Why Yoan Moncada won't have an instant impact for the Red Sox
Two rival scouts who have seen Yoan Moncada often doubt that he can make the same kind of impact on the Red Sox that Gary Sanchez has made on the Yankees.
The scouts’ reservations, however, are not necessarily a knock on Moncada, who is rated baseball’s top prospect by both Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com.
Sanchez, 23, hit 11 home runs in his first 20 games after joining the Yankees on Aug. 3. Moncada, 21, has far less minor-league experience and will play a relatively new position, third base, when he joins the Red Sox on Friday.
Moncada was a second baseman for two seasons in the minors before recently moving to third base. Still, he played only 10 games at the position at Double-A.
The Orioles’ Manny Machado played only two games in the minors at third before the Orioles promoted him at age 20 in 2012, but Machado was an elite defensive shortstop who had spent two months taking grounders at the position.
Moncada is not as advanced as Machado defensively – Red Sox manager John Farrell told reporters that he struggles at times at times with balls hit directly at him at third.
Offensively, some rival scouts rate Moncada behind outfielder Andrew Benintendi, the Red Sox’s other top position prospect, citing Benintendi’s advanced approach at the plate.
Benintendi, the seventh pick in the 2015 draft, had 570 at-bats in the minors before joining the Red Sox. Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, the second pick in that draft, had 586.
Moncada, who left Cuba to sign a $31.5 million contract with the Red Sox in the spring of ’15, has 711 at-bats in the minors, 177 above Class A. By contrast, Sanchez had nearly 2,500 at-bats in the minors after the Yankees signed him at age 16.
The second scout contacted by FOX Sports described Sanchez’s surge as a statistical outlier that Moncada is unlikely to match.
Moncada batted .294 with a .407 on-base percentage and .918 OPS at High-A and Double-A this season, but struck out 64 times in 177 at-bats at Double-A and also struggled batting right-handed. He hit only .167 against left-handers compared to .305 against righties.
The Red Sox see the possibility for an upgrade over Travis Shaw and Aaron Hill regardless. They rank 28th in the majors in OPS at third base.
