The Cleveland Guardians made several transactions recently.
Travis Bazzana’s promotion to Triple-A Columbus turned plenty of heads, but it wasn’t the only significant move.
Ralphy Velazquez went from High-A Lake County to Double-A Akron.
Velazquez has been on an absolute heater with his new team, and though the sample size is limited, everybody’s been impressed with his work.
With that in mind, Guardians farm director Stephen Osterer shared his thoughts on Velazquez’s progress and development.
“I would say it’s a breakout season, for sure. Since July, I’d say he’s probably one of the top hitters in the minors in terms of production,” Osterer said. “The breakout is not something that caught us by surprise. By the underlying measures we were seeing, we knew the performance was going to come because everything else was elite.”
Velazquez has 12 hits in 22 at-bats in Double-A (.545 batting average).
The first baseman also has four doubles, four home runs and one triple, logging a 1.979 OPS in just one week with the RubberDucks.
His third home run with his new team took his season count to 20, becoming the first player in the Guardians’ farm system to reach that number.
That comes on the heels of dominating at High-A, where he slashed .316/.413/.570 with an OPS of .983 in his final month at Lake County.
The Guardians took Velazquez with the No. 23 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, and he’s been one of the best risers in their pipeline.
He looks ahead of schedule for a 20-year-old, and the fact that he’s still pretty much a blank canvas makes him all the more exciting.
He has some hurdles to clear, but it shouldn’t be much longer before he ascends to the majors, maybe even as early as next season.
NEXT: Guardians Executive Reveals Big Update On Triston McKenzie's Progress
