MLB prospect intel: Scouts on Henry Davis, Evan Carter and other news and notes

Happy Tuesday. We’re back with another look at the minor leagues, starting with what scouts think about three top prospects.

Three prospects scouts liked this week

Henry Davis, Pittsburgh Pirates, C

Team: Double-A Altoona Curve
Age: 23
Stats: .308/.452/.648, 8 HR, 0.83 BB/K

Scout says: He’s the total offensive package, with the ability to control the strike zone, not strike out a lot and hit the ball really hard. He can handle a lot of different parts of the strike zone. He’s in his legs but I feel like he’s more balanced than preset on the back leg. It’s a fast bat. Some people think it’s more like Evan Gattis, but I think this guy is a better athlete. He’s strong. The work ethic is top of the charts, and if you’re betting on him being a catcher, you’re betting on the makeup getting him there. He needs reps. The actual receiving is rough right now. The blocking is just OK. The throwing is great. It’s a plus or better arm. My guess is there are some hip mobility issues with the way he sits back there. The one-knee-down stuff will help him, but he’s got to move laterally better and receive better. The biggest dilemma the Pirates have is that this is a bat that is probably ready soon, if not now, but the catching might be a year or more away. I did hear that if he got called up, he might play right field, which he’s been doing lately for Altoona.

Evan Carter, Texas Rangers, CF

Team: Double-A Frisco RoughRiders
Age: 20
Stats: .278/.427/.407, 4 HR, 1.0 BB/K

Scout says: The kid can really hit. He has an exceptional eye at the plate, although that doesn’t mean he’s just a walk guy. Sometimes with guys who have better eyes than the umpire, you don’t want them to be passive when they could take chances. A double is better than a walk and a homer is better than a walk, so when you’re in those damage counts, the best guys are able to take advantage of that. I don’t worry about that with Carter. Plus, you’d rather see that than him chasing. He has a swing that will have a hard time going into a slump because of how smooth and direct to the ball he is. There’s potential to add power as he gains strength. He’s faced good arms, but results can be a little misleading. He’s had a couple of homers that were wind-aided. Not that he didn’t barrel them, but I believe in letting him stay in Double A for a couple months. Still, he’s a potential All-Star.

Carson Williams, Tampa Bay Rays, SS

Team: High-A Frisco Bowling Green Hot Rods
Age: 19
Stats: .278/.363/.567, 6 HR, 0.35 BB/K

Scout says: He’s a loud package of tools. The biggest thing when he went No. 28 in the 2021 draft was that he was known as a very good bet to stick at short and be a good defender, but there were questions about the bat. But he has a lot of power at the plate. It’s a lean frame, but he really impacts the ball. Plus raw power, plus bat speed. He swung and missed a lot last year, but it’s a good swing. He’s not long to the ball and he’s cutting down on the strikeouts. They’re still high but the swing-and-miss is way, way down. He’s likely to continue cutting down his strikeouts because it is a good swing and he’s got a feel for the zone. He looks like a true shortstop, with twitchy, quick actions, good hands and a really good arm. For most people, he’s at the back end of the top 100, but he’ll be well above that. There’s a chance he’s a top-25 prospect in the game next year.

Hear from our staff

• Drafted before his 18th birthday out of nearby Illiana Christian High School, DJ Gladney has felt like he’s been around forever. Touted by White Sox player development for his burly backfield exit velocities and plus makeup, Gladney’s on-field performance has been held down by substantial swing-and-miss issues and struggles at third base. But with scouts noting a more compact swing, Gladney is breaking out this year at High-A Winston Salem, hitting .303/.339/.639 while being tied for the South Atlantic League lead with nine home runs. Now playing the outfield with some first base, Gladney still won’t turn 22 until July. — James Fegan

• Mets’ Double-A starter Mike Vasil continued a solid start to his season with his finest performance to date: eight innings of one-run ball on Thursday against Hartford. For an organization lacking high-end pitching prospects, Vasil is about as close as it gets — and he might be the closest to the majors at this point. Vasil opened some eyes late in spring when he held his own in a start against a representative Atlanta lineup. — Tim Britton

• Nick Frasso might be the Dodgers’ pitching prospect with the most helium right now, and he’s torching Double A. Through six starts, he has a 1.01 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 26 2/3 innings as part of a Tulsa staff that might have more talent than any team in the minors, pitching alongside Landon Knack (1.55 ERA in seven starts), Emmet Sheehan (2.17 ERA in seven outings), River Ryan (1.29 ERA in six outings), Nick Nastrini (2.12 ERA in four starts) and Kyle Hurt (1.42 ERA in seven appearances). Oh, and their catcher is top prospect Diego Cartaya. — Fabian Ardaya

• Cleveland right-handed pitching prospect Gavin Williams has logged an 0.89 ERA in six starts this season. Opponents have mustered a .119/.198/.198 slash line against him. And now for the good stuff (nope, that wasn’t even the good stuff) … Williams, pitching for Triple-A Columbus, topped out at 101.1 mph last Wednesday and recorded 22 swings and misses, including an absurd 17 on his fastball. Hitters also offered at his curveball three times and whiffed on all three. — Zack Meisel

• Here’s your weekly Elly De La Cruz note. The biggest (only?) knock on De La Cruz has been the swing and miss in his game. In his first nine games of the season, the Reds’ top prospect had 18 strikeouts and two walks. In 12 games in May, he has 10 strikeouts and 10 walks. In the six-game series against Columbus this past week, he struck out just four times and walked 10 times, including a pair of three-walk games and a walk-off walk in a game that already saw him hit two homers (and a 118.2-mph double). More on De La Cruz here. — C. Trent Rosecrans

• Símon Muzziotti is in an unusual spot. He’s 24 and he’s barely played for years. He is on the Phillies’ 40-man roster. He hits left-handed and plays center field and he is blocked by one of the most productive lefty-hitting center fielders in baseball right now (Brandon Marsh). But Muzziotti, considered a plus defender, has continued to impress at Triple-A Lehigh Valley with regular at-bats this season. He’s hitting .388/.424/.522. He added two more three-hit games last week. He accrued a total of 286 regular-season plate appearances between the minors and majors from 2020-22 due to visa and injury issues. He’s at 144 PA already this season and, at the very least, he has made other organizations notice. — Matt Gelb

Notable transactions

• It’s Return to the Field week in the minors, as a bunch of notable guys jumped back into action. Guardians outfield prospect George Valera finally made his season debut for Triple-A Columbus, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in the majors before long. Two terrific arms in Cardinals right-hander Tink Hence and Phillies righty Griff McGarry also exited the injured list, rejoining High-A Peoria and Double-A Reading, respectively.

• Former Twins top prospect Royce Lewis has missed most of the past two seasons with back-to-back ACL tears, but he’s begun a rehab assignment with Double-A Wichita. Expect him at Triple A soon.

• Red Sox first-rounder Marcelo Mayer didn’t hit the IL, but he did miss five games with a sore shoulder. As our Chad Jennings notes, he returned to action Sunday but went 0 for 4. Before his absence, Mayer had been 16 for his last 31.

• Promotions! Right-hander Cade Horton, a somewhat surprising choice by the Cubs at No. 7 in last year’s draft, got the bump to High-A South Bend. It was a rough entry, as he gave up six runs in 3 2/3 innings in his debut. Dodgers left-hander Maddux Bruns (five runs in 3 2/3 innings) had a similarly touchy welcome after a promotion to High-A Great Lakes. Going more smoothly is the promotion of Red Sox catching prospect Nathan Hickey to Double-A Portland. He has a .760 OPS in his first four games there.

Plays of the week

In a favorite genre of mine, here’s Elly De La Cruz mis-hitting a ball and still clearing the fence.

— Doug Gray (@dougdirt24) May 12, 2023

Dusty Baker is cool, but did he ever do anything as cool as field a grounder behind his back? Because that’s what his son, Nationals prospect Darren Baker, did.

Darren Baker just did WHAT?! 🤯
The @Nationals prospect records a one-of-a-kind out for the @RocRedWings:
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) May 11, 2023

If you steal six bases in one game like Red Sox prospect Ceddanne Rafaela did, you get into this section.

Ceddanne Rafaela set a franchise record with 6⃣ stolen bases today!
As a team, the Sea Dogs stole 9 bases today, also a franchise record.
— Portland Sea Dogs (@PortlandSeaDogs) May 13, 2023

Kudos to Reds slugger Christian Encarnacion-Strand for correctly challenging a third strike call and then clubbing a home run. He homers a lot these days.

🚨 ABS challenge system leads to a HR 🚨
Christian Encarnacion-Strand challenges a called strike three that turned out to be a ball, couple pitches later in the AB he goes yard!
— Reds On The Rise (@RedsOnTheRise) May 14, 2023

A couple of lowlights. First, a fiasco by the Modesto Nuts, who submitted a lineup card with the wrong starting pitcher, forcing them to intentionally walk the first three batters to satisfy the three-batter minimum. Only then could their scheduled starter take the mound. It’s too unwieldy to embed. But you can check out this tweet thread. Second, while there are many appropriate places for an umpire to stand, in the way of the throw to first is not one of them.