Welcome to the next installment of MMN’s Mid-Season Top 25 Prospects! We’re in the final stretch now…
5. Cesar Puello, OF
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 195
Age: 22
Bats/Throws: R/R
Contact: 40/50 Power: 50/55 Speed 60/60 Arm: 50/50 Fielding 50/55
For years, when you talked about raw potential in the Mets system, you were likely gearing up to talk to about Cesar Puello at some point or another. Lucky for you, you can tell your children in the future that you were here to watch him turn potential into performance and start jumping up the ranks of basically every mid-season prospect list possible. When he posts a .332/.401/.569 slash line, however, it’s really difficult to argue with the jump.
Often, Puello has flashed his 20/20 potential over short periods of time — but has never really put it all together for an extended period of time like he has this season. He has 16 home runs, 20 doubles, and 23 stolen bases — and he’s approaching a career high with 22 walks this season as well. Yes, I know that might sound a little off-base, but Puello’s career high in walks is 32, and his 22 walks is already second-most across a full season in his career.
You know by know that the knock on Puello is that he is a free-swinger, which is tied into a lack of pitch recognition at the plate. As I mentioned yesterday in a piece, it’s not to say that he isn’t making honest strides in that field, as anyone keeping tabs on him this year can see his effort to demonstrate patience at the plate. The new approach at the plate is doing wonders for him — and for those of you that care, he would likely be on pace for a 20 home run, 20 stolen base, 100 RBI season if he continued at this rate through the end of the season.
I do think basically all of Puello’s numbers will carry over fine to the MLB, save for his batting average, which I’m sure will take a hit hard enough to knock it down to the .260 – .270 level. However, a 20/20 player with that batting average is still quite a find and could be a real boost to a Mets team that is lacking in right-handed pop. Puello and Wilmer Flores could pose in-house solutions to balance out our line-up going ahead and I couldn’t be more excited.
Before I let off, I’ll say my bit about the BioGenesis scandal. John Bernhardt, who covers Binghamton for us, has told me that Puello was a young man with a good work ethic that went overlooked. Since the clinic closed down in the past, I do believe that Puello’s break-out season can be accredited to his hard work on the field — and any doubts in my mind have been quenched by realizing that MiLB players have been undergoing random testing for PEDs all year. A guy like Puello who was under suspension has likely had to face extra scrutiny, and under-the-radar players like Estarlin Morel were suspended earlier in the year for PED usage. I do think Puello will get saddled with a 25-game suspension to end off this season — and I’ll accept it. Let him serve his suspension and get this whole storyline out of the way, so he can come back next year with a promotion to Triple-A and we’ll work from there.
MMN Mid-Season Top 25 Prospects Series
The traditional scouting scale, which ranks players on a scale of 20-80 (abbreviated at times without the zero), can summarize how we feel about a player in an easy to understand format. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the scale, you’ll see two numbers — something like 30/60, which isn’t a fraction, but rather a representation of their present status and their potential. The number on the left represents their current standing, while the number on the right shows what they could become. For a further explanation on what the numbers mean, I strongly encourage you to check out these links (Scouting for Batters and Scouting for Pitchers) which I will leave on each post going ahead in this series. With that being said, I really hope you enjoy our work going ahead, and any and all questions and comments are appreciated.
Previous Posts
Nos. 11 – 15: Kevin Plawecki to Domingo Tapia
Nos. 16 – 20: Steven Matz to Hansel Robles
Nos. 21 – 25: Aderlin Rodriguez to Ivan Wilson
(PC: Gordon Donovan[in-post] and Kelly Madden[cover])