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 brought in Ronnier Mustelier in 2016, and he was solid in 2016. Could he be the team’s next Adonis Garcia?
Player Profile
The Atlanta Braves signed Mustelier after a year away from professional baseball, playing in the Mexican League.
Mustelier was a tremendous contact hitter as a young player in Cuba, putting up a line of .295/399/455 in Serie Nacional from age 17 through age 23, primarily as a third baseman, before leaving Cuba in order to escape to the United States.
The Yankees signed Mustelier once he was cleared by Major League Baseball in 2011 for a meager signing bonus of $50,000.
The Yankees immediately began using Mustelier primarily as an outfielder with some time at third base as well. He played with the Yankees Gulf Coast League team in 2011, the high-A affiliate in the Florida State League, and finished with time in the Arizona Fall League.
Between the GCL and FSL, he hit .356/.397/.527 with 3 home runs and 9 stolen bases, putting up a BB/K ratio of 9/17 over 157 plate appearances. In the Arizona Fall League, he continued hitting well, hitting .344/.354/.516 with a pair of home runs and 3 stolen bases.
Mustelier split 2012 between the Yankees’ high minors affiliates in AA and AAA in Trenton and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Combined, he hit .314/.371/.488 with 15 home runs and 10 stolen bases. He also had a 35/68 BB/K ratio over 499 plate appearances.
Injuries slowed Mustelier in 2013, as he only played 90 games due to injury. He still hit fairly well, posting a .274/.321/.397 line with 7 home runs and 5 stolen bases, along with a 24/47 BB/K ration over 374 plate appearances.
The Yankees released Mustelier 53 plate appearances into the 2014 season, citing a need to find plate appearances for other players, after he opened the season hitting .314/.340/.373 with a 2/9 BB/K ratio.
Atlanta brought in a number of former Yankee scouts when they overhauled the scouting department after the 2014 season, and that led to the signing of Adonis Garcia. Bringing in Mustelier may also be part of that familiarity with former Yankee scouts.
The Braves placed Mustelier at AAA Gwinnett for the 2016 season. He primarily played left field, though he did play a handful of games at third base and some in right field as well.
His hitting was as good as ever as well, tallying a line of .291/.353/.394 with 5 home runs, 6 stolen bases, and a 39/49 BB/K ratio.
Mustelier is listed at 5’10” and 210 pounds. He has a stocky build, with the 210 number being fairly accurate. He’s built thick in the chest through the knees without “bad” weight being prominent.
Hitting
Contact (55) – This is as low as I’d be willing to go with the grade, and frankly, I could be talked into a pure 60 on his contact tool. This is Mustelier’s carrying tool on the field, and if he is going to be a major league contributor, it’ll be on the strength of his ability to contact seemingly everything.
Mustelier is not a guy who puts pure barrel on the ball with everything, but he seems to be able to put wood on nearly everything he attempts to contact.
Power (45) – In that barrel comment, Mustelier in batting practice certainly shows power enough to be a 15-20 home run type of hitter, but he gets to the plate and swings for contact, and sometimes he does sacrifice ideal barrel in order to make that contact.
The power that Mustelier exhibits is primarily gap power, and he showed this with 21 doubles and 4 triples on the season.
Eye (50) – So, many will see a guy who had a career-high walk rate last year when he walked 8.3% of his plate appearances and wonder how even a 50 can be put on his eye.
When you review “eye” on a player, simple walk rate does come into play, but moreover the control and knowledge of the strike zone is what should be looked for instead.
Mustelier struck out 10.3% of his plate appearances last season, and he’s never had a full season above 15% in his career. He controls the zone in that he’ll take a ball when the ball is clearly out of the zone, and he does very well making contact on nearly anything within the zone.
That said, he does swing at all sorts of pitches that he really cannot drive, and being able to lay off those pitches is also a skill of the “eye” component as well.
Base Running/Fielding
Speed (50) – Mustelier is not a guy with elite burning speed, and his first 10 steps from the box to first base are probably below average. However, when he is moving on the bases, he has exceptional awareness of where he is, where the ball is, and the situation of the game.
Defense (45) – Mustelier really is not an elite fielder anywhere. He’s not going to kill you anywhere, but his range is average to below-average in left field. I did not get great views of him at third due to not a ton of action coming his way in the games I saw of him there, but he did seem to have decent actions there, but certainly not elite by any means.
Arm (50) – This is one that might bug some who have seen Mustelier. His arm is average in strength, and arguably even below-average.
What Mustelier does offer is tremendous accuracy, and his awareness that he shows well in base running also comes into play in his throwing, as he threw behind a few runners to nab them off of bases when they weren’t expecting that throw. This sort of awareness led to 12 assists in the outfield, which was one of the highest numbers in all of the minor leagues for the Braves, and from a guy with an arm nowhere near on par with other guys putting up similar numbers.
MLB Player Comp
At the plate, Mustelier reminds me a ton of a guy that probably would cause some reflux reactions from Braves fans, Melky Cabrera.
Like Melky, Mustelier is a very contact-oriented hitter who does not hit for a ton of power (outside of the two seasons just before Cabrera was popped for PEDs).
Cabrera is also not well-regarded defensively, though he doesn’t have Mustelier’s instincts on the field with throwing in his corner.
Here’s one thing really interesting – Mustelier is 3 days older than Cabrera!
Mustelier is a guy I have been asked a lot about this winter, so I thought this would be an interesting guy for a profile for readers.
While I don’t think there’s a future starter here, it wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the world if Mustelier was able to get up to the major leagues as a contact-oriented bench player who can handle corner outfield and third base. Outside of that, he’s likely AAAA fodder, but certainly, he’s not hurting the Braves in that role.
