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| Check out this prospect pulse on Boyd from January, 2014 |
Jayce
Boyd started his Thursday by hitting a double with the Binghamton Mets, his
Eastern League leading 16th double of the year, and will end it as a
member of the Las Vegas 51s. After their win over Portland, the B-Mets manager
Pedro Lopez announced that the Mets were promoting
Boyd to Las Vegas, and that the B-Mets would be receiving two position
players soon.
Boyd
spent all of 2014 with Binghamton rotating between 1B and DH, and he got off to
a slow start, although he was recovering from an unusual
offseason surgery. He got hot by the end of the first half, and then rode
that streak through the end of the season for a nice 126 wRC+. He was providing
similar production in his second season with Binghamton (125 wRC+), but doing
so while learning a new position (LF). Offensively, the operations have sapped
his power, limiting him to just 9 homeruns in 161 games (652 PA) with
Binghamton, which does not play at 1B, DH or LF. He might have a little more pop in his bat than that, and he’ll
definitely see some of those doubles become homeruns in the PCL, but that’s not
what will get him to the majors. He has an advanced eye at the plate, improving
his K% with Binghamton from 14% last year to 9.1% this year (4th in
the EL). He’ll take walks when they are given to him (10+% BB-rate every stop
before 2015), but is not passive up there, and has good plate coverage.
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| Image 1 – Jayce Boyd Hitter Heat Map from his time with Binghamton (2014-15), per MLBfarm |
As you can see in the heat map,
which is from his time with Binghamton during the 2014-15 seasons, he goes the
other way a lot. Of his homeruns with Binghamton, only one has been out to RF,
although he’s hit plenty of balls to the warning track. One of his homeruns
went to just left of center field, but the other 7 have been pulled to LF.
MLBFarm keeps track of hit location, and shows that Boyd has only had 49-batted
balls hit that way, so perhaps he can look to pull the ball more to add some HR
power.
Defensively, the Mets told Boyd of
his inevitable
move to the OF at the end of last year, and it has been a shaky start. In
the field, he’s had some poor breaks and routes, but hasn’t been burned by
balls hit over his head too often. The problem is his arm, which is what moved
him to 1B last year in the first place. The Eastern League is well aware of his
weak arm, and has sent runners home from 2B on anything hit his way, often
without a throw going through to home.
Overall, he should be able to keep
hitting for a good batting average, but the jury is out on how much more he can
offer a team. It seems unlikely he’ll hit for enough power to fill the LF/1B/DH
role at the highest level, but his low K-rate/high doubles-rate profile could
fit nicely in a platoon/bench role. We can expect to see a bump in HR/ISO
output with Las Vegas, but it will be more important to see if he’s pulling the
ball more often, or just getting a PCL boost on balls lined to RF.
The other big news is that the
B-Mets are expected to get two players to supplant their recent losses – T.J.
Rivera was sent to AAA, and David Cooper retired. I expect Michael Conforto and
Jeff McNeil to be those two players, but nothing official has been released
yet. Conforto fills the hole in LF left by Boyd, and McNeil offers a more
interesting everyday 2B prospect for Binghamton than Josh Rodriguez. I took a closer
look at Jeff McNeil earlier in the season, and he’s only hit more since
then, including adding some extra base hits and stolen bases. Check back for
updates on that situation later.
Jayce Boyd GIFs
NASA Telescopes Set Limits On Spacetime Quantum Foam http://t.co/WWw6Gfh81S #astronomy #telescope pic.twitter.com/HRKGMLbxXj
— HubbleScience (@hubblescience) May 28, 2015
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