PEN

Erick Pena, OF

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Scouting report

I'm hitting the breaks on Pena in a sense. I think he has a chance to be an everyday player but I also think it's very unlikely that he ends up having the sort of meteoric rise some other recent teenage superstar players and prospects have had. When you see Pena in a uniform, you can see where the bonus went and how the hype was born. This is a big, strapping young man built like a Division I safety who stands apart from other kids due to his physicality. That size and strength helps enable Pena to rip the bat through the zone with notable raw power for his age but that hasn't really manifested in consistent in-game production in my scattered looks at him, which date back to 2019 Instructs. Pena's swing is noisy and long. There's plenty of time for that to be tweaked if it turns out to be a statistically-evident problem, but in my looks, it has made it so Pena gets jammed pretty often, and makes him late on pitches he shouldn't be. He's strong enough to yank weaker contact through the infield for hits anyway, even if a pitch really ties him up, but aside from the occasional golf shot homer, I think it's going to be tough for him to hit for in-game power with this swing. Now, while I think this problem creates some hit tool risk, there are still huge tools and projection evident in Pena. He's a big, lefty-hitting teenager with a chance to play center and have impact power. Even if problems with his bat persist, he still has plenty of avenues to a lower-ceiling big league role. (Fall Instructional League)