D-backs Prospect Deyvison De Los Santos is Not Slowing Down

Deyvison De Los Santos is having a season that has become impossible to ignore. The young first baseman does not turn 21 until June 21st of this year, but continues to destroy Texas League pitching for the Amarillo Sod Poodles.

He's already won that league's April Player of the Month Award by batting .377 with 7 homers and 18 RBI. Now he's bidding for a second straight monthly honor, batting .365 with 5 homers and 14 RBI just past the midway point of the month

Deyvison De Los Santo 2024 by Month | Jack Sommers

Even in the supercharged offensive environment that exists playing home games in a hitter friendly park in a hitter's league, these numbers are off the charts. He leads in all three Triple Crown categories by sizable margins.

De Los Santos' .372 batting average leads Josh Hatcher of Texas who is batting .333. Colby Thomas of Oakland has 9 homers, three behind De Los Santos' 12. The big first baseman has racked up 32 RBI, eight more than the three players tied with 24.

wRC+ is a measure that looks at total runs created and measures it against league average and adjusts for ballpark. League average is 100. De Los Santos' 194 wRC+ is by far the highest in the league. The next highest is 180 from Emmanuel Rodriguez of the Twins, and nobody else is over 160.

As mentioned in the article linked above, the two areas most in need of work and improvement for De Los Santos were his defense at first base and his plate discipline. He made four errors in his first 20 games at first base. He's not committed an error in any of his last 11 games however, upping his fielding percentage to .985

As for the plate discipline he has 10 walks and 31 strikeouts in 149 PA. The strikeout rate is just 20.8%, which is much lower than the league average of 23.8%.

It's interesting to note that his hit tool rates at just 30/35 on the 20/80 scout scale. But based on how much contact he's making that number may need to be adjusted upward. Combined with his 70 grade power, it's not just the results that are eye catching.

De Los Santos' walk rate has actually dropped however from 7.2% to 6.7%. He's drawn just three walks and struck out nine times in 56 May plate appearances.

His 6.7% walk rate is significantly lower than the league average 10.9%. It's also right around his career average 6.5%. De Los Santos has always been a free swinger, and when you're having as much success as he's having swinging the bat, it's difficult to discipline yourself to take more pitches.

The ability and willingness to recognize pitches and take walks is what separates good power, low on base hitters from elite hitters. The hits are not always going to fall, especially against the much better pitching and fielding that he'll eventually encounter when he reaches the major leagues.

Disciplining himself to take more walks, even at the expense of a few minor league RBI opportunities, will be an important piece of De Los Santos' development to look for. His 6.5% walk rate projects to out to be below 5% at the major league level currently. What we're looking for is an increase to 8-9% before he reaches the major leagues.

The reason for that is a player will typically see a 2-3% drop in his walk rate upon reaching the majors. As great as De Los Santos numbers are this year, there aren't many elite hitters with a walk rate below 6% in the modern game.

Looking at this list of hitters since 2021 with a walk rate at 6% or lower, (minimum 800 PA ), there are only a handful out of 50+ players with an OPS+ ranging from 114-129. Luis Robert, Bo Bichette, Michael Harris II, Salvador Perez, and Bobby Whitt Jr. are the top five names.

Most of those players bring something else to the table in terms of defense or base running. There are some good power hitters below those five as well, but all have capped their ceilings due to mediocred to poor On Base Percentage. If a hitter uses up too many of a team's outs to drive in runs, it diminishes the value.

It's impossible to predict what pathway this individual player will take. All we can do is look at his current performance and the past precedent and identify the areas of improvement to reach his full potential. In the meantime, it's very exciting to see what De Los Santos is doing to Texas League pitching.

It will also be interesting to see when he gets promoted to Triple-A Reno. Right now Tristin English and Andres Chapparo are getting most of the reps at first base. English is 27 however and is no longer considered a prospect. Chapparo is tearing the cover off the ball with a .344 average and 1.033 OPS that includes nine homer. But is also 25 and is likely more of an organizational player.