Palm Beach Notebook
The Palm Beach Cardinals aren’t chock full ‘o prospects, but there are players here worth following. Quinn Mathews is long gone and I missed Chen-Wei Lin during this 3 game stretch, but I still saw several pitchers worth highlighting. The position player situation is less rosy. Chase Davis actually had a really good June, and the season long performance has been lacking for a former Pac-12 (May it R.I.P.) starter. I also have some updates for Tampa players.
Juan Salas was the starter for the 6/18 game. He’s on the shorter side, and he has an interesting wind-up with an exaggerated kick back prior to his leg kick (video below). Salas has a fastball that can reach 95mph, but he mostly sat 93mph and was down to 91mph towards the end of his start. He went seven innings, with 0 runs or walks (though he hit two batters) and eight strikeouts. Overall, it was one of his best starts on the season.
The kickback is something he does with no runners on, going to a more standard leg kick out of the stretch. His fastball has a shape with positive characteristics, showing good carry and when he locates it up in the zone he can get whiffs. His curveball, change-up and slider are producing better outcomes for him on the season. The curveball is a straight 12–6 downer, with no big hump, whereas his slider has more two plane diagonal movement. He still relies heavily on the fastball and it’s the pitch that gets the most chase from batters at 45%. His curveball is actually running a 90% Z-Contact rate on the season, which seems concerning, but the one that I saw put into play was a weak groundball.
As his fastball velocity decreased, Salas was willing to work backwards to batters, such as Willy Montero in the seventh inning, who he peppered with curveballs to start and finished with a fastball. It showed an awareness of his repertoire and an ability to adjust as needed. His change-up gets a lot of arm side fade, and he really emphasized it against left-handers. Salas isn’t the tallest pitcher, nor is he bulky, so workload is going to be a concern. I think he has a chance to see High-A before the season ends and he’s worth keeping tabs on as a backend rotation option.
Darlin Saladin was the starter for the Wednesday game and it wasn’t his strongest start, scattering six hits including a homerun to go with three walks and only two strikeouts. He pitched through a pop-up rain storm at the end of his six innings, but held Tampa to only two runs despite not having his best stuff. He has a simple and clean motion, with a longer arm action as he draws a circle. Tampa put 20 balls into play, with nine of them at 95mph or harder exit velocity wise. The homerun (his only homerun allowed this season) to George Lombard Jr. was a wall scraper to right center, but a homerun nonetheless.
His slider and change-up were the most consistent in terms of getting swings and misses or weaker contact. His fastball touched 94mph in the first inning but sat at 88 and 89mph in the sixth inning. Like Salas, he’s not very tall or bulky, so stamina is a genuine concern. Given what I just wrote about Salas, I should feel the same way about Saladin’s potential to be a backend starter, but I feel less confident. He’s already moved onto High-A with two strong starts, so keep an eye out.
Ixan Henderson is a starter out of Fresno State. He’s a lefty with very repeatable classic three quarters motion. He’s performing at expectations for a college arm in Single-A, but like Saladin he gave up a lot contact, including several balls hit fairly hard. He features a curveball and slider with really similar shapes, but with a velocity difference of about 5 mph. The slider was the best pitch on the day, but it still only garnered two swings and misses. He was comfortable throwing both breaking pitches to lefties and righties. He actually walks his fair share of batters but it hasn’t hurt him stat line wise. The lack of a pitch that misses bats is concerning and while it can work in the lower levels, it’s going to be a problem once he moves up in the system.
Benjamin Arias shows on stat lines with 0 starts on the season, but it’s misleading because the vast majority of his appearances are three innings or longer, usually as a piggyback. Coincidentally, he only pitched one inning on the day I saw him. He’s 6'5 and fairly lean with a drop and drive delivery at a low arm angle. He only throws a slider and fastball though, which makes the path to being a starter a little harder but not a death knell. He didn’t miss any bats and was bailed out when a hit and run went badly for Tampa, as Enmanuel Tejeda just kept running to third base on a flyball and got doubled up to end the inning. The slider is posting a 24% Swinging Strike rate on the season. Unless a third pitch is coming, Arias is probably on a path to relief with potential to give you multiple innings.
Chase Davis is coming off his best month of the season where he slugged .683 with a 203 wRC+. The talent is absolutely there, as Davis doesn’t chase. He was only in one game of the three I saw, where he drove a nice line drive single, hit another ball hard right at the centerfielder and walked twice. June is probably closer to what the Cardinals expected when they selected him, but still a far cry from the numbers he put up in college.
Trey Paige is a bulky third baseman, that I see more as an offensive contributor. He’s running a 55% groundball rate on the season, despite some decent exit velocities. He does work counts and is not an automatic strikeout once he gets behind, fouling pitches off to extend the at-bat and drew two walks, including one where he got behind. If he can elevate the ball, then maybe there’s more power growth, because the exit velocities show some raw power.
Travis Honeyman was recently activated, a third round pick in 2023 from Boston College. He’s only DH’ed since returning and is showing a penchant for contact thus far. It was a lot of line drive contact in the three game stretch I saw. He employs a fairly sizable leg kick out of an open stance with a little bit of a bat wiggle, but quiets them as he loads. He runs fairly well down the line, beating out a infield single though I did not get a clean time for it. He pulled a line drive double down the foul line. He’s fairly lean right now, so there might be some power projection but the exit velocities haven’t been outstanding in the small sample thus far.
Lizandro Espinoza is a short middle infielder. He doesn’t hit the ball very hard or with much frequency when he does. He’s a quick runner and he can draw a walk but there is swing and miss, especially with secondary pitches. He was fluid at shortstop in the games I saw but he has 8 errors on the year at shortstop. It’s not league leading in the FSL, but it’s not the least either. I would say he has potential to be a utility middle infielder, but he needs to cut down on the errors for that to be a possibility.
Sammy Hernandez is a catcher out Lakeland, Florida. He’s running a .377 OBP right now and is showing a lot of bat to ball skills thus far, with very little power. He’s a heavy pull hitter this season, but much of that contact is driven into the ground. He handles secondary pitches well, and was asked to perform a sacrifice bunt (I think to avoid a potential double play, given his groundball rate), which he executed perfectly. Behind the plate he is fairly stout and took several foul balls during the two games I saw. He’s done well in the run game, with a caught stealing rate around 30%, though Tampa stole on him and Saladin twice. If he can elevate the ball even a bit for more line drive contact than groundballs, then there’s potential for him. Even without that, he’s been an above average hitter in Single-A.
Bryce Warrecker was the starter for Tampa on 6/20. He’s 6'8 and you might recognize him from the spring training articles about the movement on his sweeper.
I’m here to tell you that, yes, the sweeper still has a ton of lateral movement, but Warrecker doesn’t maintain much command of it. When he dotted it at the bottom of the zone, especially low and away to righties, it was easy to see how potent a weapon it can be. However, Warrecker left several up that were put in play for hits. He was comfortable throwing it to lefties and righties alike. Otherwise he threw sinkers that touched 93mph to start but sat 90–91mph as the outing progressed and started to lose steam in the fifth inning of work. He threw one change-up, that did result in a swinging strikeout. It mirrors the slider in terms of vertical and horizontal movement, so it should be a tool against lefties as he gets more comfortable. The command of the slider needs to improve but it can be a potential plus pitch for him. It was his first official start on the year, so we’re going to be in a wait and see mode for the near future.
Enmanuel Tejeda has been great since coming back from injury on June 3rd. He works counts but avoids being passive. He will get into two strike counts but fights off pitches until he gets a mistake, which he did twice in the games I saw, one for an opposite field double. I had him 4.28 down the line on an infield single as well. In the field, he’s spent time at third with Roderick Arias and Lombard Jr. occupying short and second most days, but he’s been better as a second basemen in the field. It’s more line drives right now, but he does have a max exit velocity of 109mph on the season, so there might be some power that he hasn’t tapped into yet.
Willy Montero showed off his defensive skills in this series, nearly throwing out a runner that he had beat, but the catcher bobbled on the tag. His second throwing play was slightly more up the line but would’ve had a shot at the runner had it not been. He looks way more comfortable in the corner outfield than he did when playing centerfield earlier in the season, which will mean his bat will have some added pressure. He had a loud out that could’ve dropped for a hit in right center, but was ran down by the right fielder.
