Saw him today in Salem with the FredNats. He played both CF and RF and was excellent in both. Defense is not the issue here. He could play CF in the majors today if you needed him to.
He runs well and has added noticeable muscle since I saw him last August, probably 10-15 pounds, which is perfect given his age. His swing is significantly cleaned up. Also great.
He swung and missed on 5 fastballs below 92 mph in his first two plate appearances today. That's...not great. Yes, the second one was a walk because the dude couldn't put fastballs in the zone. The first one was not. It was a long at bat in which he swung through all three fastballs he got. Yes, he was fouling off sliders. Also ok. But bro, when you're sitting on sliders in A ball and fouling them off while hunting walks, crap ain't good.
He did get an infield hit.
He's almost 21. He's in his third year stateside and now is not especially young for level, especially this early in the year. I think he gets a mostly sink-or-swim promotion around midyear to Wilmington. To be clear, he's not utterly hopeless: he does have plate discipline, pitch recognition, and is a legitimately good outfielder. He has an approach, and he generates long ABs. The dude just cannot actually hit the ball when it is required.
There does come a point, usually in high-A or AA, when walks and sitting on one type of pitch gets found out. And when you're getting smoked by 91, it's more likely high-A than AA. There's not much reason not to find out sooner rather than later, as I don't think there's much left for him to learn at this level.
