Here are Saturday's 10 best prospect performances

August 18th, 2019

Here are the 10 best performances by players on team Top 30 Prospects lists from across the Minor Leagues on Saturday:

Travis Swaggerty, OF, Pirates No. 4
Swaggerty’s first ever multi-homer game was the difference on Saturday as Class A Advanced Bradenton edged Lakeland, 3-2. The 21-year-old outfielder put the Marauders on the board in the first with a solo shot and added a second solo blast in the fifth before finishing 2-for-4. The two-homer performance gives Swaggerty, the Pirates’ first-round Draft pick from 2018, nine home runs as well as a .267/.345/.386 line over 111 games in his first full season. He’s also collected 21 steals and has at least one hit in eight straight games. Pirates prospect stats »

Noelvi Marte, SS Mariners No. 13
Marte has been red-hot and turned in multihit performances in eight of his past 10 games. The 17-year-old went 4-for-5 with a trio of extra-base hits -- two doubles and a triple -- while also driving in four runs, matching his career high on Saturday. Marte is hitting .295 through the first 60 games of his professional career and is batting .400 through 15 games this month. Mariners prospect stats »

Trevor Rogers, LHP, Marlins No. 9
After recording three double-digit strikeout games in 18 starts during his time at Class A Advanced Jupiter, Trevor Rogers needed only three starts at Double-A Jacksonville to accomplish the feat. The 21-year-old left-hander racked up 10 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings Saturday, allowing two hits and one walk in a 2-0 win against Tennessee. Rogers, a former first-round pick (2017), has pitched to a 2.70 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 16 2/3 frames for the Jumbo Shrimp after posting a 2.53 ERA with a Florida State League-best 122 strikeouts in 110 1/3 innings at Jupiter. Marlins prospect stats »

Gabriel Arias, SS, Padres No. 16
Arias had a monster night at the plate for Class A Lake Elsinore, going 4-for-4 with a pair of triples and his 14th home run of the season. He drove in three and also scored two runs. The 19-year-old shortstop has been absolutely crushing the ball of late, notching a pair of four-hit performances while batting .455 with 20 hits over his past 10 contests, and he’s also batting .362 over 40 games since the start of July. Altogether, Arias, who signed for $1.9 million during the Padres’ 2016-17 international spending spree, has hit .306/.347/.470 in his first California League campaign after a somewhat disappointing first full season at Class A Fort Wayne in ‘18. Padres prospect stats »

Brandon Bielak, RHP, Astros No. 27
Bielak was roughed up and charged with nine runs in his last start, but he bounced back in a big way for Triple-A Round Rock. The 22-year-old, an 11th-round pick from the 2017 MLB Draft, matched his season high with nine strikeouts as he spun six scoreless frames. The Notre Dame product, threw 63 of his 97 pitches for strikes and picked up his seventh with for the Express in the process. Astros prospect stats »

Chris Vallimont, RHP and Alex Kirilloff, OF/1B, Twins Nos. 29 and 2
After carrying a no-hit bid into the eighth inning of his last start, Vallimont was dominant once again Saturday for Class A Advanced Fort Myers. The Twins’ No. 29 prospect threw 61 of his 85 pitches for strikes as he cruised through seven scoreless innings. Vallimont, who yielded his first hit in the fifth, gave up just three hits in the outing and finished with nine strikeouts. The Twins acquired the 22-year-old via a trade with the Marlins in late July.

Kirilloff showed why teams coveted his bat in the 2016 MLB Draft. The Twins’ No. 2 prospect hit his ninth homer of the year as part of a 3-for-4, three-RBI performance for Double-A Pensacola. Kirilloff hit .348 over two levels last season and is batting .276 through 81 games in 2019, hit first season at the Double-A level. Twins prospect stats »

Payton Henry, OF and Antoine Kelly, LHP, Brewers Nos. 16 and 11
Henry extended his hitting streak to four games and hit his 14th homer of the year in the process. The 22-year-old struggled offensively in July, but has picked up the pace this month and is hitting .295 through 13 games in August with Class A Advanced Carolina. Defensively, the backstop also draws rave reviews for his leadership and his strong, accurate arm.

The Brewers have a proven record of targeting and developing seemingly undervalued college talent via the MLB Draft, and the 6-foot-6 left-handed Kelly, the club’s second-round pick this past June, already looks like he could be Milwaukee's next success story. Making his eighth Arizona League start on Saturday, Kelly completed a career-high five scoreless innings, scattering four hits and striking out six. The dominant performance gives the 19-year-old southpaw a 1.04 ERA across his first 26 career innings, during which he’s racked up 35 strikeouts against four walks. Brewers prospect stats »

Deivi Garcia, RHP, Yankees No. 1
Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre used an opener on Saturday before deploying the 20-year-old Garcia in the second inning. The Yankees’ top prospect (MLB No. 64) struck out seven in five hitless frames, though control issues led to five walks, matching his season-high total, as well as an unearned run. Overall, Garcia threw 43 of 85 pitches for strikes in the outing. He sports 5.01 ERA in 32 1/3 Triple-A innings after Saturday’s performance, and for the season Garcia has compiled a 4.08 ERA with 154 strikeouts and 51 walks in 103 2/3 innings across three levels. Yankees prospect stats »