Meanwhile down on the farm-Wynston Sawyer

[goulik]

Since AAP has died, I will occasionally hi-light someone in the minors that is NOT in our list of top prospects that has been doing well without being noticed much. Today I decided to look at AAA for inspiration and saw Sawyer sitting atop the team in Batting Average so here's to a hot start, Huzzah!!

 

Sawyer is a 27 year old catcher originally drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 8th round back in 2010. Drafted straight out of High School, Sawyer spent a year in Rookie ball before (almost) 6 complete seasons in A ball.... 1 in short season A, 2 in low A, and (almost) 3 full years in Advanced A (plus 3 games in AA). Electing free agency, he signed with the Dodgers and spent most of 2017 with their AA team. Electing free agency again he was signed by the Twins and spent last April in Chatanooga before moving up to Rochester for the remainder of the year where he is still at today.

 

Before 2016, Sawyers batting numbers were pretty pedestrian. He hit for .234 in 1411 at bats. His best season he had a .720 OPS with two seasons under .610 OPS. He struck out 20% of the time and walked less than 12%. He did hit 71 doubles but just 20 home runs in those 6 seasons.

 

Since then, he has hit 44 doubles and 20 home runs in 615 at bats. His walk rate has increased to just under 16% and he still strikes out 20% of the time, but his 3+ season average has risen to .286. His OPS the past 3 seasons has been .896, .794, and .734.

 

This brings us to this year. Sawyer began the season hot. He has 8 hits in 14 at bats with 5 doubles already and a home run. Playing in less than half the games in Rochester, he leads the team with 9 RBI's. Yes, SSS and all, those numbers will even out but this often overlooked still young man may yet make a useful back up catcher some day. If nothing else, he might be a trade piece to someone in need or insurance should we decide to move on from Castro.

 

Unfortunately, On April 14th, the hottest hitter in AAA went on the disabled list. Here's to hoping he makes a speedy recovery and a strong come back.

[Otto von Ballpark]

FWIW, Sawyer tallied 2 doubles and a HR in that crazy, 20-18, 15 HR game recently. He was doing well outside of that game though too.

 

Catchers are weird, so it wouldn't be that surprising to see him emerge as a useful backup at an advanced age. Let's hope he stays healthy -- he hasn't caught more than 40 games in a season since 2015 now (before his offensive upswing).