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Mario Feliciano, C
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Scouting report
Feliciano is one of the more talented offensive catching prospects in the minors thanks to a potent combination of power and barrel feel. When he puts balls in play, they're very often scorched -- just under 50% of the balls he hit in 2019 entered play at 95 mph or above, which is a 65 on the 20-80 scale if you curve out big leaguers' hard hit rates. All of that seems likely to be hampered by Feliciano's hedonistic approach. The dude likes to swing, and has only walked at a 6% clip as a pro. Feliciano is the sort of catcher who will benefit from an automated strike zone turning the position into a pass/fail endeavor, as he is a well below-average receiver and framer, but does pass back there. Ball-blocking is an issue here, though Feliciano currently spends most of his time on one knee, and does so even in some situations with runners on base, which might leave him more vulnerable to pitches in the dirt now than it will if one-knee catching goes away as soon as pitch framing stops being a thing. Feliciano has also missed two seasons due to some combination of injury (most recently a lingering shoulder issue to start 2021) and the pandemic, so maybe pieces of this will still develop. His arm (I have him popping in the 1.96 to 2.05 range with mixed accuracy) is fine. In many ways Feliciano's profile is similar to Francisco Mejía's, without that incredible hit streak and elite arm. Mejía has an amazing hit/power combination that's undercut by a poor approach, and if he can't catch (he's still not very good), then he's a low-OBP LF/DH and that's a very tough profile. There's risk that Feliciano's defensive profile bottoms out entirely and I expect he'll have some big league misadventures on defense for a while even if it doesn't. But Feliciano is so talented a hitter that his right tail outcome includes making an All-Star team or two, and he's likely to get myriad opportunities to seize a sizable role. Players like this tend to have some fat years and some lean ones; some of that is inherent with the catcher position. This is where I value a near-ready player of this ilk.