Heliot Ramos, CF, San Jose Giants (San Francisco Giants High-A)
Juice. This kid’s got juice, bwoy.
Listed at 6-foot-1, 188 pounds, Ramos has the frame of a third-down back, with wide, round shoulders and a thick trunk that’s just going to keep getting stronger as he piles more than 19 years on it. He’s got outsized athleticism to go with it, including a quick start-up and acceleration to his above-average present speed. He’s graceful in pursuit, showing solid range tracking balls into both gaps from center. An impressive cut-it-off-in-right-center-then-turn-on-a-dime-and-throw-across-to-third sequence introduced everyone to what is at least plus arm strength. The speed will likely dry up through his 20s, with right field the probable primary landing spot. There’s a foundation for some center field play in the meantime, though, and the potential for spot utility up the middle for the first half of his career.
The real show is at the plate, where Ramos unleashes some of the most ferocious bat speed I’ve seen around these parts in a minute. He sets up from a wide base with minimal load, coiling shallow off his backside and taking almost no stride. But the hips fire hard off the subtle flow of his weight transfer, and he’s able to generate sick barrel acceleration through the zone. He turned around 93 at the top of the zone for hard line-drive contact to the pull side in one at-bat, offering a peek at the kind of plus-plus raw power that lies within. As one might expect of the youngest player in his league, Ramos isn’t yet consistent in executing his plan of attack at the plate. He showed an ability to both lay off and spoil spin off the black, but he also willingly expanded the zone and beat himself off the hands at other points. The hit tool development has the look of a longer-term process, but he’s got all the time in the world and the kind of natural strength and bat speed that you just can’t teach. – Wilson Karaman