TWitM: Chris Devito and Elier Hernandez get promoted

This is our weekly look at notable performances from all over the system, from big-name prospects and less heralded guys alike. The mission is to answer this simple question: “Who had a good week?”

Today, we’ll cover results from Monday, May 8 through Sunday, May 14.

AAA Omaha Storm Chasers (18-17)

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A road trip to Salt Lake City and Las Vegas treated infielder Raul Mondesi well, as he led Omaha’s offense with ten hits, including a pair of home runs, two doubles, and a triple, plus three walks. Since his demotion from the majors, Mondesi has recorded a hit in 13 of his 15 games, and reached base in 14 games.

Fellow middle infielder Ramon Torres, 24, also had ten hits this week, but with just two for extra bases. Torres has been steady at the plate, going hitless just four games all season. His extremely contact-dependent approach has led to a .319/.338/.447 season line, with only 10 strikeouts in 147 plate appearances.

Corner infielder Garin Cecchini played against his brother Gavin, currently playing for the Las Vegas 51s, an affiliate for the Mets.

Christian Binford has pitched at least six innings in all seven of his starts, and seven innings in each of his last three. Jake Junis returned to the Omaha rotation after his second one-game stint in the Kansas City bullpen. He pitched 6.1 innings, giving up one run on six hits, with nine strikeouts and three walks. Josh Staumont recorded another double-digit strikeout game on Thursday, his third of the season, giving up no runs in five innings, lowering his ERA to 3.62. However, he did issue five walks, giving him 23 in 37 ¹⁄₃ inning this year.

AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals (18-16)

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Outfielder Alfredo Escalera-Maldonado, 22, doubled three times in his 10-hit week. He was an eighth round pick out of high school in 2012, and started this season at Double-A after getting 50 games at that level in 2016. He is batting .308/.357/.415 this season.

After hitting .306/.336/.508 in his third stint at High-A Wilmington, outfielder Elier Hernandez was promoted to Northwest Arkansas this week, going 2-for-12 with a walk and five strikeouts through his first three games for the Naturals. The Naturals also lost Blue Springs native, outfielder Logan Moon.

The Naturals bullpen has a couple of relievers who are on a roll:

• Right-hander Ashton Goudeau, 24, has shut out opponents in his last four appearances. In that time, he has thrown 9.2 innings, with 10 strikeouts, two walks, and six hits (all singles) allowed, dropping his ERA to 2.63.
• Fellow righty Jake Newberry hasn’t given up an earned run in his last five outings, covering six innings. His ERA drops to 1.00 for the year with 14 strikeouts in 18 innings.

A-Adv. Wilmington Blue Rocks (17-20)

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First baseman Chris DeVito was lighting up the league playing for Lexington, and he was rewarded with a promotion to Wilmington this week. In his final game as a Legend, he had four hits, including a double and a homer. He picked up six more hits in his first four games with Wilmington. He is hitting .348 for the year with 11 home runs, although we will see how his power plays at Wilmington’s Frawley Stadium, a notoriously difficult hitters’ park.

Outfielder Anderson Miller had another great week, with a pair of home runs among his 10 hits. Miller has now played about as many games for the Blue Rocks this year as he did following his July 2016 promotion, and has improved in almost every category:

Right-handed reliever Gabe Cramer faced 12 batters in his three innings on Wednesday. He struck out eight of them. That was actually the second time in four outings this season Cramer has done exactly that, the other occurring on May 2nd. Lefty starter Cristian Castillo had a solid start on Friday, pitching 6.2 innings, with one run given up on six hits. He walked two and struck out six to drop his ERA to 3.20.

Low-A Lexington Legends (16-21)

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Catcher Meibrys Viloria collected three multi-hit games and smacked his third home run of the season. Shortstop Marten Gasparini has four hits in his last three games including his second home run of the year as he inches back towards the Mendoza Line with his line of .196/.270/.275. Outfielder Khalil Lee cooled off, going 5-for-23 with 10 strikeouts, pushing his strikeout rate north of 30%.

Former fourth round pick Jace Vines allowed just one run in ten innings over two starts, lowering his ERA to 1.73 with just seven walks in 36 ¹⁄₃ innings. Andre Davis struck out nine in his Friday start against Greensboro, giving up just one run to lower his ERA to 5.97.

Parkville native and Central Missouri alum Grant Gavin continued his dominance out of the pen with two more scoreless outings, and he has not given up a run in his last seven appearances, dating back to April 15. For the year, he has given up just one run in 18 innings with eighteen strikeouts.

We will probably start seeing some more movement in anticipation of the draft in a few weeks. Who else do you think is due for a promotion soon?