Red Sox Prospect Chase Meidroth Tasks as a Poor Man’s Pedroia

The Red Sox bought a diamond within the tough once they selected Chase Meidroth within the fourth spherical of final yr’s draft. Splitting time at third and second base, the 21-year-old University of San Diego product is slashing .309/.453/.445 with six dwelling runs and a 155 wRC+ between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland. A affected person hitter who had extra walks than strikeouts as a collegian, he’s logged 44 of every in 243 plate appearances.

Currently No. 15 on our Red Sox Top Prospects checklist as a 40+ FV prospect, the Manhattan Beach, California product isn’t constructed for energy, however he’s larger than the 5-foot-9, 170 kilos that the majority publications are itemizing him at. As he defined previous to a latest sport, he’s now a stable 195 kilos. Long gone are the times when he was a lightly-recruited 5-foot-8, 150-pound prep performer. What hasn’t modified is the dirt-dog perspective that has prompted no less than one Red Sox staffer to supply a Dustin Pedroia comp.

Chaim Bloom didn’t volunteer any comparisons after I requested in regards to the membership’s choice to draft the under-the-radar infielder, however he did contact on the method behind the choose.

“There are some people in this world who can just flat hit, and he’s one of them,” Boston’s Chief Baseball Officer advised me. “The combo of ability and makeup really caught our scouts’ eyes. This is somebody who, coming into our meetings before we really knew how our board would fall… we felt like there was a good chance we might end up with this guy. There were a lot of good indicators there. Our scouting opinions and the work we do to understand players analytically all converged.”

Meidroth hit the highway operating as knowledgeable, slashing .309/.424/.559 with Low-A Salem after an preliminary cup of espresso within the Florida Complex League. A yr later, he’s climbed the ladder to Double-A, this after torching High-A pitching to the tune of a 174 wRC+ over 20 video games. Since being promoted, he has a 142 wRC+ over 33 video games.

“He’s an advanced hitter with a really good understanding of the strike zone,” mentioned Red Sox farm director Brian Abraham. “He was bumped up to Greenville this year and his at-bats were so competitive that he almost forced our hand to get him to Double-A. Double-A is certainly more of a challenge, but he’s continued to progress and have success. He’s hit the ball hard and continued to get on base.”

Meidroth excels on the latter — an eye-opening .448 OBP over 339 skilled plate appearances is proof within the pudding — and whereas that attain charge is clearly unsustainable, his mixture of bat-to-ball expertise and a discerning strategy is exemplary. As our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen identified earlier this month, Meidroth “was absurdly difficult to strike out in college” and has been “swinging roughly 30% of the time.” Prone to be too affected person, he’s not too long ago been nudged towards being a bit extra aggressive on the plate.

“My game is to put the ball in play and have competitive at-bats to help give our team the best chance to win,” defined Meidroth, who takes his cuts from the proper facet. “I’m trying to provide opportunities for the guy behind me to drive me in, whether that’s by hitting a single, walking, or getting hit by a pitch. It’s kind of the whole pass-the-torch mentality, which I’ve had my whole life. In college, we really zoned in drawing our walks and staying in our zone. That’s kind of created the hitter I am, and that I want to be.”

Hitting the ball exhausting is an apparent aim — most everybody who stands within the batter’s field aspires to do precisely that — however on the similar time, Meidroth claimed to not pay a lot consideration to exit velocity. Hearing that, I requested him if he’s a proponent of the Luis Arraez faculty of hitting, the place all that basically issues is that the baseball lands safely on the grass.

“It’s not so much that as I view at-bats as there being a lot of ways to win them,” mentioned Meidroth. “For instance, if you see 10 pitches, that extends the inning for the pitcher. As for Arraez, I’d like to say him [as a comp], but that guy is on a whole other level. Obviously, you’re seeing what he’s doing this year. But I mean, I grew up watching guys like Dustin Pedroia and Justin Turner. They’re both very smart hitters with great approaches, so I’ve always tried to try to model my game after theirs. Obviously, I’ve got a long ways to go to be at that level.”

That Meidroth introduced up Pedroia and Turner substantiates each comps, regardless that he wasn’t really making them himself. An expert scout I spoke to volunteered the latter — he envisions Meidross producing extra energy as he good points expertise — whereas the previous had a 5-foot-9 body, a line-drive stroke, and confidence that got here with a chip on the shoulder. Hand-eye coordination and perspective are shared attributes.

“I’ve always been able to swing it a little bit, even from a young age,” mentioned Meidroth, whose prowess with a ping pong paddle is the same as that of his potential with a bat. “I mean, I was always told that I was undersized to play at a high level, but I kind of just let the outside noise take care of itself. I’m just here to win games, and as long as you win, it doesn’t really matter what people say.”