Push Candidate: Travis Harrison

I do think that the Chattanooga Lookouts roster has room for both Walker and Harrison, and thus I think that there are more arguments in favor of Harrison's promotion to AA than there are for keeping him in A+ to start the year. That said, his prospect status is certainly starting to drop. Some of this is probably the result of an influx of top talent in the system, but some falls on Harrison as well.

The Player

Travis Harrison is 22 years old (DOB: October 17, 1992) and is 6'1" 215+ pounds. He was drafted in the first round (50^th) of the 2011 draft out of Tustin High School in Tustin, California. He has played in 318 games, with about 60% coming at 3B, 30% in left field, and 10% as a DH or pinch hitter. He bats from the right side. Expected to display substantial power, he has not actually done so thus far in his career. Harrison has progressed one step at a time from rookie ball through A+ ball and now is at an interesting point in his career.

The Situation

Harrison was considered to be a power-hitting third baseman coming out of high school, but a player who also was likely to end up playing first base. In 2012 in Elizabethton, he posted an .845 OPS in 253 plate appearances. In 2013 for Cedar Rapids, he impressed with a .253/.366/.416 (.782) line, with 28 doubles and 15 homers. He was quite young for the league and this was a big step. He did strike out 125 times, but also walked 68 times in 537 plate appearances. Moving to Fort Myers in 2014, he again had 537 plate appearances. His numbers for the year were .269/.361/.365 (.726), with 34 doubles, one triple, three homers, 64 walks, and 86 strikeouts. He also stole seven bases in 12 attempts.

There are some similarities, then, between 2013 and 2014. His BA and OBP are very close, he added only a few doubles in 2014, and he walked roughly the same number of times. Notice, however, a very interesting difference between Harrison and Adam Walker. Harrison's home run power was nowhere to be found in 2014, but he also greatly reduced his strikeouts. Perhaps this was an effort to become a more complete batter. The contrast with Walker is rather striking. There are two very different approaches here, and it will be interesting to watch them each make adjustments in 2015. The general thinking is that the power is still there for Harrison. The doubles certainly may attest to that.

Harrison's move to the OF is due to some significant trouble at third base, obviously. First base may have been the original second position that many had in mind, and it still might (and should) be an option. Right now, I would think that all four corner positions should be kept in view for Harrison as he moves forward.

The Possibilities

A .726 OPS for a corner OF is not great, however, so "moving forward" might not happen immediately. Harrison certainly could use some time in Fort Myers, one supposes, to slug his way out of such a middling performance. Furthermore, maybe Harrison should stay in Ft. Myers to work on his defense without the added pressure of raising offense when moving up another level.

On the other hand, Harrison did improve important offensive aspects and the power can still come back. I worry that he is following a Chris Parmelee path of development in terms of concentrating on contact and good at-bats at the expense of power, but I do think the discipline at the plate propels him forward in the eyes of the Twins. Harrison should be able to demonstrate at minimum moderate improvement with a move out of the FSL and into the Southern League.

Sticking at 3B would have been ideal. I do think that he should still get some time there, but it seems that a shift across the diamond to 1B, after his time in the OF, is going to happen. Chattanooga does have room on its roster for both Harrison and Walker, even with Kepler, Rosario, Sano, and Hicks also on the roster.

Harrison's prospect status has dropped over the past few years from near top-10 to high teens or low-mid 20s in some rankings. He can move back up prospect lists with a good year in 2015, especially if he can keep the plate discipline while getting 12-15 homers. It isn't clear what the long-term future is for Harrison. While he has fallen on Twins lists, he still would be a borderline top-10 prospect for the majority of teams in baseball. With a good season in 2015, he then could be very attractive for other teams looking for a promising bat. We do not know what sort of scenario would find the Twins trading away any prospects in 2015, but maybe the Twins season will be good enough to warrant such consideration in the next offseason.

In any event, I would like to see Harrison move up to Chattanooga and see what he can do with what he learned in 2014. He still can be a breakout kind of player and such a season would provide the Twins with even more quality prospect depth going forward.