The Arizona Diamondbacks have a few infield prospects on their Top 30 prospect list, but there is one name that has been left off and soon may force the organization to reconsider. That player is Kevin Medrano, who over the past week has been tearing up Double-A pitching.
Medrano was signed by the D-Backs in the 18th round of the 2012 June Amateur draft out of Missouri State.
In his first season in professional baseball, the Missouri native batted .341 in 64 games with Class A Short Season Hillsboro Hops.
In 2013, he played with both Class Full Season South Bend Silver Hawks and Class-A Advanced Visalia Rawhide and combined he batted .297, scoring 78 runs, with 23 doubles and 60 walks in 116 games.
Medrano finally showed some power with the bat in 2014 with Rawhide adding four home runs, to go along with 19 doubles, while batting .284 in 114 games.
The second base prospect continued his journey last season through the Arizona farm system as he spent 17 games with Double-A Mobile BayBears sandwiched by 79 in Class-A Advanced and combined he batted .293 and 22 doubles.
This season, Medrano started the year with Triple-A Reno Aces, but struggled in 10 games batting just .143 (2 for 14). He was sent back to the BayBears and in April he batted .363 (8 for 22). So far in May he has continued his torrid hitting, batting .404 (21 for 52) through 15 games.
But over the last week from May 9-May 15, Medrano has hit safely in seven of the eight games which included a double-header on the 15th. For the week, he is batting .556 (15 for 27) and after Monday’s game, he has a seven game hitting streak with five multi-hit games in that span.
Medrano is a singles hitter as he has only recorded five doubles and two triples of the 29 hits so far in 2016. But he does have a knack for putting the ball in play.
Eventually, he could become a good option off a major league bench, especially late in a game when the home team needs a big hit. But not having a powerful bat limits his chances of cracking the big league roster, even though there is no denying Medrano knows how to handle the bat.
Medrano does deserve another shot at Triple-A, and the way he is currently locked in, shouldn’t be too long before he is given the opportunity once again.
The post Double-A Second Baseman Of The Week: Diamondbacks Kevin Medrano appeared first on Legends On Deck.