By Josh Bookbinder
Welcome to Under The Radar, a new miniseries where we’ll take a look at prospects we love who seemingly aren’t getting that love from everyone else. The loose rules are that we’ll do one player from each team, and that player will usually be ranked outside of both Fangraphs and Pipeline’s top 5 for that team. Prospect rankings used for this article are 2023 rankings unless noted otherwise. Enjoy reading!
Twins: Yunior Severino (28th Pipeline / 29th Fangraphs)
We’ll start off with one of my favorite kinds of players: “see ball, hit ball far, do nothing else”. Yunior Severino is that guy.
The Braves had to cut him loose as a raw 17-year old thanks to their previous cheating regarding international signings, and the Twins picked him up. He bounced around the Twins’ low minors with middling results until 2022, when he broke out for a .278/.370/.536/.907 line with 19 homers in 83 pro games. Then in 2023 in 120 pro games between AA and AAA, he hit 35 homers with very similar slash lines.
Sure, there are negatives. His hit tool is iffy despite the .270s averages the last two years because he strikes out at a tremendous rate. He’s an average runner at best. His arm is powerful, but wild. He doesn’t have a position, and plays a couple of positions at an average to below average level; he’s likely a first baseman or DH at the major league level. Scouting grades don’t seem to like him anywhere, and even those that acknowledge his power don’t seem to want to give it full credit.
However, the Twins added him to the 40-man just recently, and a power switch-hitting bat is nothing to sneeze at. Expect Severino to get a chance in the bigs this year, and definitely don’t be surprised to see him hit a couple of baseballs really, really far.
Tigers: Brant Hurter (12th Pipeline / 29th Fangraphs)
Brant Hurter is a big dude who pitches small. The 6’6″ lefty is a presence on the mound, but he relies heavily on control and funk to get guys out. Just in that way, he reminds me a bit of a Bailey Ober-type: someone you’d think would be a projectable power pitcher that comes at you with a completely different look.
The lefty has a deceptive motion that involves some twisting and turning before he slings his long arm out to the side and throws from just above a 9:00 arm slot. He’s a sinker/slider dominant pitcher who has below-average velocity on both pitches, but it’s made up for by exceptional control and good, heavy, biting movement.
Hurter logged 106 innings while primarily starting in his first pro season and performed very well, and became a full-time starter and threw 118 really quality innings in 2023 at AA. His strikeout numbers are good, he gets ground balls at over a 50% rate, his control has been consistently stellar, and he is a really difficult at-bat for any lefty.
Fangraphs has him listed as a single inning reliever and doesn’t believe in his ability to perform, listing him as at best a depth lefty relief arm. Pipeline is a little more optimistic, but also has concerns with the two pitch mix. I would keep an eye on the changeup for Hurter; he showed it a little last season, and it was really good in a very small sample. If that pitch develops and he can be a three-pitch guy, expect him to be a low- to mid-rotation option for the Tigers, especially as they navigate a difficult rebuild.
Thanks to a great YouTube channel called Tigers Minor League Report, you can check out this to the right and many other of Hurter’s starts.
Guardians: Yerlin Luis (NR Pipeline / 28th Fangraphs)
Yerlin Luis signed with the Guardians for $850,000 but didn’t make any particular waves as a lower-ranked international player in his class. He’s a fascinating prospect when you take the whole picture into consideration.
He’s undersized at 5’8″, and doesn’t have any particular standout tools. His first season in pro ball he showed poor hitting ability, hitting .224. He slugged .296, with only 6 extra base hits in 39 games and none of them home runs. He struck out about once a game, with 42 K’s. He swiped 15 bags, but also got caught a couple more times than you’d like.
You might be wondering what he did that got him on this list, then. He showed poor power, poor contact (albeit projectable), misused speed, no superlative defensive ability. What did he do?
He walked.
In 39 games, Luis walked 54 times. His slash line was .224/.478/.296. That number is objectively hilarious.
Luis is another blank slate-type player. He’s expected to have good contact skills eventually, but right now he’s raw. We’ll see how he develops, but that walk number is fascinating, and that alone is enough to keep eyes on Luis moving forward.
White Sox: Jordan Leasure (18th Pipeline / 12th Fangraphs)
Jordan Leasure spent 5 years at Tampa, one of the best D2s in the country, and got better every year he was there, culminating in what can only be described as a ridiculous super-senior season: 38.1 innings, 23 baserunners, 4 runs, 60 strikeouts, and a nod for the conference pitcher of the year award as a reliever.
The righty was mostly known for his exceptional control and strikeout ability in college, and the Dodgers ended up taking a flyer on the projectable performer who was only throwing in the very low 90’s. Two years and some mph’s later, they flipped him to the White Sox as a key piece in the Lance Lynn trade, having helped him develop his fastball into an explosive high-90’s carry heater that is only accentuated by a low release point and outstanding extension. It’s earned an 80-grade from Pipeline and a 70 from Fangraphs, although it’s worth noting that Fangraphs only gave out one pitch grade above a 70 in their 2023 update to their prospect rankings.
When the White Sox picked him up in that deal, they knew what they were getting: he’s a reliever through and through, and that’s likely the ceiling. Leasure has two pitches: the fastball is the obvious plus plus, but he also flashes a pretty good slider that can get swings and misses with depth.
Leasure struggled in his first taste of AAA in Charlotte last year, but expect him to start there in 2024 and get comfortable. He could be an impact reliever for the White Sox as soon as late 2024, and barring a trade, he’ll be a part of the White Sox bullpen (and possibly a late-inning reliever) for a few years to come.
Royals: John McMillon (25th Pipeline / 11th Fangraphs)
Nuke LaLoosh — sorry, John McMillon made his MLB debut in 2023 before a forearm strain limited him to 4 innings for the Royals. He’ll be back next season, so his status as a prospect is limited, but I still wanted to get him on this list.
When I’m talking about McMillon, I have to point out that I said that I’m highlighting prospects I love. Does that mean I think they’re going to be good? No, that’s not what I mean here; I think they’re interesting. Good… may be a stretch, especially in this case. McMillon doesn’t have any control and he probably won’t develop it, but his stuff is absolutely electric and his wild and athletic delivery is so much fun to watch.
He’s got some really fun highlights, including the four strikeout inning that I’ve put beside this text, and his 15.2 minor league career K/9 certainly means he’s regularly dominant. However, his control is an issue as the walks show, and his command is an issue as he does get hit hard sometimes.
McMillon is who he is, and it’s going to be fun to watch regardless of the results. And for a Royals team that likely looks a little bit away from competing still, he’s something to look forward to watching as he comes flying in from the Kauffman ‘pen, guns a-blazing. Just gotta teach him to breathe through his eyelids.
Bonus Prospect: Tigers’ Enrique Jimenez (18th Pipeline / NR Fangraphs)
It isn’t often that you have an NR on Fangraphs that has potential, but Jimenez is one of those few. A smooth-swinging, uber-athletic but undersized catcher, Pipeline called Jiminez a blank slate, and I think that’s a great way to frame him. The 18-year-old lacks any standout tool, which is likely why he didn’t catch the usually young-prospect-obsessed Fangraphs’ interest, but he’s a switch hitter who earns 50-grades across the board from Pipeline with which I would tend to agree.
He hit well as a 17-year-old in his pro debut in the DSL in 2021, and he’s got impressive tools. He could be a huge riser as he develops and figures out who he is as a baseball player.
Josh Bookbinder is a writer for and co-founder of LowThreeQuarter. See more of his work and others’ work on the site through the links at the top of the page, or explore another recent article linked below.
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