2018 Red Sox top prospect voting: Danny Diaz could be the next big thing

For the fist time in this exercise, we had a tie. It was a scenario I had been dreading since it started as I just do not have the self-confidence to be handed the duties of breaking a tie that will lead with approximately half of the readers of this site being mad at me. As you can tell from the headline of this here post, I decided to give the number 18 spot on our list to Danny Diaz over Tzu-Wei Lin. This is indeed how I would have them ranked if I did rankings of my own (I don’t do a formal list, but I have an ever-changing one in my head), but to be safe I checked with a few lists that went beyond the top ten in the system. Sox Prospects and MLB Pipeline both had Diaz ranked ahead of Lin. Minor League Ball did not. Majority rules. Diaz is the number 18 prospect.

It’s a really interest contract between Diaz and Lin, to be honest. While Lin is a relatively known commodity who has some major-league experience under his belt, Diaz was just signed out of Venezuela last summer. The infielder was the second-best prospect the Red Sox were able to sign last July 2, with Daniel Flores leading the pack. Flores, of course, tragically passed away at the start of the offseason, and now Diaz is the best player from the class. The Red Sox gave Diaz a $1.6 million signing bonus on July 2 of last summer.

This is normally the point in the program in which I’d start to describe how the prospect has played during his professional career, but that does not apply to Diaz. You see, he has not yet played a game with a Red Sox affiliate. Still, we have some scouting reports from before he was signed. Diaz was officially signed as a shortstop, but everyone is in agreement that he is not actually a shortstop. Instead, he’s projected to spend the majority of his career at the hot corner. It’s at the plate where Diaz really shows his potential, though. Despite being just 16 years old when these scouting reports were collected (he turned 17 in January), Diaz has shown an impressive approach at the plate along with power that could potential turn plus with proper development.

There is a whole lot of unknown with Diaz, but he could be the most exciting prospect to watch in the upcoming season and probably has the most potential to be the Next Big Thing™ in terms of position player prospects in this organization. We’re a long way from that and there’s no guarantee he’ll turn into anything, never mind a Big Thing, but the potential is there. Diaz will get his first taste of professional ball this summer, presumably in the Dominican Summer League.

Here’s our list so far:

1. Jason Groome
2. Michael Chavis
3. Tanner Houck
4. Bryan Mata
5. Jalen Beeks
6. Alex Scherff
7. Sam Travis
8. Mike Shawaryn
9. Brian Johnson
10. Josh Ockimey
11. Cole Brannen
12. Bobby Dalbec
13. Darwinzon Hernandez
14. C.J. Chatham
15. Jake Thompson
16. Roniel Raudes
17. Hector Velazquez
18. Danny Diaz

Now, we move on to the nineteenth spot on our list. As always, head down into the comments and “rec” the comment corresponding the player for whom you’d like to vote. Make sure you’re a member of the blog before you do so of course. Additionally, if there is a player you’d like to vote for who is not listed, leave a comment of your own saying “Vote for Player X here”. That comment will count as his first vote. For more information on this system, scroll to the bottom of this post. Until next time...