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Bo Naylor is our No. 5 Cleveland Indians prospect. Who should be No. 6?

The top Tribe catching prospect eeked out a 12-vote victory with 28% of the total vote.

Mathew Carper

Smooth hitting catcher Bo Naylor is our No. 5 Cleveland Indians prospect for 2020, improving four places from his No. 9 ranking in 2019.

Naylor was the only Indians prep prospect who skipped Low-A Mahoning Valley entirely and began his season in Single-A Lake County.

The 2018 first round pick struggled at first with the significant promotion, dropping his walk rate five percent and raising his strikeout rate three percent, but he steadily improved as the season wore on. He still managed to finish his age 19 season with a 110 wRC+.

Naylor did improve in other areas. His ISO increased by 50 points to .178. He also increased his thrown out percentage from behind the plate. After allowing 30 stolen bases and catching just 12 (28%) in 2018, Naylor caught 47 baserunners out of 128 (37%) in 2019.

Naylor also displayed a unique statistic offensively in 2019. He led all Midwest League hitters with a whopping 10 triples despite playing 85 games at catcher. In fact, he was one of a select few players in all of minor league baseball to have double digit home runs, triples and doubles.

Look for Naylor to begin his 2020 season in High-A Lynchburg, where he’ll again be one of the youngest players in his league.


Logan Allen, LHP (Age 22)

2019 (AAA): 18 GS, 80.0 IP, 22.3 K%, 9.3 BB%, 5.85 ERA, 5.57 FIP

2019 (MLB): 4 GS, 27.2 IP, 13.4 K%, 10.2 BB%, 6.18 ERA, 5.49 FIP

Headlining piece of the Trevor Bauer trade, Allen was a top 100 MLBPipeline prospect at the time of his acquisition. Allen had a great MLB debut (7.0 shutout innings vs Milwaukee), but struggled in many of his other 2019 appearances in both MLB and Triple-A.

Aaron Bracho, SS (Age 18)

2019 (R): 137 PA, .296/.416/.593, 6 HR, 4 SB, 16.8 BB%, 15.3 K%, 162 wRC+

2019 (A-): 32 PA, .222/.344/.481, 2 HR, 0 SB, 15.6 BB%, 25.0 K%, 141 wRC+

Injury kept him from debuting in 2018, but the DR native made up for it in 2019, rebuilding his hype by posting incredible numbers in the AZL and earning a promotion to Mahoning Valley.

Bobby Bradley, 1B (Age 23)

2019 (AAA): 453 PA, .264/.344/.567, 33 HR, 0 SB, 10.2 BB%, 33.8 K%, 125 wRC+

2019 (MLB): 49 PA, .178/.245/.356, 1 HR, 0 SB, 8.2 BB%, 40.8 K%, 51 wRC+

A career best 33 home runs at Triple-A earned the slugging first baseman his first cup of coffee with the Indians. He hit the hardest home run for the Tribe in the statcast era, but also whiffed in 40% of his at bats. Will need to cut down on the Ks if he wants to stay in the show.

Daniel Espino, RHP (Age 19)

2019 (R): 6 GS, 13.2 IP, 30.2 K%, 9.4 BB%, 1.98 ERA, 4.20 FIP

2019 (A-): 3 GS, 10.0 IP, 40.0 K%, 11.1 BB%, 6.30 ERA, 2.60 FIP

2019 first-round pick struck out a third of the batters he faced in Rookie ball and only got more deadly in Low-A as a 19-year-old. Fastball sits in upper 90s, occasionally touching triple digits. He. Is. 19.

Ethan Hankins, RHP (Age 19)

2019 (A-): 8 GS, 38.2 IP, 27.9 K%, 11.7 BB%, 1.20 ERA, 3.22 FIP

2019 (A): 5 GS, 21.1 IP, 29.8 K%, 12.8 BB%, 4.64 ERA, 4.28 FIP

2018 first round comp. pick blew away hitters at short season ball and earned a late promotion to full season Lake County. His strikeout rate is impressive, but he’ll need to cut down on walks as he moves through the system.

Brayan Rocchio, SS (Age 18)

2019 (A-): 295 PA, .250/.310/.373, 5 HR, 14 SB, 6.8 BB%, 13.6 K%, 107 wRC+

Venezuelan signed in 2017, held his own as one of the youngest players in the New York Penn League in 2019 while improving his walk rate and power.

George Valera, OF (Age 19)

2019 (A-): 188 PA, .236/.356/.446, 8 HR, 6 SB, 15.4 BB%, 27.7 K%, 142 wRC+

2019 (A): 26 PA, .087/.192/.174, 0 HR, 0 SB, 7.7 BB%, 34.6 K%, 14 wRC+

Struggled to make consistent contact but posted elite on-base and power numbers in short season ball, earning a late promotion to full season Lake County.

Poll

Who should be the No. 6 Indians prospect?

This poll is closed

  • 11%
    Logan Allen
    (46 votes)
  • 7%
    Aaron Bracho
    (31 votes)
  • 16%
    Bobby Bradley
    (66 votes)
  • 11%
    Daniel Espino
    (48 votes)
  • 15%
    Ethan Hankins
    (64 votes)
  • 7%
    Brayan Rocchio
    (32 votes)
  • 28%
    George Valera
    (114 votes)
401 votes total Vote Now