The Guardians have designated outfielder Estevan Florial for assignment, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic. His spot on the roster will go to outfielder Steven Kwan, who’s been reinstated from the injured list and is back in the Cleveland lineup tonight.
Acquired from the Yankees in a December swap that sent right-hander Cody Morris back to New York, the out-of-options Florial won a spot on Cleveland’s Opening Day roster but has yet to hit with his new club. The once-vaunted prospect has appeared in 36 games with the Guards and tallied 111 plate appearances while mustering only a .173/.264/.367 slash. Florial has shown some extra-base pop, with three homers, six doubles and a pair of triples, but he’s also gone down on strikes in a staggering 36.9% of his plate appearances.
Strikeout woes are nothing new for Florial, who’s now punched out in 33.5% of his 245 big league plate appearances. Even as Florial put up gaudy numbers in Triple-A with the Yankees organization in 2022-23, he did so while fanning in three out of every ten trips to the plate. The Yankees largely left him in Triple-A to try to sort through his lack of contact skills, but it’s not a flaw that Florial has been able to overcome to this point.
Florial’s combination of power and speed has long been tantalizing, but he’s now a .192/.291/.329 hitter in the big leagues who can’t be sent to the minors without first clearing waivers. Another club that’s not in contention could perhaps afford to take a flier and place a waiver claim, but it’d be hard for any team with postseason aspirations to give Florial any kind of meaningful playing time when he’s clearly a project. The Guardians will have a week to try to trade him, pass him through outright waivers, or release him. If he clears outright waivers, Florial can reject the assignment and elect free agency by virtue of the fact that he’s been outrighted once in the past (with the Yankees in April 2023).
Yay!
Another overhyped Yankees prospect who does nothing in the majors…
@tigers182 not disagreeing at all. Because of the market and history, the Yankees will always have way over valued prospects. However I will say that most prospects wash out or under achieve.
He sits alongside Mike Ford and Greg Bird and a lot of other Yankee top 30 prospects never traded by Cashman until they were going to be on anyone’s too 30.
Living on NY, he was not a “can’t miss” prospect. Truth is every team wants to believe in their minor league talent and their fan bases do the same thing.
I don’t know if he was “can’t miss” or not, but he was the #1 Yankees prospect and was as high as #44 for the entire league. That is pretty good.
Another guy from the DR who is most likely older than listed. He was highly regarded when he was performing in the lower minors at a young age. He “protected” well but never took the next step forward. Barring a miraculous improvement in his hit tool he’s a 5th outfielder up and down guy.
When he was in the lower minors he was regarded as a “tool shed” with a significant flaw: pitch recognition. He started high on the lists because of the tools, but drifted down and off the lists when the pitch recognition never developed. He NEVER was considered a can’t miss prospect, just the opposite. Was projected to have a high fail rate unless his pitch recognition improved. The Yankees didn’t even call him up when they needed OFers last year.
He wasn’t overrated by those who understand prospects. Every team has prospects like Florial.
He has 245 career plate appearances. That’s not a lot. And he’s been right at replacement level. It’s very possible he becomes a full time big leaguer if given a chance.
As a Guardians fan….this. I know he strikes out a lot but he is still learning how to hit on the major league level. Some team with a weak outfield should pick him up and let him play for the rest of the year. Will he succeed? I have no idea, but he has power and speed and 245 plate appearances is NOT enough to really judge a player.
The Rockies hit with Nolan Jones (last year anyway). Maybe they can get more out of another ex-Indian outfielder. Then again, they tried with the last Yanks / Tribe cast-off who “just needed PT”.
He’s 26. Time is running out. It’s possible the he pulls a Joey Bautista but that’s pretty rare.
Honestly, he was not a “can’t miss prospect.” There is a reason the Yankees kept him in AAA. He did have some excellent tools, like his defense, speed, and power; but he could never establish the plate discipline he needed, and it was no secret.
If you look around the league, all 30 teams have actual can’t miss prospects that flounder in the majors, if they make it at all. It’s quite literally every single team, every single year.
You know who were a “can’t miss Yankees prospects?” Dominguez and Volpe, but they seems to be living up to their hype thus far. Only God knows their future though.
“Plate discipline” has never been Florial’s problem, he walks plenty. It’s the swing and miss on pitches in the zone that’s the problem. You have to throw him strikes, but he can’t hit them.
His MLB OBP is .291, which is *not* good plate discipline. Yes, he also has a swing and miss problem, but to frame him as having good plate discipline, which I consider to be in and out of the strike zone, is not accurate. For the amount he strikes out, he does not walk nearly enough.
well said. hitting a baseball is incredibly hard. for 99% of prospects, reaching the level of AAAA journeyman (florial’s most likely outcome) should be considered a success
I completely agree. Florial is not a failure in any way shape or form, except to his bank account. Such a cruel game.
C’mon. No one is calling him a failure at life. But as a major leaguer, so far he’s been a failure. It’s all relative.
Jasson Dominguez? You mean the guy with 31 at bats under his belt? This isn’t the Negro Leagues, you need more at bats than that before you can “live up to the hype.”
Yes, hiflew, that’s why I added that nobody knows how they will ultimately pan out, but at least he made it to the Bigs and performed, which is more than most. But, it’s more than that too. When teams all ask for Dominguez in trades and the consensus is that he is a top-tier prospect, then he makes the Big Leagues and performs well, it’s a really good sign.
But, I acknowledge, he could completely flop. All indicators are that he won’t. Only time will tell. Many top prospects have had excellent first seasons and then bit the dust.
His poor numbers in High-A in 2019 was a sign of things to come. Prior to that he was a highly ranked prospect that the Yankees did not trade for MLB talent that could have helped them either beat the Red Sox in 2018 or Houston in 2019. Loaisiga, Albert Abreu and Deivi Garcia were the Top 4 prospects prior to the 2019 season. If the Yankees felt they were close to a World Series (after the 2017 run, absolutely), they had to deal most of these guys for MLB help.
The hype train stopped awhile ago. A peek at his MLB stats with the Yanks and their machinations to keep him buried (IKF in center) should have been a sign.
@tigers. My thoughts exactly, “next Bernie Williams,” more like next Clint Frazier.
The Yankees don’t have a “prospect hype man” that goes around convincing other teams that their prospects are better than they are. Each team has scouts and there are independent rankings of minor league prospects. Jackson Holiday is the number one rated prospect for 2024. How is that going? I’m sure the Yankees overhyped him too?
The Yankees have the national mlb media to act as their “prospect hype man”
The “National MLB media…”
You mean the top 30/100 team prospect ranking systems that literally apply to every single team? Or the top 100 overall prospect list? You know, the same exact list that often has fewer Yankees on the list than many other teams?
Your bias has blinded you, but that’s ok. You will have plenty of backup on this site.
Well, if you can argue your point, I’ll listen, but it seems as though it’s your anti-Yankees bias blinding you.
I clearly detailed why it’s not what you said, so feel free to refute it.
Be careful with Clip. If you debate him too much he’ll call you some guy named Joel and threaten to try to have you banned.
I’ll forever appreciate his legacy series against the Yankees
Will this finally be the move that gets Schneemann on the 40 man? Have to think Arias’ days will be numbered now once that happens…
Arias isn’t going to be DFA’d to get Schneeman on the club. Arias may be optioned but you’ll need to find someone else to DFA to open a spot on the 40 man.
They opened up a spot on the 40-man by DFAing Florial. I’d like to think that if they call up Schneeman, they’d make sure he’ll get at-bats and not just sit on the bench, so Arias is probably safe for now. I don’t see it happening unless they run out of patience with Rocchio or someone gets hurt.
Wow! Remember when he was the untouchable prospect for Yankees fans?
I don’t because it never happened. This guy was buried at AAA for the Yankees and eventually DFA’d, very far from “untouchable”.
No.
Emilio!!!!!!
I’m still happily in shock Cleveland gave up Cody Morris for Florial. Guys with 35% K rates in the minors never pan out. Florial has more big league service time than I ever will, and he can probably do the quad A thing for a few years. He can play any outfield spot, runs well, and will hit the random homer off a meatball pitch.
As a Guardians fan I think it was worth giving up Morris to take a shot on Florial. Going into the year, they didn’t really have any outfield options other than Kwan that had much upside and I doubt they expected to be playing this well right now so they probably figured they could give Florial an extended run of at bats to see if he could figure it out.
Morris was also just gonna be a reliever for them because he had no ability to stay healthy and because the control is an issue. He definitely has the stuff to be an impact late inning guy if he can stay healthy, but he’s got his questions too. Plus I feel like you always have to be skeptical if the Guardians are moving on from a pitcher.
Not exactly a Floral performance.
Unrelated question that needs to be asked. Why doesn’t Baseball Reference trust us to comment on Wander Franco? The riffing could be great from this motley crew of the usual suspects that regularly post. We’re missing out! That said, it’s probably because something like an insignificant minor league signing of say, a journeyman backup catcher often sends many here into a vitriolic frenzy of traded insults.
Seems like you answered your own question by stating the obvious.
The usual Yankee failed prospect. Year after year after year after year its always the same old story. The issue is the organization and the fans way overate their prospects. Greg Bird, Miguel Andujar, Justus Sheiffield, Clint Frazier, Rob Refsnyder, Devi Garcia, etc. There are way more than that but those are just off the top of my head
Tell me more about Brett Baty, Amed Rosario, Dom Smith, Mark Vientos, Ike Davis, etc. There are way more than that but those are just off the top of my head.
So every failed Yankees prospect the Yankees just trade for a Verdugo and Soto. The problem now is the Yankees won’t be able to bring back both. So Spencer Jones and Dominez better be can’t miss prospects.
Rosario isn’t a failed prospect. He’s just not as good as hoped. Although if you want an example of a WAAAAY overhyped prospect, Rosario is the poster boy.
Aaron Judge, Anthony Volpe…no? What about any of the prospects that they turned into Juan Soto? no still?
They’re gonna have to turn in some $$$$ if they want to keep Soto for more than a year.
Money will not be an issue. Any team that signs Juan Soto will make so much more from having him on their team than they will pay him. In business, it is called an investment. When the return on investment (ROI) is calculated, paying Soto whatever is a no-brainer. Even Cashman and Hal can do that math. Like I said, it is a no-brainer!.
Frazier and Sheffield were Cleveland prospects.
EVERYBODY has a laundry list of failed prospects.
Maybe he has a future with Clint Frazier on the Charleston Dirty Birds.
The thing I never understood is that the scouting report on Florial was that at minimum he was a decent defender. So why is it that the Guardians decided to play him in CF precisely once, and mostly put him at DH/PH duty? You would think on a team having infielders learn OF on the fly that he’d be a guy to at least put in as a defensive replacement every once and awhile. But instead they had Arias playing CF, Fry playing LF/RF, and supposedly have been getting Manzardo LF reps in practice.
Once his lack of defensive value became apparent, this was pretty much a matter of time.
His defense was clearly overhyped–Cleveland said as much by the way they used him. I was startled by his arm as well…not nearly as strong as we were led to believe. Good kid, wish him well. I just don’t know how you improve contact in the zone. He doesn’t chase, he just can’t hit strikes.
Probably the best evaluation of Florial I’ve seen: “he doesn’t chase, he just can’t hit strikes.”
I don’t see him getting many more reps at the MLB level. So many swing and misses in his wheelhouse. He just can’t hit consistently.
When Cleveland got him, I was sure he’d be DFA’d by mid June. Looks like that was too optimistic. He’s now beginning the Greg Allen portion of his career when he’ll drift from team to team, the difference though is Allen can field and has some value.
When evaluating position prospects, one tool counts far above all the rest.
A kid can run like the wind, be strong enough to hit a ball thru a brick wall, and play defense like a roomba…but if he can’t make contact with a bat on a baseball, it doesnt mean squat.
Bradley Zimmer disease. Daniel Johnson caught it too.
He looked like a major league power hitter. Looks apparently are deceiving.
It sure was nice to have Kwan back tonight. What a player.
Honestly, and I can’t believe I’m saying this with those awful numbers, but I wouldn’t mind if the White Sox put in a claim for him. He’s played well when I’ve watched him this year and I don’t know, maybe there’s something there still.
White Sox a good call. Play him every day. 3/4 weeks of every day play should certainly go far in evaluating efforts to go forward or go fish.
Sox are awful. The opportunity is inexpensive. Go for it.