A season of struggles in 2025 has given way to something much different and much better for Yoeilin Cespedes.
Boston's No. 17 prospect slugged a pair of homers during to cap a four-hit, three-RBI night for High-A Greenville, which rallied in the 10th inning to edge Hub City, 8-7, on Wednesday night at Fluor Field.
Cespedes' second roundtripper of the game evened the score in the bottom of the 10th and gave the outfielder his first four-hit game in nearly three years and the third of his pro career.
The 20-year-old reached safely in his first three plate appearances for the Drive, sandwiching a pair of singles around his first homer of the night to left-center field in the third off left-hander Dalton Pence (TEX No. 12). But Cespedes came through with his biggest swing of the game in the extra frame.
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The 5-foot-8, 181-pounder hammered a first-pitch offering by Hub City's sidearming righty Luke Savage, launching it over the fence in right-center to even the score and set up Greenville for a walk-off win. It was Cespedes' second multihomer performance in less than two weeks and his third and fourth jacks in four games.
Cespedes' big night pushed his average back over .300 (.314) for the first time since April 9 and lifted his OPS to 1.034.
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It might be a stretch to opine that a season can be of the make-or-break variety when a player is less than a year removed from his teens, but 2026 is carrying some extra weight for Cespedes. While his youth and relative inexperience undoubtedly played a part, the Dominican Republic native struggled through a .227/.292/.376 campaign in 2025 at Single-A -- his first season stateside.
But a new year has brought new opportunities, a new home and a new level, and Cespedes is thriving. The second baseman has been a consistent offensive force since Opening Day, and over the past seven games in particular. Cespedes is batting .414 (12-for-29) with seven extra-base hits, four homers and 11 RBIs in that span.
The hot streak has pushed Cespedes to the upper echelon of the South Atlantic League offensive leaderboards, where he stands among the top 10 in hits (27), extra-base hits (16), homers (six) and RBIs (20). Cespedes is only four long balls shy of his total from a year ago (10) and nearly one-third of the way to the 54 RBIs he collected in 110 games for Single-A Salem.