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Leodalis De Vries
#11 · December 30, 2024, 9:57 am
De Vries is very raw but potentially could end up better player than Ethan Salas. At his age, look for consistency in things he already does well and development/improvement in pitch recognition, lowering chase and SO% rates, better contact/hard contact rate and upping his combined line drive/fly ball rate to better exceed his ground ball rate. On defense, it's mainly his decision-making on whether or not he should try to make the throw or just hold onto the ball. He has very good range and great hands, he just needs to get a more mature mindset on what to do with the ball when he gets to it and maintain his concentration on easy to make plays.
Ft. Wayne is a tough place to hit early in the year because of the cold and inconsistent schedule due to rainouts, but if he shows like Tatis, Jr. did (he'll be 3 months older than Tatis, Jr. was he when assigned to Ft. Wayne), then you'll know you have a budding superstar on your hands. Looking forward to watching many of those games on milb.com this year.
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#12 · March 4, 2025, 6:44 am
#13 · April 18, 2025, 10:24 am
From today's (excellent!) DFR ...
After leaving Tuesday’s game in the second inning and then getting scratched from the lineup late Wednesday, top prospect Leo De Vries put fans’ minds at ease as he crushed his first career home run in High-A. Like many of his round-trippers, Thursday’s wasn’t a cheap one, leaving his bat at 108 mph. Even with the home run, some may look at Leo’s 55 wRC+ and .623 OPS with concern. For context, in Jackson Merrill‘s first month in Fort Wayne, he posted a .662 OPS. Fernando Tatis Jr., in his first month at (then High-A) Fort Wayne, posted a .672 OPS. The cold air factor is real. Don’t be shocked when De Vries begins to warm up as the temperature rises.
And from yesterday's DFR ...
Leo De Vries was a late scratch from the lineup after taking a bad hop to the head during batting practice, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic. He was pulled to be evaluated for a concussion, so he wasn’t ready when the final lineup had to be set, but he cleared and should be back in the lineup Thursday.
#14 · April 23, 2025, 9:26 am
#15 · April 30, 2025, 6:17 am
DeVries is really taking off in High A after a slow start to the season. In the past 15 days (40 AB) his slash line is 375/435/925 (1.360) ... that is very very impressive for an 18 year old in High A ball.
Just a caution, we will have to see him vs other teams / venues to see where he is settling but this is much better than expected out of the gate.
I don't expect the Padres to move him to AA until maybe late in the season (sort of the approach with Tatis and Merrill).
Any sense on how he is doing defensively at SS? His defensive projection at SS? Outgrow the position?
Tucked in the back of my head is a scenario that has the Padres re-signing Arraez and locking down an INF of Arraez-Cronenworth-Bogaerts-Machado for years and as a result DeVries going the Merrill - Tatis route and ends up in LF. Have to admit a long term OF of DeVries-Merrill-Tatis sounds compelling.
#16 · April 30, 2025, 10:11 am
With the range and arm that De Vries has, we still have to remember that he is still an 18 year old kid with limited time as a professional. At his stage of development, I'd say he is not quite as good as Gabriel Arias was when he was at Ft. Wayne but makes better decisions on his throws than Fernando did. Virtually all De Vries errors are fielding errors, not throwing errors. At times, he looks a little off balance in transferring the ball to glove and setting his feet for the throw - this causes him to fumble the ball. Merrill had this same kind of difficulty but De Vries is much smoother in the pivot than Merrill. I would give him more time at ss to just play more games and learn to control that very athletic body better. I don't see him outgrowing the position, but he certainly could move to the OF if that is his quickest way to the majors to get that potentially potent bat into the line-up. I'm thinking that he still is the successor to Bogarts at ss with Bogey turning into a very highly paid platoon/utility player unless someone takes him off our hands.
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fenn68
#17 · April 30, 2025, 10:33 am
Elite SS are hard to find so do hope that DeVries' defense develops sufficiently to keep him at SS. If his bat forces the issue (and the Padres may have that confidence by the end of this season) I could see DeVries at SS (not necessarily in 2026) ... Bogaerts back to 2B ... Cronenworth back to 1B and then if they do sign Arraez he ends up back at DH.
Since for the next few years I still see Bogaerts as a .700-.800 OPS hitter ... that should be enough to keep him as a regular in the line-up whether it is 2B or SS since that is a bit above average for those positions. Not as though the system has any legit alternatives coming in the next 3-5 years for middle INF or even 1B.
#18 · May 5, 2025, 8:28 am
From today's DFR ...
Leo De Vries reached base two more times with a single and walk and now sports a .400 on-base percentage to complement his league-best .593 slugging percentage. Things on the defensive side haven’t come quite as easily. De Vries was charged with his eighth error of the year when he airmailed a throw on the back end of what could have been a double-play ball in the fourth inning, though there was dissatisfaction from the TinCaps that the Dayton runner made no attempt to get out of the way after he was out. De Vries continues to show strong tools in the field, but his internal clock and feel for game situations have pushed him into some clumsy plays with the glove and careless throws in the early going.
#19 · May 5, 2025, 11:16 am
Tatis made a lot of errors his first couple years at SS but mostly on throws and mostly from trying to do too much.
Could be the same situation with Leo....may just need to learn when to take something off the throw and/or when to just eat it or at least not try "too hard".
#20 · May 5, 2025, 11:37 am
Quote from MrPadre19 on May 5, 2025, 11:16 amTatis made a lot of errors his first couple years at SS but mostly on throws and mostly from trying to do too much.
Could be the same situation with Leo....may just need to learn when to take something off the throw and/or when to just eat it or at least not try "too hard".
So DeVries to the OF like Tatis?
I would love DeVries to get his SS defense together ASAP but if his hitting is advanced as it appears, his bat will demand a place on the ML roster sooner than later, then if his SS defense is not there ... can (would) a playoff contending team want to live with an error prone SS or make a position shift? Clearly had no issue with shifting Tatis and Merrill and that worked out well for the Padres.
I understand Bogaerts is a below average SS when it comes to range (not the worst in MLB) but the one thing he has going for himself is that he make few errors. Then throw in the chance the Padres re-sign Arraez for 1B ... a "set" INF. On the other hand no quality LF.
So would not rule out a move to LF if the bat is there well before SS defense.