CHI

Alek Thomas, OF

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Scouting report

There is a difference between a prospect being short and a prospect being small. Alek Thomas' frame reads as Lilliputian on paper, but in reality, he's quite strong and has one of the more athletic swings in all of the minors. Since he was drafted, Thomas' swing has evolved to mirror the intensity of prospect-era Cody Bellinger's, and sometimes Thomas swings so hard that he looks like he's going to corkscrew himself into the ground. His leg kick is a little bigger and slower now than it was when he was an amateur and first-year pro, and his stride is longer, which might help him avoid cutting down at the ball so much. The change to his swing and his approach -- Thomas was once an all-fields spray sort of hitter but was trying to pull the ball constantly during my instructs look, though maybe he was just bored -- could allow for more in-game power. The foundation of Thomas' prospectdom was his advanced baseball acumen and feel for contact, both of which were surprising for a cold weather prospect. But he was good enough to play in several upper-class events as an underclassman during his amateur career, and he performed in those consistently. He tracks pitches well and moves the bat head around the zone, and those underlying skills as well as Thomas' athleticism and (unlike Bellinger) shorter levers help enable him to take these new, huge hacks without striking out a ton. Some underlying 2019 metrics indicate Thomas indeed needed a swing tweak to unlock some in-game pop. He averaged just shy of 90 mph off the bat in 2019 and about 48% of his balls in play came off at 95 mph or above, but he ran a groundball rate of nearly 55% and some proprietary, Statcast-y expected stats I've sourced indicate he overperformed on paper in 2019. But, as I tend to do, I'm betting on a) athleticism and b) feel to hit, both of which Thomas has shown for nearly a half-decade now. (Alternate site, Fall Instructional League)