NEXT: Travis Bazzana Earns Major Role In World Baseball Classic
