The Diamondbacks announced that outfielder Jake McCarthy was reinstated from the bereavement list. In a corresponding move, fellow outfielder Alek Thomas was optioned to Triple-A Reno.
Thomas, 22, was initially promoted to the big leagues in May while considered one of the top prospects in the sport at the time. Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and FanGraphs all had him in the top 40 on their respective lists of the best youngsters around the league. Unfortunately, he hasn’t hit the ground running in his first shot at the big leagues, producing a batting line of .231/.275/.344 through his first 113 games for a wRC+ of 71, or 29% below league average.
He’s managed to keep the strikeouts down to a rate of 18%, which is a few ticks below the 22.3% league average this year. However, he’s also walked at a below-average 5.4% rate and isn’t doing much damage when he makes contact. His .263 batting average on balls in play could involve some bad luck, but he’s also in just the 21st percentile in terms of hard hit percentage, the 12th percentile for barrel rate and 20th in average exit velocity. He is in the 75th percentile in terms of max exit velocity, which suggests he can do damage when he does square the ball up. He’s just not doing it very often so far.
It’s not all doom and gloom, as Thomas has a solid floor because of his speed and defense. He has 94th percentile sprint speed and is in the 92nd percentile in terms of Outs Above Average. If the bat can take a step forward and start to resemble his production in the minor leagues, he would become an incredibly valuable and well-rounded player.
The Diamondbacks are flush with outfielders, which is seemingly what has nudged Thomas out of the picture for now. Daulton Varsho has seemingly made a permanent move from catching to the outfield, according to reporting from earlier this month. He joins an outfield mix that includes Thomas, McCarthy, Stone Garrett, Jordan Luplow and Corbin Carroll. Like Thomas, Carroll was a highly-touted prospect who made his debut this year, but with much more success. Through 24 games, Carroll is hitting .256/.318/.474 for a wRC+ of 119. With Varsho, Garrett and McCarthy all also hitting well, the club has a bevy of outfield options at its disposal at the moment.
The Diamondbacks are well out of contention with just over a week left in the regular season, meaning the remaining games will primarily be for evaluating players and gathering information for the future. In that context, it’s noteworthy that Thomas has been squeezed out here. During the offseason, there figures to be plenty of speculation about the club using its strong outfield depth to upgrade other parts of the roster, with varying opinions about who is most likely to be moved. This demotion certainly doesn’t mean Thomas has been erased from the team’s plans, as he’s still only 22 years old and prospects don’t always develop in a linear fashion. Though it does perhaps indicate that some less-hyped outfielders like McCarthy and Garrett have played well enough to earn longer looks and complicate the picture. McCarthy is hitting .288/.352/.446 this year for a 124 wRC+ in 91 games. Garrett has gotten into just 22 games but has hit .318/.352/.621 in that time for a wRC+ of 165.
From a service time perspective, this won’t have an immediate impact on Thomas. He was promoted a month after Opening Day and was always going to come up short of one year of service time in 2022. This demotion, assuming he doesn’t return, will only cost him about ten days from his tally. (Optional assignments for position players come with a ten-day minimum but an exception is made if another player is going on the injured list.) Though if Thomas continues to be outside the team’s immediate outfield plans, future optional assignments could push back his free agency or arbitration eligibility.
Also has 619 OPS but only 8 HR in 113 games in 2022.
He’s a great fielder. He’ll be back.
He won’t last, he’s just not that good.
Yeah, because every top prospect who struggles is in their first taste of the big leagues never comes back up after being sent down and plays better!
Curious move. There are only 3 games left in the season for the AAA Reno Aces (plus playoff games for PCL Championship and possibly AAA Championship against the AAA International League champion), so he won’t get many more ABs this year.
Pavin Smith sticks on the roster after Jake McCarthy was activated from the Bereavement List.
But Thomas was really scuffling lately. Seemed lost at the plate. Ran out of gas? Needs to calm his feet and body at the plate, I look for a very different look next year from Thomas.
Thought this would have happened sooner.
Regarding service time, I’m pretty sure any player optioned past September 8th (3 days after labor day) still receives service time for the extent of their optional assignment. I believe this is a new rule in the CBA. Maybe if you have access to the new CBA you could confirm it for me.
Here is my two cents as a Dodger fan watching Alek on occasion. His swing is too long. It involves a heavy leg kick but it is more of a leg drag in which he drives his leg to get anything else moving. I don’t really believe that it will work against high velocity spin combos in the MLB. Even now he posted a -11 RV (baseballsavant) against fourseamers this year (0 against sinkers) with a whiff rate of 30.8% only lower than his splitter whiff rate.
You need to play sim baseball
Pavin Smith is the hot bat right now. When McCarthy came off bereavement, it was a choice between Thomas and Smith to be sent down. I don’t think it says anything at all about the Dback’s belief in Thomas long term that he was sent down.
With som coaching and adjustments, Thomas will be a good bat in the ML’s.His speed and athleticism plus his defense would make him the perfect center fielder for Oracle Park.
If I was the Giants I wouldn’t think twice. I think with the right coaching he’ll be a fine major leaguer.
Batting first for the Giants, the center fielder number 1 Alek Thomas.
The giants are already drooling over this man
Why would the DBacks make that trade?
If you’ve never heard them, Steve Berthume and Bob Brenly are by far the worst, last time I heard them, they were describing Alek Thomas as if he was the next Mickey Mantle, should be funny listening to these jokers
Worst, Colorado announcers, they homer so much it’s sad.
Guessing he’s still filling out some, and if he stops hitting everything into the ground there could be a nice career ahead of him.