There are many great and intriguing prospects in the Cleveland Guardians farm system. Today, we’ll discuss five prospects that I believe might have huge seasons in 2024 but that I haven’t seen many people talking about this summer.
1. Aaron Bracho, IF:
To tell the truth, Aaron Bracho had an incredible season. While he wasn’t the Guardians system’s best hitter, he was very nearly it. Bracho was fourth among players with 300 or more plate appearances, and he had the sixth-best WRC+ at 115.ISO is set to 196.
When Bracho was signed by Cleveland in 2017, he was highly anticipated. Along with George Valera, he was regarded as the greatest player in that class, and he signed for $1.5 million, more than any other player in that 2017 class, including Valera, Brayan Rocchio, Jose Tena, and Jhonkensy Noel. Cleveland was therefore tremendously high on Bracho and clearly loved him.
In his rookie season, he performed admirably for Cleveland, putting up a 162 WRC+ in rookie ball and a 141 WRC+ in a limited sample at Low-A. He had a terrible season in High-A Lake County in 2021, finishing with a slash line of.174/.269/.299 and a 58 WRC+ in 279 plate appearances, despite having high expectations going into the season. Even though he made some progress in 2022—repeating High-A and batting.184/.272/.333 with a 69 WRC+—he still had a difficult season.
What will then be altered in 2023? To begin with, he switched from being a switch hitter to batting exclusively left-handed, which appears to have given him stability and allowed him to concentrate on a single swing. In 2024, his strikeout percentage increased significantly from 31.9% and 30.4% in 2021 and 2022 to 22.9%. He had always had the raw power, and he finally used it. He also reduced the number of strikeouts, which, in my opinion, indicates that his swing choices have greatly improved.
Bracho should have been a 1B/DH type, but he was signed as an SS and is now mostly a 2B/1B. It will be fascinating to watch if he can continue to carry the ball in 2024 since it will be necessary for him to do so, as it did in 2023.
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