Height: | 6’4 |
Weight: | 180 |
DOB: | 10/14/2022 |
Frame: Long, lean build with a high waist and sloped shoulders. Significant room for added strength/weight.
Yordanny Monegro is a right-handed pitching prospect in the Red Sox system whose name likely isn’t familiar to those who don’t obsessively follow the professional prospect world. Monegro is young, 2024 will be his age 21 season after covering three different levels (RK, A, A+) over the course of last season which spanned over 65.2 frames for Monegro. Here are his cumulative numbers over those levels in 2023:
Monegro works with a four pitch-mix of a FB(4s), CB, SL, and CH. All three of his secondary offerings flash average or better with varying grades at present, with the curveball being the headliner of the arsenal. The FB command and how consistently he’s able to land his secondary pitches in the zone is what I see as the dividing line between a back-end starter and a bullpen role.
Monegro’s four-seamer (91-93/T95) shows above-average carry through the zone and is capable of generating swings and misses in the upper quadrants, but gets very average to even fringe the lower in the zone he is with it. Fittingly, Monegro looks to have a better feel for locating his fastball up in the zone than he does painting corners side to side. With Monegro’s frame still having plenty of project ability for future years and him already showing plus hip/shoulder separation, I see Monegro as a real candidate for adding significant velocity in coming years, which I believe will be a necessity for him in order to overcome his limited command ceiling and lack of overall life on the pitch.
Here are a couple of Monegro’s heaters that drew whiffs against two right-handed hitters:
Monegro’s curveball is the one offering in Monegro’s mix I see as playing as a plus pitch in the future. It shows deep 12-6 shape and regularly shows plus teeth already. There’s feel at present for landing it in the zone and it creates a deep enough angle to be effective against both RH and LH batters. I see this pitch being one in future years he can really lean on to be effective.
The slider shows a couple of different shapes, which are showcased in the videos below. Monegro’s best sliders are those that have two-plane, downer shape with late break. Often times though, he gets on the side of it and it turns into more of a cutter-like offering that relies more on late horizontal action. I see far less feel for this breaking ball than his CB, which is illustrated by the varying shapes he gets out of it. I see it being a future average offering for him.
The pitch that has the furthest to go is the changeup. It’s his least used pitch overall and the quality of the ones he does throw is spotty. At its best, the pitch shows late bottom action with a hint of deception when he maintains his arm speed. The first video is one that has that late depth I just referred to and the second video is one of the aforementioned uncompetitive versions.
I’m giving Monegro every chance in the world to stay as a starter and I think he has a realistic shot at doing so. The inconsistent timing in the delivery, control, and command are the major development points he’ll need to continue to improve upon in coming years.
Future Projected Role: 50 (#4/#5 SP)
Behind home plate video credit: FanGraphs YouTube Channel