This season went about as bad as possible for the Dominican Summer League Indians as they finished the season in last place in the DSL North with a 24-44 record and many players with the highest expectations turned in some incredibly disappointing seasons. The planet ultimately decided that their season should end as each of their final four games were cancelled thanks to tropical storm/hurricane Gaston. Despite all that, we’ll try to see the positives in an overwhelmingly negative season.
MVP
Luis Araujo only pitched 35.2 innings for the Indians this year after getting shut down with an elbow issue after his start on July 23rd, but it appeared before then that the third year player had finally figured out how to miss a few bats. Araujo started the year out of the bullpen and earned two saves in six games without allowing a single run to score across eight innings. This prompted a return to the rotation, where he had pitched in the two previous seasons.
Unlike those seasons, Araujo really took off. He allowed a run in his first start to skyrocket his ERA to 0.69, but struck out four without a walk and would continue this dominance throughout the rest of his starts. In his five starts total, he pitched 26.2 innings, struck out 25 and walked just four with only four runs coming across. More than any other player in the DSL this year, I look forward to seeing Araujo in Arizona or possibly even Mahoning Valley next year. Despite his three years in the DSL, he is only 20 years old and if he returns healthily and can handle the jump next year, would be just in line with the ages of most of the players in Short Season A ball.
Future Stars
No hitters really stuck out statistically on the DSL Indians, in a league where there is usually a huge gap between the truly talented and the majority of players who will never make it beyond this level. The best of the group were Wilbis Santiago, Ronny Dominguez and possibly Christopher De Jesus, who as a catcher batted .282/.330/.365. The other two were regular features in the weekly DSL recaps and finished the season batting .320/.381/.424 and .266/.316/.338 respectively.
The lack of quality catchers will likely prompt the Indians to promote de Jesus and, if he can continue to get on base at a decent pace at the next level, it will be interesting to see what he can develop into. As for the other two, Santiago was dominating enough to deserve the promotion to the US in 2017 and is already 20 while Dominguez could spend one more year in the DSL at only 19 in his first professional season.
Under Appreciated
He was the team’s closer, but with just a 3.48 ERA it’s easy to overlook Jean Carlos Mejia. What makes him interesting is that, while most of the team had control issues, Mejia struck out 22 to just five walks in 33.2 innings. Similarly, Ramon Tineo struck out 11 with just one walk in 7 relief innings before getting placed on the 60 Day DL. Tineo has similar numbers from each of the last two seasons and is likely deserving of promotion.
Starting left fielder Pablo Jimenez had almost all the power for the DSL Indians with eight doubles and four home runs with two triples besides. Cristopher Cespedes, an outfielder who I talked about a lot during Extended Spring Training, is another interesting player. While the DSL Indians other outfielders all committed at least six errors, Cespedes only had one. Having seen him play, I believe his bat will play out considerably better than his .229/.266/.322 line for the season. He’s only 18, but has already played a couple games in the AZL and will hopefully play some more next year.
Cause for Concern
Having not seen any games in the Dominican, it’s hard to say what exactly went wrong, but when I watched Henry Pujols in Extended Spring Training this year and Instructional Leagues last Winter he seemed a powerful bat and competent third baseman. While he did lead the team with four home runs, nine doubles and five triples, he batted just .167 and committed 18 errors. He was second on the team to Dominguez in games played, so it wasn’t like he was hurt or struggling with playing time. Hopefully he will be able to turn things around during the unofficial seasons that will take place before next year’s Rookie ball starts up again.
Most Power: Henry Pujols
Best Bat: Wilbis Santiago
Best Wheels: Jean Montero
Best Glove: Jean Montero
Worst Glove: Miguel Jerez (C)
Best Control: Luis Araujo
Best Stuff: Juan Mota
Best Chance to be an MLB Pitcher: Luis Araujo
Best Chance to be an MLB Hitter: Cristopher Cespedes
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