Baseball Prospectus ranks Francisco Lindor the fourth-best prospect in MLB

Baseball Prospectus has released their Top 101 Prospects of 2015 and Cleveland Indians fans should be excited. The Tribe’s young shortstop Francisco Lindor is ranked as the fourth-best prospect in the entire game. He is ranked ahead of the Chicago Cubs’ highly touted third baseman Kris Bryant, who some experts, like ESPN’s Keith Law, believe is the top prospect in the league. The list is pretty top heavy with shortstops with Lindor ranking as the third best shortstop even though he is fourth overall. Minnesota Twins’ outfielder Byron Buxton, Chicago Cubs’ shortstop Addison Russell, and Houston Astros’ shortstop Carlos Correa make up the top three prospects ahead of Lindor in Baseball Prospectus’ rankings.

Baseball Prospectus earlier this year released their Cleveland Indians top prospects list with obviously Lindor on top. The 21-year old Lindor (yes, he is only just 21) has been on the top of MLB prospect lists for the last couple years now, including Baseball Prospectus ranking him sixth before last season. The Tribe drafted Lindor in the first round of the 2011 MLB Draft and he has subsequently played his way up the Indians’ organization since then.

Here is Baseball Prospectus’ Scouting Report of Lindor:

The Tools: 7 glove; 6 arm; 6+ potential hit

What Happened in 2014: The slick fielding shortstop spent his age-20 season in the upper levels of the system, where he continued to play up to the level of competition despite consistently being one of the youngest in his league.

Strengths: Outstanding baseball instincts; extremely natural player; silky smooth actions; lightning-quick hands; soft glove; well above-average range; arm to make all of the throws; impact defender; easy stroke from both sides of the plate; stays back well; efficient swing path; controls barrel well; advanced approach; picks up spin; heady and smart on the bases; makeup is plus.

Weaknesses: Bat is likely to be a bit on the empty side; contact can be soft; tends to slap when going the other way; will need to learn to do some occasional damage to keep arms honest; over-swings at times; can lunge against stuff with break on outer third; well below-average power; speed isn’t of the impact variety.

Overall Future Potential: 7; all-star player

Realistic Role: 6; first-division player

Risk Factor/Injury History: Low; near major-league ready; consistency of creating hard contact.

Last season, Lindor started with the Double-A Akron RubberDucks and then was promoted later in the season to the Triple-A Columbus Clippers. In 126 total games last year, he had 507 at bats hitting .276 with 140 hits, 75 runs scored, 11 home runs, 62 RBI, and 28 stolen bases. In four seasons in the minor leagues, he is a .278 batter with a total of 394 hits, 227 runs scored, 19 home runs, 140 RBI, and 81 stolen bases. He is expected to start the season with Columbus and will not be promoted to the majors until the team believes he can play full time without ever having to go back to the minors.

Along with Lindor, the Indians also have catcher Francisco Mejia and outfielder Clint Frazier in Baseball Prospectus’ Top 101 Prospects list. Mejia was signed as a free agent in 2012 out of the Dominican Republic. He is 19-years old, batting .282 with 70 hits, 36 RBI, and 32 runs scored as a member of the Class-A Mahoning Valley Scrappers in only his second season with the Tribe last year. The Tribe drafted Frazier in the first round of the 2013 MLB Draft. The 20-year old outfielder batted .266 with 126 hits, 13 homeruns and 50 RBI with the Class-A Lake County Captains in only his second season in the minors last year.

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All stats have come from milb.com