Padres top prospect heating up in a big way after aggressive assignment

Eric Cole

St. Louis Cardinals v San Diego Padres / Brandon Sloter/GettyImages

When the San Diego Padres were able to successfully land Leo De Vries on the international free agent market, it was genuine cause for celebration. De Vries was considered by many experts to be the best international prospect in the class and gave the Padres another IFA gem to pair with catcher Ethan Salas for the future.

Normally, teenagers (even those as talented as De Vries) spend significant time in the Dominican Summer League or at least rookie ball to start. These are young guys who often need time to acclimate to a professional environment as well as living in the United States for the first time. Again, all of this is normal.

However, the Padres are one of the more aggressive teams with international signings when it comes to minor league placement, and they landed on starting De Vries immediately at Low-A, bypassing rookie ball entirely. Instead of struggling like the vast majority of players would, De Vries is excelling.

Padres top prospect Leo De Vries is just built different

Leodalis De Vries has a 78% contact rate since July 1st. Look at those beautiful (estimated) launch angles, and rapidly improving contact rates. Absolutely incredible, and I'm beginning to think he's actually the best prospect in baseball after Junior Caminero. pic.twitter.com/pqXNGkE9eS
— Eli Ben-Porat (@EliBenPorat) August 12, 2024

Given the level of talent that De Vries has at his disposal, it wasn't that crazy to see him show flashes of brilliance like he did in the month of July. He is obviously still a young guy, but talent is going to win out at times, especially in the lower levels of the minors.

However, what is remarkable about De Vries is that he has just been objectively excellent all season long. Through 70 games, again all at Low-A at the tender age of 17, De Vries has posted an .812 OPS with 11 homers and 13 stolen bases. In the month of August alone so far, he is slashing .263/.391/.447 after posting an insane month of July during which he hit eight homers.

De Vries is almost certainly going to encounter speed bumps during his development. However, everything right now is pointing to the idea that challenging De Vries with full season ball right out of the gate was a gamble worth taking.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.