Chase Meidroth, Boston’s fourth-round pick in the 2022 MLB draft, is batting .278 with four home runs and 17 RBI in 36 games at Double-A since being promoted in early May to Portland from High-A Greenville. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
As manager of the Greenville Drive, the Red Sox High-A affiliate, it’s Iggy Suarez’s job to give players the good news when they’re promoted to Double-A Portland.
And Suarez can offer more insight than the typical minor league manager. From the tail end of the 2006 season through the middle of 2009, Suarez spent the bulk of his playing time as an infielder with the Sea Dogs. He knows exactly what his players can expect when they arrive in Portland.
“At this time of year I always tell them, you are lucky you just dodged the cold weather. Portland is probably one of the better cities I played in,” he said. “I think Portland is like no other. It’s in the middle of Red Sox Nation. They’ll know who you are before you get there. I wasn’t a prospect at all, and they knew who I was.”
Suarez has extolled the virtues of Portland to nine players this season, most recently right-handed pitcher Hunter Dobbins, promoted to the Sea Dogs on June 23. The list of players who traded their Drive jersey for the Sea Dogs includes shortstop Marcelo Mayer, the 2021 fourth overall pick and top prospect in Boston’s system, who was called up to Portland on Memorial Day weekend, infielder Chase Meidroth, who joined the Sea Dogs in early May, and right handed starting pitcher Grant Gambrell, who was promoted in mid-May.
Before center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela was promoted to Triple-A Worcester last weekend, the Sea Dogs roster included the top three prospects in the Red Sox system, according to MLB.com: No. 1 Mayer, No. 2 Rafaela, and No. 3 Nick Yorke, Portland’s second baseman.
So who will be next to move from South Carolina to Maine? While Greenville’s roster includes seven players ranked among the Red Sox top 30 prospects, there’s no timetable for any player’s promotion to Double-A, said Brian Abraham, Boston’s director of player development.
“It’s so hard to say. There’s certainly a lot of guys in Greenville who at the very least are knocking on the door and pushing our hand to have those conversations,” Abraham said.
Blaze Jordan, a 20-year-old corner infielder at Greenville, is batting .316 with 10 homers and 47 RBI in 65 games. Photo courtesy of Greenville Drive
None of the top prospects in Greenville is over 22 years old, and there’s no pressure to speed up their progress, Abraham said.
Arguably, the player in Greenville making the biggest push to move up to Portland is Blaze Jordan. The 20-year old corner infielder has 10 home runs, 47 RBI and 40 runs in 65 games. Jordan’s prodigious power as a high school player in Southaven, Mississippi is what made him Boston’s third-round draft pick in 2020 (89th overall), but this season the 20-year old also has a .316 batting average and an .896 OPS.
Abraham noted the Red Sox are pleased with how Jordan’s strikeout rate has decreased, from 20% of his at bats last season to 16% so far this year. Portland currently has four players – Meidroth, Niko Kavadas, Alex Binelas, and Matthew Lugo – seeing time at first and third base.
“He’s been one of our core guys,” Suarez said of Jordan, the 10th-rated prospect in the Boston farm system. “He’s coming into his own, especially coming in (to pro baseball) with so much hype. He handles it well, and it shows with his numbers. It’s a matter of, is there a spot up there (in Portland) for him?”
Middle infielder Brainer Bonaci is batting .336 with seven home runs, 27 RBI and 19 runs in 146 at bats for Greenville.. Photo courtesy of Greenville Drive
The promotion of Mayer a month ago opened more time for infielder Brainer Bonaci to play shortstop, along with games at second base. An international free agent signed out of Venezuela in 2018, Bonaci, 20, spent time on the injured list early in the season with a hamstring injury. Now healthy, he’s producing at the plate. Boston’s 16th-ranked prospect, Bonaci has a .336 average and .956 OPS, with seven home runs, 27 RBI and 19 runs in 146 at bats.
“(Bonaci) has power, a good eye at the plate, and he’s athletic. Combine those things, you’re looking at a pretty talented player,” Abraham said.
A player turning heads in Greenville but who likely will not arrive in Portland until next season is outfielder Roman Anthony. The 19-year old from Parkland, Florida, was a second-round pick in 2022, and made the jump from Low-A Salem to Greenville a few weeks ago. In 13 games with the Drive, Anthony has five home runs, 12 RBI and 13 runs. The outfielder’s OPS is a blistering 1.170 with the Drive. Anthony is ranked as the Red Sox ninth-best prospect by MLB.com.
Suarez said there was no learning curve when Anthony joined the Drive. He contributed right away.
“You can see there’s a baseball rat in him. He just wants to talk baseball all the time,” Suarez said. “The other day, he got to third base (where Suarez serves as base coach), and I’m talking to him, and I’m thinking, ‘This kid is just out of high school.'”
Greenville right-hander Wikelman Gonzalez is Boston’s top-rated pitching prospect playing below Triple-A. Photo courtesy of Greenville Drive
Three of Greenville’s starting pitchers have made an impression by racking up strikeouts as they learn to attack the strike zone. Right-hander Wikelman Gonzalez (6-2, 4.50 ERA) has 97 strikeouts in 58 innings, with 40 walks and a .194 batting average against. Back-to-back tough starts in April, in which Gonzalez allowed six earned runs, inflated his ERA. Since then, the native of Venezuela – signed by Boston as an international free agent in 2018 – has surrendered more than two earned runs just twice in nine starts. Rated Boston’s 11th-best prospect, Gonzalez is the club’s top-rated pitching prospect playing below Triple-A.
“They sat (Gonzalez) down and adjusted some thing mechanically and mentally. He has the stuff, he has the power. One of the things we preach to our pitchers is challenging hitters in the strike zone. As you get to Double-A, Triple-A, and certainly the big leagues, you need to get outs in the strike zone,” Abraham said.
Righty Angel Bastardo, another Venezuelan signed in 2018, fits the same mold. Bastardo, 21, has 83 strikeouts in 63 2/3 innings, with 31 walks and a .217 batting average allowed. Like Gonzalez, Bastardo (0-5, 4.38) is learning to attack the strike zone, with mixed results.
“Our starting pitching group is kind of what got us to where we were in the first half,” said Suarez, alluding to the Drive’s first-place finish in the South Atlantic League’s South Division in the first half of the season, guaranteeing the team a postseason spot.
“They’ve got the stuff. It’s a matter of consistency. It’s tending up when you see the high rate of strikeouts. “It’s about having confidence in their stuff. You go to nibble, good hitters will lay off that. Then when you make a mistake, they’ll hit it. We want them to be confident. We tell them, you’re good too.”
Opponents are hitting. 176 off left-hander Dalton Rogers in his six starts since being promoted to the High-A Greenville Drive. Photo courtesy of Greenville Drive
Lefty Dalton Rogers, Boston’s third-round pick last year out of Southern Mississippi, has had six starts in Greenville since his promotion from Salem in May. Like Anthony, Rogers, 22, likely needs more seasoning in High-A before he’s ready to join the Sea Dogs. Over his two stops this season, Rogers is 1-2 with a 4.02 ERA, striking out 75 and walking 32 in 47 innings. Opponents are hitting .176 off Rogers since he joined Greenville. Abraham said Rogers has made a lot of progress in the short time he’s been in the organization.
“This is the guy’s first season. He’s going through the grind for the first time. That’s a thing in itself,” Suarez said.
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