Atlanta is getting incredible production from the shortstop fronted by Mauricio Dubon (139 wRC+) and Jorge Mateo (222 wRC+), but should they need another in-house option before Ha-Seong Kim returns from injury, Braves SS Jim Jarvis (25) is firing on all cylinders at Triple-A Gwinnett, slashing .411/.506/.575 with three home runs and 13 stolen bases in 19 games. Defensive power has been a tool that has carried him throughout his baseball career, so it’s surprising to see him roaring out of the gate like this. A 5’9″ 190 pound lefty, he’s never hit .400 as a professional. He hasn’t even come close, but he’s always controlled the strike zone and taken his walks, keeping a K:BB ratio somewhere in that 1:1 sweet spot with a young strikeout rate before the leadoff, he’s been hitting more than the contact rate. Slow and looking for pitches he can pull with loft Click here to see action that and opening up the inside pitch.
Obviously, he’ll slow down some time, and Atlanta is one of the few teams that doesn’t have room to land a Triple-A streaker like Jarvis. Dominic Smith has got that designated batting job until further notice. The only real fielder is Mike Yastrzemski, who looks ripe at 35 years old. Dubon and Mateo can both play outfield, and Jarvis is likely to be a quick study at corner. The team owes Yaz $23 million over the next two seasons, so maybe the sunk costs will drive this bus for the rest of the season, but I’ll be adding Jarvis to a few of my teams just in case.
I am talking about the power to pull aside and the young men who wield it, Astros C/1B Will Bush (22, AA) was a 16th round pick out of Tyler Junior College in 2023 and has been developed primarily as a catcher. The team initially played him in the 2025 Arizona Fall League and reassigned him to Double-A Corpus Christi, where the bat may move to the front of the glove. He’s never been a solid outfielder behind the plate, but now that he’s slashing .345/.537/.690 with three home runs and a 19.5 percent slugging average through 10 games, Houston might start dreaming about the 6’1″ 235-pound left-handed bat as a possible everyday option at first. He’s never hit as well as this one. high, too, I suspect, but the point is that this is new, and you never know how the boy will react to going out from behind the plate.
I’m not sure how you can decide who is the hottest person in the world at any given time, but I know you can make a case for it. Twins 3B Ben Ross (24, AA). Granted, this is his fourth straight year playing in Double-A, but that’s easy to beat in one minute when the guy is hitting .480/.552/.900 with five home runs and seven stolen bases through 13 games. A fifth-round pick out of Notre Dame in 2022, Ross enjoyed the usual development in the minors when he opened 2024 at Double-A after closing 2023 with ten games at the level. He will perform well below the league average in every 123 games that season (73wRC+) and repeat 120 games in 2025 (87 wRC+). Nevertheless, it had been achieved. He reduced his strikeout rate by seven percent and increased his walk rate by 2.5 percent. Nothing that represents a real explosion next season, but at least it’s a stepping stone between who he was in 2024 and what he looks to be in 2026. Might be a Driveline issue here somewhere. It’s not easy to fake a two-week stretch like this. It happens sometimes, of course, and maybe we wouldn’t have noticed if Ross hit this way in July, but it’s not his fault it’s not July. Or mine. Or yours. Frickin’ Biden.
After three under-the-radar brands that pop up this week, we’ll wrap it up with an under-the-radar brand that’s enjoying this season premiere. Yankees SS George Lombard Jr. (20, AA) played primarily against older players as a pro, resulting in more talk than production in most of his league stops. He is looking to change that this season despite being 2.9 years younger than the average player. Hitting .400/.471/.667 with two homers and three steals, he may not be in the league long after playing in 108 games with Double-A Somerset last year. Then again, the Yankees don’t have much reason to pursue him. Why don’t you rule him for a while?
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