Guardians prospect Velazquez has always been ahead of schedule
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GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Ralphy Velazquez is used to playing baseball above his age level. When he was 6 years old, he competed alongside kids three to four years older than he was. It was a testament to his abilities and the belief that his parents, Nicole and Armando, held in him.
“It was fun,” said Velazquez, who's ranked as the Guardians’ No. 4 prospect and No. 89 overall by MLB Pipeline. “You’re nervous at first, because everyone's older. Then when you step in the box, you’ve just got to show your talent.
“It’s been my mindset since I was little. I was very fortunate to do that at a young age.”
That’s a good backdrop to what we’ve seen from Velazquez during his professional career. He has often been one of the youngest players on the field, but has continually performed. We’ve seen that this spring, and we saw it in the Minor Leagues in 2025.
Velazquez – who will turn 21 on May 28 – has been on an upward trajectory, and he’s been hard to miss this spring. A non-roster invitee in Guardians big league camp, he’s 5-for-12 with two doubles, three RBIs and one walk with just one strikeout through eight games.
Cleveland’s first-round Draft pick in 2023, Velazquez split last season with High-A Lake County and Double-A Akron. Over 122 total games, he slashed .265/.342/.497 with 22 homers, 85 RBIs and 59 extra-base hits.
Velazquez was young even for High-A last year; he was 2.3 years younger than the average player in the Midwest League. The gap was even larger during his stint in the Eastern League following promotion to Akron (3.6 years). But Velazquez was nonetheless stellar at the plate.
Over 22 games with the RubberDucks, Velazquez slashed .330/.405/.589 with eight doubles, five homers and 22 RBIs. He had a 9.5 percent walk rate and a 15.1 percent strikeout rate. For comparison, with Lake County, he slashed .245/.323/.469 with 17 homers and 63 RBIs, and had a 9.6 percent walk rate and a 20.3 percent strikeout rate.
Velazquez noted that some keys to his Akron surge included trusting himself, his routines and his plan at the plate. Also key was being “fearless,” something his parents instilled in him at a young age.
“My parents have always pushed that on me,” Velazquez said. “Just saying I'm good, and I need to trust my abilities. At the end of the day, we're playing a kids’ game. So go out there and just have fun.”
Velazquez had a slow start to the season with Lake County. Through his first 42 games, he hit .191 with a .680 OPS before he turned it on in the summertime. It was a challenging period for him, but one he is grateful for given the lessons he took from those low points.
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“You can't ride the highs too high, and you can't ride the lows too low,” Velazquez said of what he learned during his tough start to 2025. “You have to be right in the middle and enjoy every day being on the baseball field, because we're blessed at the end of the day to be out here.
“People and kids would kill to be out here doing what we're doing. So just love the game, have fun with it, and trust my ability.”
Velazquez has a sense of maturity to him beyond his years. On the field, the Guardians have been impressed by the advanced approach he shows offensively.
In the seventh inning on Feb. 28 against the White Sox, Velazquez got a four-seam fastball over the plate from right-hander Tyler Davis. He drilled a double (which had a 106.9 mph exit velocity) to the left-center-field gap. In the eighth, he knocked a double down the left-field line, on a four-seamer from Chicago’s Adisyn Coffey that ran in on his hands.
It’s not just his offensive approach. Velazquez plays a strong first base and is a plus baserunner. He went first to third twice against the A’s on Feb. 22 -- including on an Angel Genao line-drive single to right-center in the sixth inning.
The Guardians never put strict timetables on their prospects. But organizationally, they’re not ruling out the possibility of Velazquez contributing in the Majors at some point later this year.
“He’s a complete hitter, and we know he has power. He can shoot the ball the other way,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “He's had some hard-hit pull-side balls, and he plays a really good first base. He's very athletic over there. His baserunning has been outstanding.”