Brandon Lewis is a corner infielder in the Dodgers organization who grew up in Grenada Hills, which is just around the corner from Dodger Stadium. He went to Bishop Alemany High School in the San Fernando Valley, and in his senior year as a Warrior, hit .366, with 7 home runs, 30 RBI’s, and showed power and an overall hitting tool that opened eyes.
Despite having a great deal of success, and opening some eyes at Bishop Alemany, coming out of High School he wasn’t overly recruited, went undrafted, and ended up at L.A. Pierce Community College. LA Pierce is in the LA area and is known for having developed guys like Doug DeCinces, Coco Crisp, and Barry Zito. It’s also known for being led by a great coach in Bill Picketts who was a member of the 1989 Long Beach State Dirtbag College World Series team, the “original Dirtbags”. Pierce is a great place for young athletes to further their game against great competition and continue to gain exposure. As a Brahma, the LA area native really came out of the shoot, pun intended, and hit .419 and .399 in his consecutive years and hit 17 home runs as a Sophomore. His career at Pierce, combined with a Summer playing with Conejo Oaks in which he led the California Collegiate League in hitting, runs, doubles, and RBI’s, gave him the exposure he needed to get noticed by UC Irvine.
Anteater
UC Irvine is a great baseball school that is led by a great coach in Ben Orloff. Orloff, like Lewis, is from the LA area and played at UC Irvine as well, and under his direction, the Grenada Hills native flourished. As a Junior, he started all 54 games at 3rd base, hit .315, had an OPS of .906, and hit 14 home runs. Lewis spent his 3 years in College building his game, defining his body, and, as a result, had developed a profile that got him drafted in the 4th Round of the 2019 Draft.
LA Native Dodger
When the Dodgers drafted Lewis, they knew they were drafting a prospect that had the potential for a lot of power and Lewis has not disappointed. In 2019, the L.A. native split time between Rookie ball and Low A Great Lakes and popped 13 home runs in 219 at-bats, had an OPS of .899, and hit .297. He was off to a good start to his professional career and rolled into 2021 ready to keep flashing his power,
2021 was an insanely good year for the slugger as, between Low A Rancho and High A Great Lakes, he hit 30 home runs, had an OPS of .917, and hit for an average of .269. As with almost all sluggers, he struck out quite a bit, 133 times to be exact, which I’m sure is more than he’d like but there is a trade-off. Lewis likes to work the count to find a pitch he can drive, and in doing so, ends up in a lot of 2 strike counts, which then leads to a higher amount of strikeouts. But, in trade, it also grinds the opposing pitchers’ pitch count and it leads to more walks and home runs, all of which is within the Dodgers offensive formula.
Lewis has also improved his BB/K ratio, while, at the same time, dramatically increasing his home run per at-bat rate. In 2021 he hit a home run every 12.7 at-bats whereas, in 2019, he hit a home run every 16.8 at-bats. His BB/K ratio in 2021 was right in the middle of the pack as compared to all of the other prospects in Low and High A for the Dodgers this past season, but his power numbers were at the top. He also hit home runs in consecutive games on 7 different occasions in 2021 and hit home runs in 4 games in a row in early July, so he had a truly remarkable year at the plate.
Feature Cut
Although his pull rate is North of 50%, he definitely has the ability to shorten his swing, let the ball get deep, and hit the ball the other way, and with power. Lewis’s opposite-field ratio was over 30% in Low A in 2019 and was 26.9% in High A in 2021. As a reference, his 2019 oppo % would have been top ten in the Major Leagues and his 26.9 oppo % in 2021 would be tied for 37th best.
Lewis hit .315 at UC Irvine and hit .297 in his first year of professional baseball, so he is very capable of being a hitter that can hit for both power and average. In my opinion, the type of hitter he becomes as a final product will have more to do with philosophy than it will ability. With as much power as he has, it will be hard not to let that loose and see just how much power he can tap into. When you can hit balls like the home run in the next video, it would be hard not to pursue the power aspect with full conviction.
In case you wanted to see how he handles breaking balls and his ability to pick up spin, here you go
The guy I compare him to is Bob Horner. As you’ll see in the Hitting Tree, from start to finish, Lewis and Horner are almost identical.
If Lewis is going to make the Major Leagues, there is no doubt it will be because of his bat. But, defensively he’s a corner infielder with soft hands, an accurate arm, and enough quickness for either 1st base or 3rd. Here is a cut-up of him playing both positions where you’ll see him move to his left, move to his right and you’ll see the soft hands, good footwork, and accurate arm.
Wrap Up
Lewis split time last year between Low A Rancho and High A Great Lakes. If the organization follows the same pattern, I would assume he’ll start 2022 in Great Lakes, then move up to AA Tulsa in July or August. The Dodgers just lost Christian Santana to Free Agency, and with the DH expected to expand to the NL, Justin Turner will most likely play less and less 3rd base, so that position may be one that is open in the next couple of years. Of course, Miguel Vargas played primarily at 3rd base last year, and Kody Hoese and Edwin Rios will be healthy again in 2022, so, as with every position in the Dodgers organization, the competition will be fierce. But, when you can hit home runs at the rate Lewis has, and also hit with the averages he has posted both in College and in Pro Ball, he has made himself a top prospect and surely one that squarely fits into the Dodgers future equations.
