Apparently, all you have to do in order to earn a big league call-up is to get mentioned in our Boston Red Sox prospect report.
Last week, we talked about Brian Johnson’s impressive start to the season. A few days later, the Red Sox promoted the left-handed pitcher to take Eduardo Rodriguez’s start in the rotation. And after a shaky couple of early innings against the Toronto Blue Jays, Johnson settled down and picked up his first career major league win.
Will anyone be as lucky this week? Here’s our latest Red Sox prospect report.
Michael Chavis (3B, Salem)
Not a bad little week for the 21-year-old, as Chavis hit four home runs over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday alone. He went deep Tuesday and followed that up with a three-dinger day Wednesday, including a two-run walk-off blast. He’s still trying to find his way through the ups and downs of the minor leagues while trying to put an injury-riddled 2016 campaign behind him. The Boston Globe had an interesting tidbit about Chavis, who is taking a more involved approach to his preparation this season with some pretty immediate dividends.
Shaun Anderson (RHP, Greenville)
The Red Sox drafted Anderson in the third round last year out of Florida, where the Gators primarily used him as a closer. However, the 6-foot-4 right-hander has an arsenal more suited for the rotation, with five different pitches. After dipping his toe into the water last season at Lowell, he’s hit the ground running at Greenville this season, allowing just two earned runs over 15 2/3 innings in three starts while striking out 19.
Josh Ockimey (1B/DH, Salem)
Boy, is that Salem team loaded with some good bats at the moment. Ockimey, considered an organizational top-10 prospect in most circles, is having a fine start to the season with 18 hits in 12 games. The strikeout numbers remain high (once every three at-bats or so), but he isn’t afraid to take a walk, as evidenced by a 17.5 percent walk rate. He has projectable power, and you wonder whether a mechanical change could really get him to realize that power potential. As Fangraphs.com points out (and as the video below shows), Ockimey has a pretty compact swing for a power hitter with little to no stride.
Then again, when you have hands this quick, maybe you don’t want to change too much.
Jalen Beeks (LHP, Portland)
At first glance, Beeks’ 5.19 ERA is a bit of an eyesore, but he’s being eased into the season and one home run in 8 2/3 innings kind of distorted that number. Opponents are hitting just .182 off the southpaw and the even more encouraging number is the 15 strikeouts he’s already recorded. He probably projects as a reliever in the long term, but that ability to miss bats is something to watch.
