Offseason Update: Feb. 1, 2022
The good news is that January is finally over. The bad news is that, statistically speaking, February is often the snowiest month.
This week MLB and MLBPA restarted their negotiations, but it seems rather obvious that it will require games to be lost for the owners to end their lockout. Please note that syntax: It’s important. There is no strike.
This, however, is a site for prospects and prospect-following. I only reference the MLB lockout because it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they’ll threaten to sign replacement players as they did in 1995.
Odds are, the replacement players would not be “our guys” but the 4A types like Jake Noll or Daniel Palka, but the absence of those guys could cause a ripple effect such that we could see an awful lot of guys signed to plug holes and/or marginal guys “promoted” to Low-A with hopes that the lockout will end by the time the FCL starts up.
TOP 100 SEASON
Baseball America and Keith Law have weighed in with their Top 100 Prospects List. Cade Cavalli and Brady “He’s A Brick” House are on both lists – No. 27 (BA) and No. 48 (Law) for Cavalli; No. 59 (BA) and No. 46 (Law) for House. Interesting tidbit: According to Law, Ruiz has exhausted his prospect eligibility:
Days on the roster in September now count against the rookie threshold, whereas days on the active roster in any September prior to 2020 do not count, a change MLB made to the rookie eligibility rules in 2020. Thus new Washington catcher Keibert Ruiz, who has 46 days on active rosters in the last two years, no longer qualifies.
I’m torn whether or not to remove Ruiz from our 2022 Watchlist, even though my first line from his capsule is this: “To be honest, it’s hard for me to get that excited about Keibert Ruiz because he feels like he’s already graduated.”
A few years ago, we ran into this with the immortal Wilmer Difo, who hit the service-time limit in late August 2016 but was under the limit for PAs. Baseball America, for those wondering, does not care about consider service time, which conveniently enables them to keep borderline players on their multitude of lists for longer.
I’m leaning towards keeping him with an asterisk since he’s part of a category that will probably (hopefully) not happen again. But I can be swayed on this if you’d like to take a swag in the comments.
We now return you to your winter malaise (hence the pic)…
I think Law is right since Ruiz has not appeared on the MLB prospects lists since September. Don’t have any strong preferences on how you handle Ruiz, but whatever you do for him you probably need to do for Riley Adams and Mason Thompson too since I think they are in the same situation.
Whenever Opening Day happens, Ruiz will be behind the plate for the Nats. I don’t see him as a prospect. I also don’t see the current labor impasse continuing to the point that the owners resort to replacement players. There’s too much $ at stake for both sides.
Luke, keep Ruiz on our list, he hasnt had the requisite AB’s yet. He’ll graduate soon enough.
Heads up everybody. For those who like podcasts, BA has a podcast on the Nats top 10 prospects. Just in time for the epic lull we’re having with this lockout. As they say, wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Stitcher, and if you’re desperate, Spotify.
Might as well keep Ruiz listed. At least he should still be eligible for Rookie of the Year consideration, right? I have real hopes that he’s THAT good.
I know there are “official” definitions of when someone ceases to be a prospect, but in my mind, one is still a prospect until one has made it . . . or run out of opportunities to make it. Gray and Garcia are still “prospects,” as they haven’t completely convinced that they will be major-leaguers going forward. The Nats’ signings of Hernandez, Escobar, and Franco don’t indicate a lot of confidence that the team thinks Garcia is ready to be a starter. If that’s the case, then he may well end up back in Rochester so he can play regularly.
Garcia still has two options left, but Kieboom only has one, so things get squirrellier with him. As a “Rizzo 1st round draft pick,” he will continue to get opportunities . . . right up until the time that they have to DFA him. (Same with Seth Romero.) I may be in the minority in that I still haven’t given up on Kieboom. On the flipside, I’m not totally convinced that Garcia is going to make it as a starter, either. He’s almost three years younger than Kieboom, though, even though they’ve been lumped together.