Juan Yepez off to hot start after callup
Christopher Crawford analyzes St. Louis Cardinals 1B Juan Yepez's hot start and how managers looking for corner infield help could find it in the rookie.
Video Transcript
- The Cardinals have one of the best prospects in baseball, tearing the cover off the ball in Triple-A and Nolan Gorman. But that was not the name St. Louis turned to last week. Nope, it was Juan Yepez. And Yepez has already made an impact for the Cards in his brief time.
Over the first five games of the year, the 24-year-old hit 4.74 with three doubles in his first MLB homerun. Obviously, those numbers aren't sustainable, but they're a brief glimpse into the talent in Yepez's right-handed bat. This is a player who hit 27 homers with a .969 OPS in 2021 while reaching Triple-A, and he had a .974 OPS with nine homers in just 22 games with the Redbirds before St. Louis came calling. This is a right-handed bat with plus tools on the scouting scale at both hitting for average and power and he's a relatively patient hitter that has kept the strikeouts to a minimum, something you don't see all that often anymore. It's unlikely that Yepez is a star, but the offensive upside is palpable and those looking for help at the corner infield position could have an answer if he's available in your league.
