Leodalis De Vries Prospect Analysis
Padres Switch Hitting SS #78 MLB Prospect
Meet 17 year old switch hitting shortstop Leodalis De Vries, born in the Dominican Republic the youngster has a 6’2 183 lb frame with eye popping tools for such a young player. Signed on January 15th 2024 by the San Diego Padres and AJ Preller, De Vries was the prize possession of the international prospect class as Preller and ownership handed him a $4.2 million dollar signing bonus out of just an available $4.6 million to spend on international prospects. The Padres clearly saw massive potential in De Vries to hand him that much money, especially after shelling out almost 90% of their pool money on Ethan Salas just a year prior. De Vries is widely considered a 5 tool player by many scouts and has already climbed into the top 100 MLB prospects after just 1 full season in the minors.
The Padres have struck prospect gold again, as De Vries will look to be a cornerstone of the team once the Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts era are nearing an end in San Diego. The Padres have done an impeccable job at building their farm systems quickly (and trading it away just as quick) as De Vries joins a list of former notable Padres SS prospects such as Trea Turner, Fernando Tatis Jr, CJ Abrams and Jackson Merrill. Playing for an ownership group under AJ Preller means no prospect is safe, and following the 2024 trade deadline the Padres made the decision to keep De Vries and Ethan Salas despite going ‘all-in’ and trading lots of other prospect capital. Expect De Vries to be playing spring training with the big league club until the 2027 season where he should contend to make the starting roster.
Now enough about the lore, let's get into what the Padres actually have here in De Vries. Listed below is his scouting grade on the famous 20-80 scale:
Hit: 55 | Power: 55 | Run: 60 | Arm: 55 | Field: 50 | Overall: 55
Now these grades are always subject to change year by year, but for a 17 year old kid playing in Low A, these grades are really encouraging. Scouts rave over his hit tool, which is advanced for his age highlighted by elite plate discipline and pitch recognition. He hits to all parts of the field as shown by a 30% opposite field hit rate and only a 46% pull rate, translating to more effortless rather than forced power production. This projects him to be a top of the order bat and potentially a dynamic leadoff hitter who can work deep counts with the ability to fill in more power as he ages and fills out his frame. In his first season with Lake Elsinore the youngster is hitting a respectable .230 with an encouraging .779 OPS and 9 HR’s through the end of July. The main thing the Padres should be looking at with such a raw prospect like this is just strikeout percentage, whiff rates and OPS numbers. Advanced stats do cater well to him with a 110 WRC+ and a BABIP of .289 proving that De Vries is developing as expected in his first season with Lake Elsinore.
My player comp for De Vries is Yoan Moncada of the Chicago White Sox. Both players are switch hitting infielders who have a larger frame but what pops out first is the hit tool and knowledge of the zone. De Vries is actually much faster than Moncada was, giving him more of an edge to stick at SS, whereas Moncada had to transition to 3B. Moncada was once a highly touted prospect in Red Sox and White Sox farm systems, as a key piece in the infamous Chris Sale trade.
The Padres have a history of moving their highly touted infield prospects elsewhere, whether that be in a trade or a transition into the outfield. Most notably what comes to mind is Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr, but what was different about them were their much larger frame, arm strength and where the team was positioned already in the infield. In Tatis’ case, injury history also played a large factor in the transition. I can’t (or wouldn’t) promise De Vries sticks at SS knowing the Padres history, but what I’m certain of is he has the physical tools to do so, and considering the Padres didn’t deal him away at this year's deadline it probably means they feel that way about De Vries as well. Look for a promotion to High A at the start of next year, with a promotion to Double AA looming if he decides to tear through High A in the first half of the 2025 season.
