Leonardo Bernal is still a top 100 prospect

[Bob Reed]

The teenager has been a disappointment in Low-A this year, to the untrained eye. His OPS of .743 is lower than last year’s .771 for the same team in a limited age-18 season.

But two profound caveats must be considered. One, Bernal has vastly improved his plate discipline markers this year, with an excellent strikeout/walk ratio of 49/55 compared to 2022’s mediocre 12/32 tally.

And two, Bernal has hit much, much better when not playing in the notorious hitter’s graveyard of Roger Dean Stadium.

At Roger Dean: .235/.365/.309
True Road Games: .316/.409/.459

Maybe I’m just scrambling for positives during a lost baseball season, but I remain optimistic about Leo Bernal’s future. Unlike Ivan Herrera, Bernal shouldn’t be trapped by Contreras in AAA when he doesn’t belong there. By the time Bernal is MLB-ready (three years from now, give or take a month) Contreras will already be gone — if there really are baseball gods. Long gone, hopefully.

[mudville]

Nice post, Bob Reed. Thanks.

[blingboy]

Maybe go easy on the kool aide Bob. Bernal has been with the system 2 1/2 years now and was really hot for a month and a half last year. Other than that, he has not been a notable stand out other than a good game here and there.

He was not in the season opening top 50 heading into 2022. But when he opened the season at PB rather than FCL, he suddenly was well up into the top 50. That even though he barely hit .200 in DSL the previous year. I suspect PB needed a catcher with some kind of pro experience more than anything else, but no matter. Then, later in the year, based upon his hot month and a half he skyrocketed up into the top 20. That probably says more about the overal system strength than about him. He acquired a pretty thick coat of hype which has stuck, as it tends to do.

Now days he is doing ok in his second year at PB. He looks about like a lot of guys at that evel. He may turn into something and may not. I advise letting the kid play and see what happens.

[14NyquisT]

I was just yesterday going through the organization’s catching corp and when I got down to PB and Bernal I said to myself Bernal hasn’t really improved that much this season especially when looking at his OPS. and it being his second season at PB. I had considered him to be a defense first guy but he has only thrown out 15 of 69 base runners. Also he seems to have now fallen behind Crooks II on the depth chart. He is however more age appropriate at low-A.

I recall that B. Reed was promoting him during the community’s rankings and some others jumped on the Bernal bandwagon putting him ahead of Hansen, Paniagua, Mautz and Gomez. So regarding Bernal I’m somewhere in between the two previous comments. Based on Reed’s recommendation I’ve been waiting to see better offensive numbers. He IS second on the team in RBI’s and has been consistently in the middle of the the order all season, which is telling.

Hey, the kid is still only 19 and won’t be 20 until Feb. I’m holding out hope for him to live up to Bob’s high praise. He should start ’24 at high-A. and like Bling said we’ll have to wait and see. Maybe this teenager has something more than he has shown up until now.

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