Recently I wrote about consensus Top 100 prospect Xavier Edwards of the Rays. Today let’s meet consensus Top 50 prospect Vidal Brujan of the Rays. One of these two is likely to form the double-play combo with Wander Franco for the next decade.
- Born: February 9, 1998
- B/T: Both/Right
- 5’19”, 155-lbs
- Drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2014 out of the Dominican Republic.
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
If Edwards numbers screamed “leadoff hitter,” Brujan’s numbers scream “leadoff hiter with more speed.” That fantastic strikeout rate, and solid walk rate, lead to really good OBP. The speed is very real, though the 73% success rate bears some improving.
The power is very much not real. Maybe in years to come he might hit 10 or so HRs in the majors, but for now just put power out of your head.
Now this is new. He hit righties just fine, but lefties gave him trouble all year. As he reaches the higher levels of the majors, this is something to keep an eye on. The Rays do not hesitate to platoon their guys, and if Brujan doesn’t improve against lefties quickly, he could lose some playing time in the majors.
You can see how he hit righties better by batting left-handed, and thus we see that pull power to Right. Otherwise this switch-hitter really sprays the ball everywhere.
As with Edwards, Brujan’s average OPS is aorund .800, and he goes up and down around this level. It was encouraging to see him work to keep that OPS up near .800 all through July in a new level at AA. While he tailed off in August, he did very well in October in the Arizona Fall League.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: #48 on their Top 400.
- BaseballHQ: #31 on their Top 100.
- Fangraphs: #27 on their Top 120.
- Fantasy Six Pack: #161 on their dynasty list.
- Prospects365: #32 on Ray Butler’s Top 200.
- Imaginary Brick Wall: #32 on the Top 487.
- Fantrax: #17 on the Top 250.
Warnings
He tailed off a bit at AA, so let’s see if he can get that OBP back into green territory.
Will his struggles against lefties continue?
Conclusion
This is what I said about Edwards:
“When you are in the Rays organization, you have lots of other minor league talent to compete with. That’s just about the only thing that could slow Edwards down in his march to the majors.”
Meet the competition, Mr. Edwards. He and Brujan cannot both play 2B, and nobody is moving Wander Franco off of SS, so a choice will be made by the Rays organization. Brujan is a level ahead of Edwards, so he might get first crack at the job, and if he solves his issues against left-handed pitching, he could keep the job and move Edwards to the bench or the trade block (again).
Brujan looks like the better prospect overall, and a real weapon on the base paths. Either one could make a great leadoff hitter, but as of when I wrote this, it looks like the scouts and the numbers give the edge to Brujan.