Boston Red Sox: Mike Shawaryn, SP
Naturally, the reigning World Series champions won’t be lead by a ton of rookies. Most of the playing time is taken up by players in their prime, and where there are holes, there aren’t top prospects to fill in because the team has one of the worst farm systems in baseball. However, if their deep starting rotation has injury problems after an extra long season, Shawaryn may be given a chance to shine, especially since he was recently invited to Spring Training.
The 24-year old does not have a true plus pitch by most accounts and does not yet have a lot of playing time to prove himself in AAA, but the former 5th-round pick doesn’t have a ton of weakness either, outside of a developing but promising changeup. Ultimately, his sinker-slider combination could help him pitch right now, even if it doesn’t lead to him dominating.
In the 19 AA games he pitched in 2018, Shawaryn impressed with a 3.23 FIP, thanks to the lack of walks and home runs were given up. He’s never been one to produce a ton of ground balls or strike many hitters out, but until he struggles, Shawaryn will continue to climb. He’s also impressed by going deeper into games as his career has gone on, and given his size, Shawaryn could profile as a workhorse.
New York Yankees: Chance Adams, SP
The Yankees are another team like the Red Sox, in that they don’t have many MLB spots to give to rookies. The last 2 seasons, they have been flooded with impact rookies, but it doesn’t look very likely that there is a 3rd season of that. Should Sonny Gray be traded and one of the more injury-prone starters (such as CC Sabathia and James Paxton) go down, Chance Adams will likely get a shot for a 2nd season.
Adams ranked #12 in the Yankees’ system in the most recent mid-season prospect list from MLBPipeline. He threw mid-90s but his velocity has dipped to low-90s after elbow surgery, has 3 other useful pitches in a slider, curve, and changeup. His command is also MLB-ready. Ultimately, the consensus is that his ceiling is only a mid-rotation starter, but he is ready to pitch in the highest level now if given the chance (no pun intended).
In the 7.2 MLB innings Adams pitched in 2018, he posted a 7.04 ERA and an 8.77 FIP. In other words, it went horribly. On the bright side, that was only 7.2 innings, but his entire season in AAA was not as good as it was prior to his elbow surgery. He still impressed with an average of a strikeout per inning, but his ERA was still closer to 5.00 than it was to 4.00, much worse than 2017.
The hope for Adams is that he can return to his earlier form by recovering more from the surgery and gaining back the velocity he lost. If he is given another MLB opportunity and does so, the Yankees may end up adding to their surplus of young, impressive talent.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
