Javier Rivas showing signs of life offensively
Few players are as good defensively in the Pirates’ system as Javier Rivas. Despite standing at 6’6”, Rivas moves around well on the field, making some of the most difficult plays look easy at shortstop and third base.
It’s been a different story at the plate, as Rivas has struggled to hit over the last two years while with the Marauders.
Despite this being his second tour in Single-A, Rivas got off to an awful start to the season. In fact, there was a time when he had the worst wRC+ among qualified hitters in all the minors.
During April, Rivas batted .090/.141/.179 with a strikeout rate of 33.3% and a -6 wRC+. Easily one of the worst stat lines in the minors through the first month of the season.
The defense has remained strong, but it was starting to look like Rivas would never be able to hit enough to make it out of Bradenton.
He’s slowly started to show signs of coming alive offensively, recently earning FSL Player of the Week honors. The sample size continues to grow, as over his last 25 games played, he has hit .342/.422/.582 with a 185 wRC+.
After hitting three home runs collectively between last year and the first part of this season, Rivas has four in the previous 25 games. He has more extra-base in this recent than he had all of last year (54).
While strikeouts have still been an issue, Rivas is hitting the ball harder and elevating it more, which is leading to his success when he puts it in play.
His max exit velocity and 90th percentile exit velocity numbers are up from a year ago, and he’s barreling the ball up at a far more frequent rate (0.9 Brl% in 2023, compared to 8.8% this season).
It’s been a solid stretch for Rivas as late, but there is still work to be done for this to be more than just a hot streak he is riding. The strikeouts still need to come down, but he’s hitting the ball with authority more often than he had previously.
The defense from Rivas will always be his calling card, but he would need to show some semblance of offense before he’d be in the mix to move out of Bradenton.
There’s a lot to like in his game, and he doesn’t turn 21 until September, so there's plenty of time to show whether this is more than just an extended hot streak.
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