CHI
Tyler Soderstrom, IF
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Scouting report
Soderstrom is the best prospect I saw during big league and minor league spring training, and that was the case for many scouts, as well. He looked comfortable during his big league spring at-bats and was utterly dominant on the backfields, running deep counts and crushing hard fly balls and line drives to all fields. Even when forced to offer at pitcher's pitches, he's strong enough to rip the ball through the right side of the defense. This just adds to a long track record of hitting that dates back to Soderstrom's amateur days, though he has already become much more physical than he was in high school and stands apart from most other prospects on the field, even in pro ball. Juxtaposing his advanced offense is Soderstrom's defense. He split time behind the plate on his high school team, then was asked to catch premium stuff from pitchers with whom he had no experience during his showcase summer. I think we've only seen the tip of his defensive iceberg, but working to develop Soderstrom's glove probably means slowing the development of his bat and exposing him to the brutal grind of catching, which often dilutes offensive production. He took a foul ball off the shoulder this spring, collapsed into a heap, and was removed. Stuff like that happens to catchers once in a while but it's also the sort of thing that might cause him to play through pain and not hit as well for long stretches. Some teams wanted to run him out as a corner outfielder or third baseman in pro ball, and he's also played a bunch of first base so far this year. I think the Wil Myers/Bryce Harper approach would make a ton of sense here. It would probably help Soderstrom traverse the minors more quickly and overlap in the big leagues with Sean Murphy, who is a fantastic defender and unlikely to be supplanted by anyone, let alone a fringe defender like Soderstrom. This is a plus bat likely to amass 40 annual doubles.