Who is Jesus Sanchez, the Miami Marlins outfielder prospect acquired from the Rays?
The Miami Marlins addition of left-handed-hitting outfield prospects continued on Wednesday.
The latest to join the organization: Jesus Sanchez, who comes to the Marlins along with third-year MLB pitcher Ryne Stanek from the Tampa Bay Rays. The Marlins dipped into their pitching depth by trading Trevor Richards and Nick Anderson to Tampa Bay to complete the deal.
“You’re talking about bringing back talent that we’re extremely excited about,” said Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill, who said multiple times before the trade deadline they would need to be wowed in order to trade away any of their controllable pitchers.
There’s a lot to like about Sanchez, who clocks in as baseball’s No. 42 overall prospect according to MLBPipeline.
The 21-year-old is hitting .263 this season with nine home runs and 54 RBI between the Double A and Triple A levels. He will start his tenure in the Marlins organization with the New Orleans Baby Cakes, Miami’s Triple A affiliate.
Sanchez is a career .298 hitter in his five-year minor-league career, hitting 46 home runs and 295 RBI in 447 career games.
He projects as a potential starting right fielder who could be MLB ready at some point next season.
“Sanchez has the ingredients to be a difference-maker with the bat, as he’s already shown that he can hit for both average and power during games at a young age,” according to his MLBPipeline scouting report. “He has a fluid swing and an innate ability to impact the baseball from the left side of the plate, and there are few within the organization who consistently hit the ball as hard as Sanchez. Scouts expect him to tap into more power as he gets stronger and learns how to lift the ball more consistently, but he will need to tone down his aggressiveness and become more selective along the way.”
He’s also the latest outfielder prospect the Marlins have added over the past two years. Eleven of their top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline are outfielders. The Marlins have acquired nine of them under the Bruce Sherman/Derek Jeter ownership group: JJ Bleday (2019 first-round pick), Sanchez, Monte Harrison (Christian Yelich trade), Kameron Misner (2019 competitive balance A pick), Victor Victor Mesa (2018 international free agent), Connor Scott (2018 first-round pick), Tristan Pompey (2018 third-round pick), Victor Mesa Jr (2018 international free agent) and Peyton Burdick (2019 third-round pick). Harrison, Victor Victor Mesa and Burdick are the only three who do not bat from the left side. Pompey is a switch-hitter and the other five are pure left-handed hitters.
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 7:55 PM.
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