Jul 21, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; A baseball, baseball glove and baseballs are shown on the infield during batting practice before the game against the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 21, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; A baseball, baseball glove and baseballs are shown on the infield during batting practice before the game against the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /
The Atlanta Braves have often scouted underscouted areas of Latin America, and they may have found another gem in such a location in Aruban outfielder Ray-Patrick Didder
Who Is He?
Didder came to the Atlanta Braves system “late” as an 18 year-old partially due to coming from an under-scouted area. He was initially signed as a shortstop, and he was initially assigned to the Braves Dominican Summer League affiliate, where he hit .259/.420/.289, showing his excellent eye and speed, but also struggling some with his defense.
The Braves moved Didder to the GCL in 2014 and kept him at shortstop. His bat continued to show well, as he hit .274/.354/.376 with 4 steals and 5 triples in 45 games, but he continued to show that he wasn’t a future shortstop at the big league level in spite of his elite speed and excellent eye. Didder spent his winter making the transition to the outfield, where it was felt that his plus-plus arm would play well as well as his speed.
Needless to say his transition to the outfield was a smooth one. Reports I received after Didder’s 2015 claimed he was the best defensive outfielder in the entire minor league system, which does say something in a system with pretty good outfield defense. He showed again his high-end eye and speed as he went .247/.346/.332 at the plate with 10 steals and 7 triples in 259 plate appearances, with a 20/51 BB/K.
Didder took that next step defensively and offensively this season with Rome, as he moved into the leadoff spot throughout the season, being the most-consistent hitter for the Rome team throughout the season. Didder hit .274/.387/.381 with 9 triples, 6 home runs, and 37 stolen bases in the regular season. He added a line of .292/.452/.375, 6 runs scored, and 3 stolen bases in the playoffs. Overall, he had 101 runs scored and 40 stolen bases combined between the regular season and playoffs.
Didder is listed at 6′ and 170 pounds. He’s a right-handed thrower and swinger. He may be up to 185ish, but he still is quite lean in his frame, with long arms and legs for a guy only 6′ tall.
Hitting
At the plate, Didder gets up on the plate, and his high hit by pitch rate lets you know that he doesn’t back off that spot at all. Didder has a closed stance with a very quick set of hands, but he also uses a long swing. I honestly believe there’s a TON more power in that swing if he would want to access it as his swing is extremely hand-heavy right now. I had heard a lot of that last offseason about Didder, and I noted this year that his home runs (and you’ll see one linked below) that when Didder can engage his legs with his quick wrists, the ball absolutely rockets off of his bat. I could see him being a guy who hits 15 home runs per season, but it will take some work on his swing to get there.
In his current approach, he shows good recognition, but due to his position in the box, lack of leg involvement in his swing, and the length of his swing, he struggles to really generate the bat speed to get to hard breaking stuff inside. His current position in the leadoff spot may not encourage the organization to really work with him on his hip/wrist coordination as much, but if they did, it’d be incredible the way Didder could leap forward in offensive production.
Base Running/Fielding
These are the two areas in which Didder excels. In fact, if anything, he may be a bit on the over-confident side as far as his base stealing is concerned. I did note that he took off frequently in spite of a very good defensive catcher behind the plate, and I did think in two games I saw that he was “pushed” to force the issue once he got to first, so there could be some push there from management to use his speed beyond what would lead to high success rates on the bases.
Didder goes from zero to full speed as fast as anyone in the system, and his top end speed is among the 3 or 4 fastest in the entire organization, including the major leagues. His ability to go first to third on a single is unmatched in the system, in my viewing. He’s also able to tag up on ridiculously short fly balls and still advance.
Then we get to defense. Oh, the defense. Didder willingly made the move over to right field when Ronald Acuna was healthy this year to allow Acuna to play his more natural center field, though I would seriously suggest that Didder is the better defender. However, Didder has an absolute cannon for an arm, perhaps second only to Connor Lien in the entire system, and it was flashed many times over this year as he totaled 20 assists this season, 19 of them from center field, which is absolutely insane! He played 99 games in center and 30 in right this year while Acuna was out for much of the season.
The ridiculous thing about Didder defensively is the incredible read he has on the ball. For a guy who has been playing the outfield full time for only two seasons, he has much better reads on the ball than many guys who have been full-time outfielders since their drafting (heck, he’s worlds better than Mallex Smith right now). I don’t throw around 80 grades on defense/arm easily, especially in the outfield, but Didder is a pure 80 on both. This is a guy that will win multiple Fielding Bible awards as a major leaguer if he can hit enough to make it to the bigs.
Video
Next: Future outlook
Didder threw the runner out at 3rd before the runner at home scored. Double play, no run scored. pic.twitter.com/ghbkpUwSkv
When I watched Didder in the field and especially on the bases, I was reminded of a former Brave, the man who caught the final out of the 1995 World Series, Marquis Grissom. Their builds are similar, and I do see a similar ability to hit for power in Didder as to what Grissom did. Grissom hit 20 or more home runs 4 times in his career along with stealing 30 or more bases 4 times as well. Injuries drastically affected Grissom’s speed, but taking a look back at Grissom’s career reminded me of his 1993 season, one of my first years playing fantasy baseball. He hit .298/.351/.438 with 19 home runs and 53 stolen bases along with a gold glove.
Grissom doesn’t fully express the full player Didder is, obviously, as Grissom took less hit by pitch in his entire career than Didder did this season in Rome (31 total for Grissom in his 2,165 major league games vs. 44 for Didder in his combined 139 games between the regular season and post season this year). Grissom also had a solid arm in center field, but he had nowhere near the arm that Didder has.
Didder will likely see a move to the new Atlanta Braves affiliate in Kissimmee in 2017, but some work on that swing could lead to a quick jump to AA Mississippi, and that elite defense could absolutely push the organization as there are elite raw talents like Ronald Acuna and
that are teenagers, likely to be at the same level as Didder or at Rome next season, but Didder has realized more of his potential and has more there that could come as well with power in the swing. He’s a guy I was much higher on than the consensus (be honest, did you know who he was coming into 2016? I had him in my top 40 prospects in the system.), and I have a feeling I may remain that way, though the top end of the system is getting to be tough to crack!
