DSL Recap

 The Cleveland Guardians operate 2 teams in the Dominican Summer League.  Generally players start there as 16-17 year olds but there are older players, too.  Sometimes players will stay in the DSL for more than one year but, generally, not more than 3 years. 

The Guardians recent strategy appears to be signing position players in the international signing periods and sign college pitchers from the annual amateur player draft.  

With all that in mind, here is my ranking of the prospects who played for the Guardians in the DSL this year.

Statistically, to put things in perspective, the HR leader in the DSL had 15 HR.  The higest ranking Guardian was Jose Pirela who tied for 16th with 6 HR.  The highest OPS was 1.128 with Welbyn Francisca ranking 28th at .919.  The leader in walks had 61 with Yerlin Luis having 56 to rank second in the DSL in that category.  The DSL leader in stolen bases had 33 with the Guardians leader, Jonathon Martinez, tied for 37th with 16.

1. Welbyn Francisca - Far and away the best Guardians prospect in the DSL, he was also the highest paid international signing in Jan. 2023.  

2. Jose Pirela - Pirela led the Guardians with 6 HRs and 11 doubles.  Playing on the team Francisca was not on, Pirela was the leader, hitting 3rd most of the season with an .875 OPS.

3. Luis Merejo - Had 4 HR and 12 XBH in 134 ABs while hitting .321 with a .441 OBP and an .826 OPS.

4. Yerlin Luis - Luis had a funky season as a leadoff hitter.  He only hit .224 but walked 54 times for a .478 OBP and a .72 OPS.  He only had 15 SB despite that OBP and did strike out 42 times but the batting eye and his pedigree as the 2nd highest bonus of Jan 2023 means that the potential is there.

5. Yeikel Mijares - As a second baseman he had an .826 OPS and had 4 HRs.  

6. Luis Aparicio - Aparicio is the lone 2nd year position player on this list.  He had a .337 BA and 10 doubles but only had 8 BB and 5 Ks in 104 ABs for an OPS of .854.  He is the grandson of former major leaguer Luis Aparicio and is my choice as the late blooming position player on this list and appears to be on the steep part of his learning curve.  You would like to see him start 2024 at least in Lynchburg as he will already be in his 3rd year as a professional.  

7. Jonathon Martinez - He had 2 HRs and, as said before, led our DSL prospects with 16 SB although he only hit .246.

8. Melkis Hernandez - While his stats don't stand out he pitched well early and he is about the youngest of pitchers we have in the system, playing this season at 17/18 years old.  Still a little old for this level, he definitely deserves to be on this list as someone to watch.

There are no other pitchers on this list as they were all 19-23 years old. The other position players did not stand out to me based on their stats.  Realize, however, that the paradigm I used (i.e., some outstanding results and a young age) obviously does not uncover raw tools/potential.  There may be more guys who develop later but these 7 hitters seemed like the best prospects.  Note that any prospect who transitioned to the ACL during the season after starting in the DSL will be considered with the ACL team.