The Hot Stove season is exciting, it brings change, new found hope for every team and it has brought some new shiny toys to the Dodgers. Shohei Ohtani is officially a Dodger and so is Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot.

Ohtani was a Free Agent, of course, but Glasnow and Margot were part of a trade that sent away Jonny DeLuca and Ryan Pepiot. Dodgers fans are super pumped about gaining Tyler Glasnow, and rightfully so, but, Rays fans should be very excited as well.

Jonny DeLuca

Jonny DeLuca is one of the most “Dynamic” athletes in the game, at any level, and is one of, if not THE most underrated prospect in the game, in my opinion.

He was a track star back in High school, especially in the long jump, then was a switch hitting speedster at Oregon which limited his power potential. Because of that, he was lightly sought after and wasn’t drafted until the 25th Round.

Since then, he has ditched the left side, concentrated on getting bigger, and now, the end result is that he has lots of power to add to his speed and bat to ball skills.

So, how good has he been?

Click to watch SEVERAL videos of DeLuca in action

While in the Dodgers Minor League system he has averaged hitting 1 home run every 17.6 at bats, AND, his ISO has been higher than his K% EVERY year, sometimes TWICE as high. His career OBP is .357, and he has also averaged stealing 1 base every 5.1 games.

If you equated that to a 162 game season with 500 at bats, he has been a 28/32 guy at the Minor League level on average.

To put that in perspective, that’s 1 less HR than Freddie Freeman hit last year, but 9 more stolen bases, and I think we can all agree that Freeman is pretty good.

More perspective.

Of the Major Leaguers that have an HR per at bat rate higher than DeLuca, only one, Ronald Acuna, has stolen as many, in Acuna’s case, more, stolen bases last year than DeLuca has averaged over a 162 game season in his MiLB career.

The next closest, and most comparable in terms of HRs per at bat and stolen bases over a season is Luis Robert who had 20 stolen bases, 8 less than DeLuca has averaged, but roughly 3 to 4 more home runs over the course of an entire season.

To further compare the two, Robert has averaged scoring 1 run every 1.6 games, whereas DeLuca has averaged scoring a run every 1.3 games. DeLuca has also averaged 1 RBI every 5.7 At Bats, whereas Robert averaged an RBI every 6.8 at bats this past season.

DeLuca has been a lifetime .271 hitter, which is 7 points higher than what Robert hit last year. It is 8 points lower, however than Robert’s lifetime batting average of .279 at the MLB level.

In essence, when you put all the numbers together, Jonny DeLuca has been the Minor League equivalent of Luis Robert. In fact, to further that thought, DeLuca has a lifetime MiLB average of .271 and his OPS has been .883, whereas Robert has an MLB lifetime average of .279 and an OPS of .857.

To continue with just how good DeLuca has been, his WRC+ at the AA level last year was 150, then was 125 at the AAA level. Meaning, he was 50% better than league average at AA and 25% better at the AAA level. In fact, his WRC+ at the MLB level was 102, so, even with inconsistent playing time at L.A., he still found a way to be above league average, despite not having the luxury and comfort of playing everyday.

Of course, that’s his Minor League career, so I understand that entire aspect, but, it definitely goes to show just how good he has been. It also goes to show that he has been MUCH better than what he has been given credit for, and the exciting part of it is that he’s gonna get a chance to see how well it all translates to the MLB level.

And, all any young player wants is a chance, a real chance, an everyday chance for an extended period of time, to show what they are capable of doing.

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