When it comes to prospects, Sam Dykstra, Jim Callis, and Jonathan Mayo know what they’re talking about.
They have years of experience analyzing each team’s best prospects, their estimated time of arrival, tools, potential, and more.
So, when they say that Chase DeLauter is the Cleveland Guardians’ best power-hitting prospect, you can expect they’re close to the truth.
They analyzed each team’s most promising power prospect, and of course, DeLauter and his short, explosive swing from the left side of the plate came out on top in Cleveland.
“DeLauter’s unusual combination of size, athleticism, performance, and plate discipline comes with plus usable power and the plus hitting ability to tap into it. Repeated injuries have limited him to 138 Minor League games since he went 16th overall out of James Madison in 2022 (and he was scratched Wednesday from a Cactus League game for precautionary reasons), but his .302/.384/.504 line with 20 homers is a testament to his potential,” they wrote about him.
With DeLauter, it will all come down to health.
On Wednesday, he was held out of the lineup for precautionary reasons to help him deal with some early-camp soreness.
He is expected back soon, though, so don’t panic yet.
Yes, we are talking about a prospect who has developed a reputation for being injury-prone even without having played a regular-season game in the majors, but DeLauter is as healthy as he has ever been and is expected to rotate between right field and center field for the Guardians, according to manager Stephen Vogt.
If he stays in one piece this year, he is a strong candidate to be among Cleveland’s home run leaders this year, probably behind Jose Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo but firmly near the top.
Scouts say that DeLauter can easily hit 20-25 long balls at the highest level: he just needs to stay healthy, and that’s a big ‘if.’
He has the bat speed and barrel control to finally give the Guardians a long-term building block from a corner outfield spot aside from Steven Kwan.
Jhonkensy Noel, Will Brennan, Johnathan Rodriguez, and many others failed before him, but DeLauter has everything in his favor to break the trend.
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