Jarren Duran is garnering quite a bit of attention this year, and rightfully so.
The Boston Red Sox prospect impressed during spring training, and will be playing in the Worcester Red Sox’s Opening Day game in New Jersey on Tuesday night.
Duran already is turning heads while many fans are hopeful he will join the Red Sox in Boston this season. So it’s no surprise MLB.com named him as the prospect they’re most excited to see this year.
Here’s why:
Duran already was the fastest player and best athlete in Boston’s system before making some swing changes last summer to add power, which translated into him starring in winter ball and the Grapefruit League. If the 2018 seventh-round pick from Long Beach State can keep that momentum going, he could provide a boost to a contending big league team that needs more outfield production.
The speed of Duran really is incredible. And if he can continue to improve his defense while being a force at the plate, he’ll certainly be quite the threat.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom revealed Tuesday that it will be Duran who will tell the team when he’s big-league ready.
“He’s gonna tell us by how he’s doing,” Bloom told reporters. “It’s funny because obviously we’re used to this minor league season starting around the same time as a major league season does. And that’s obviously not the case this year. … I think we’re gonna learn a lot. We want to make sure we don’t try to learn too much from a really small sample but just having him go through the ups and downs of the season and playing every day and doing it with the various ways that we have to track his performance.
“… But at the end of the day it’s up to the player, … but he’ll tell us when he’s ready.”
Now it’s just a matter of time until Duran perfects his game.
