Yordany De Los Santos was named the FCL Player of the Month this past week, after finishing the month of May batting .406/.474/.565 in 69 at-bats. De Los Santos hit two home runs during the opening month of the rookie ball season, while stealing 13 bases.
The Pirates signed De Los Santos in January 2022, giving him a $1.2 million bonus as the top signing of their 2021-22 international class. They gave him an aggressive push to Single-A at the age of 18 last year, which didn’t go well.
De Los Santos hit for a .184/.322/.256 line in his push to Bradenton, striking out 60 times in 153 plate appearances. He was sent to the FCL, where he hit for a .328/.397/.463 line in 78 plate appearances to finish the season. The Pirates had him returning to the rookie level this year, where his hitting has only improved.
The 6′ 2″, 170 pound right-hander is batting .367/.436/.522 with 15 stolen bases in his first 102 plate appearances in the FCL this year. He was a high profile signing for his power potential from the middle infield. De Los Santos has two homers, six doubles, and a triple so far. He’s also maintaining a 20.6% strikeout rate, while walking 9.8% of the time.
Following his player of the month award, De Los Santos has continued hitting in the month of June. He doubled and tripled in his game on Friday, making that his fourth game in a row with a hit. His 0-for-4 on June 1st snapped a 17-game hitting streak. That was also only his third game out of 25 this year without a hit.
At this point, De Los Santos is looking like a candidate for a promotion back to Single-A. He’ll face more of a challenge playing under the lights, against more advanced competition. That will allow him to show how much his game has improved in his time in rookie ball. The Pirates might want to give him a larger sample, but his tremendous consistency of getting a hit in every game has him as a candidate to move up.
