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Jeter Downs, IF

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Scouting report

Downs has been a polished, advanced-for-his-age hitter dating back to high school and has a career .276/.362/.526 line in pro ball up through Hi-A (and an insignificant 12 game Double-A run). His hands work in a circle that enables him to turn on and lift pitches down-and-in, and helps him scoop breaking pitches with lift, but also in a way that causes his bat head to drag through the zone a bit. After watching Carter Kieboom struggle with a similar-looking swing, I've begun to wonder if Downs will be tied up by big league velocity in on his hands. But the closer to the bottom of the zone pitches are, the more Downs punishes them with pretty good pop to all fields. He's going to pepper the gaps and do a fair amount of damage to right-center field. Last year, I projected Downs to be a second baseman based on how thick his lower body already was at age 21, and there are folks in the industry who still think that's the case, but at the alternate site, I thought he looked agile enough to stay at short and be passable in the same way Xander Bogaerts kind of has been, especially on balls in play to his left and in on the grass. I think Downs can be positioned defensively so that he's making most of his plays in that direction rather than having to go into the hole and backhand balls, which he's less able to do. His average exit velo was 88 mph in 2019, and there's not a lot of room on the body, so that might be all, but he strikes the ball hard and with consistency, and that's typically enough to be an everyday player at one of the middle infield spots. (Alternate site)