NEW YORK — The Yankees liked what they saw from highly regarded shortstop prospect Oswald Peraza in his short MLB debut.
Peraza was called up Sept. 1 and hit .306 with a home run, two RBI and a .832 OPS in sporadic work over 18 games. He even started Game 2 of the American League Championship Series against the Astros. It’s not out of the question that the 22-year-old could push to be the Yankees’ starting shortstop in spring training next season.
During the ALCS, NJ Advance Media spoke with hitting coach Dillon Lawson about what he saw from Peraza after his promotion from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
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What have you seen from Oswaldo since he’s been up?
Lawson: “Not comparing him to anyone, but knowing what he does well, which is making contact. He has good major-league average (and) top-end exit velocity for a shortstop. And his swing decisions have been improving year after year. I think a lot of this is settling into the big-league competition. I would say that it’s been exciting, maybe most of all, how he steps in the box and he’s aggressive. He’s not shying away from anything. He’s trying to take the action to the opposition to the pitcher, to the defense, and that’s good. That’s a good first sign. He’s not shying away from anything. That tells you he doesn’t feel like he’s overmatched or out of place and he shouldn’t feel that way because he belongs in the big leagues.”
Was that his game in Triple-A? Being aggressive?
Lawson: “He’s aggressive, and a big part of what we were trying to do was make sure that if he fouled it off or missed and the counts got deeper, making sure that he wasn’t leaving his zone, wasn’t leaving the strike zone , wasn’t leaving his zone because as a young hitter, you tend to see young hitters who are too aggressive because every time that they swing, it usually gets a good result. So why not swing more? So, it felt like his early at-bat approach was good and making sure that the later at-bat approach was locked in as well. Making sure that he’s not — just because it’s a strike on the corner doesn’t mean it’s the right pitch to put into play at that time. Those types of things. He has the skill set. When he swings, he makes contact, and when he makes contact, it tends to be really hard. He probably hits a few too many ground balls but that’s been something he’s done over the course of his career and he’s gotten a lot better at it and that’s why you see the home run surge. It’s all things that happen as he gets settled into that particular level.”
Have you seen him take the preparation and pregame work he was doing at Triple-A and bring it here?
Lawson: “When he first got here, he was being respectful of the bats who were going to be in the starting lineup and their time. He was cutting his stuff short. We talked to him. It’s like, ‘You’re important. It’s important that you’re getting your stuff in, too.’ Just restructuring where maybe he’ll do maybe a lighter warmup in the cage, hit (batting practice) and then he’s going to be in the cage with (assistant hitting coach) Casey (Dykes) during the game and going to be hammering home machine work and random BP and all the things he did in Triple-A. But it’s even more important now because he’s not getting the live at-bats. So, having the velocity to be able to match it or being able to do some of the decision-making stuff that we’re challenging that part of it, the plate discipline part of it in the cage — while it’s not (Justin) Verlander or (Shane) Bieber throwing against him, it’s as good right now as we can make it given the circumstance. It wasn’t that he was dodging work or he was like, ‘Oh, I’m in the big leagues and I’m just going to rest.’ No, he was being respectful. But now it’s like, ‘Hey, you can be respectful and take care of yourself.'”
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Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected].