Who’s he and the place did he come from?
He’s Matt Clyde Joe Teran Fraizer, and he involves us from Clovis, California by way of the College of Arizona and the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system. The Pink Sox signed him as a minor league free agent final week after he was launched by the Pirates. He’s been given a non-roster invitation to huge league spring coaching.
There are some surface-level facets of Fraizer’s biography that might moderately lead one to assume he’s an honest prospect: He was a third-round select of a conventional baseball powerhouse; he was the Pirates 2021 Minor League Participant of the Yr; he’s a robust athlete with pace, an enormous body, and a ok glove to cowl centerfield sometimes; and his AAA stat line is a tidy .287/.346/.433 with 6 homers and 27 doubles in 107 video games. However a deeper dive into his profession reveals you why he has but to play within the Majors.
First, whereas he was a third-round decide, he really wasn’t even ranked within the top-200 of MLB Pipeline’s 2019 draft prospects; the Pirates chosen him that early as a way to save bonus pool cash. Second, he’s a type of prospects who has at all times been just a bit too previous for his developmental degree (he’s now 27), inflating his stats. And, third, his general slash line hides some actual deficiencies in his offensive profile that might seemingly hold him from ever having an enormous league profession. He struggles to regulate the strike zone, rating within the twenty eighth percentile for chase charge in AAA final season. He will get completely eaten up by breaking pitches and does nearly all of his offensive harm in opposition to fastballs which, within the minors, include considerably much less velocity. And even if he’s 6’2 and 220 lbs., he simply doesn’t put the ball over the fence a lot and is as a substitute extra of a gap-to-gap hitter.
However Fraizer runs very nicely (89 profession minor league stolen bases whereas being caught simply 22 occasions), he doesn’t strike out an excessive amount of, and he hits the ball very arduous. The truth that he doesn’t hit many homers regardless of hitting the ball so arduous is probably going as a consequence of one other one among his deficiencies, that being that he not often pulls the ball within the air, indicating that he might be a superb candidate for some mechanical tweaks.
Present me a cool spotlight.
Hey, he had a four-hit sport this previous August! Positive, one among them was a bunt whereas two others have been softly hit balls that discovered gaps, however 4 hits is 4 hits.
What’s he doing in his image up there?
Exhibiting off one among his most missed instruments: his elite and large league-ready dimples.
What’s his function on the 2026 Pink Sox?
Given the outfield depth chart because it stands, if Fraizer has a task on the 2026 Pink Sox in any respect, then that in all probability implies that one thing has gone terribly incorrect. That’s to not say that he received’t present any worth to the group, although. Rounding out the WooSox lineup with sturdy AAA hitters helps the workforce’s different place participant prospects by lengthening innings and creating scoring alternatives. On the opposite aspect of he ball, quick and defensively mature gamers clearly assist the pitching prospects by limiting free bases. Usually, it’s a superb factor to have good minor league gamers in your minor league rosters, even when they don’t essentially have a future with the large league membership.
And who is aware of: perhaps a swing tweak or two can assist him unlock his energy or layoff breaking pitches, resulting in a stunning late-career renaissance.
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