Edwin Rios is blowing up

Phil Gurnee ♦ April 25, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

Edwin Rios kind of took the scouts by surprise last year when he slugged twenty-seven home runs between three levels. His 110 strikeouts in only 418 at-bats gave his critics plenty to find fault in his game. Plus the 3rd baseman didn’t seem likely to stay at the position so you wouldn’t have found Rios on any top 100 prospect lists.

This year, Rios isn’t hitting as many home runs, but his game has become more well-rounded.  Headed into the last week of April Rios is in the top ten of multiple offensive Texas League leaderboards.  Here is a look:

• He leads the league in Batting Average at .386
• He’s second in the league in Slug at .614
• He’s third in the league in OPS at 1.017
• He’s tied for the league lead in doubles with 7
• He’s third in the league in RBI at 15
• He leads the league in hits with 27
• Advanced stats his ISO is .227, his wOBA is .430, his wRC+ is 166

He has also cut his k rate to 20.6%.  The downside is his ridiculously BABIP of .430 and a miniscule walk rate of 3%.  So yeah, regression is in order. But still some great work by an under the radar prospect who might not be under the radar for much longer.