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Atlanta Braves Top 100 Prospects Scouting Report: 23. Juan Yepez

By Benjamin Chase

Mar 15, 2015; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; The Atlanta Braves logo painted on the field during a spring training baseball game at Champion Stadium. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 10-5. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 15, 2015; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; The Atlanta Braves logo painted on the field during a spring training baseball game at Champion Stadium. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 10-5. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
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Aug 29, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; An Atlanta Braves sign is shown on a scoreboard overlooking downtown Atlanta in a Braves game against the New York Yankees at Turner Field. The Yankees won 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 29, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; An Atlanta Braves sign is shown on a scoreboard overlooking downtown Atlanta in a Braves game against the New York Yankees at Turner Field. The Yankees won 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /

Scouting Report

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Yepez is listed at 6’1 and 200 pounds on his Baseball-Reference page, but when you see him, you can tell he’s still a growing teenager (just turned 18 in February). He has likely added 1-2″ of height and 20-25 pounds of weight to those numbers, but to his credit, while that 20-25 pounds last season looked like “bad” weight, he’s shown up this season trim and fit, looking like he put in the time to add bulk and trim down excess weight. Yepez is a right-handed hitter and thrower.

Hitting

Yepez has a tall stance in the box, and he has an incredibly quick set of hands, which is what many viewed as his best raw tool when he was signed. Yepez can get the bat on a ball even when fooled, and as he continues to mature physically, he should be able to add more natural drive to the balls he hits. His home run this year was on a hanging slider, and it was a beautiful thing to watch him sit back on the pitch and trigger forward with such explosiveness and the ball just explode off of his bat.

I watch his approach at the plate, and that’s where I see some issues. In his pro career, that’s been an issue, certainly, as Yepez walked 5.4% of the time and struck out over 26% of the time in Danville last season after being promoted, and then he’s followed that up with nearly identical numbers this season (7.4%, 27.8%). His wrists probably play into that somewhat as he does have the ability to get to a lot of balls, and therefore is willing to expand the zone, but he has been guilty of expanding for more than he should be pursuing, especially on breaking pitches.

Base Running/Fielding

Yepez, even when looking somewhat overweight last season, showed good first instincts on the base paths, which allowed him to garner a few stolen bases last year, and with better conditioning this year, he’s actually been part of intentional stolen bases. I’ve also been impressed with Yepez taking an extra base or two, so he’s got some solid baseball instincts.

The fielding is the biggest issue of all. Yepez struggles mightily in fielding balls that require him to range, and while he’s handled much of the first base work well, he’s been uncomfortable with digging a ball out of the dirt thus far, though with all due respect, he’s just learning the position, so if that’s what he still has to work out, I could handle that for a guy at low-A.

Next: Future outlook

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