2012 Top Prospects #26: Kellen Sweeney

Name: Kellen Sweeney
Position: Third Base
Acquired: 2nd round (2010)
Opening Day age: 20
Height/weight: 6’0”/180 lbs
Best/worst tool: Bat/power
Risk factor: High
ETA: 2015

Scouting Report

Kellen Sweeney is the younger brother of current Red Sox outfielder Ryan Sweeney, and their toolsets have a lot of similarities. Kellen has an excellent approach at the plate, not shying away from deep counts. His advanced approach allows his solid bat to play up to fringe-plus, despite minimal contributions from his power tool, which is below average. He has an athletic build at 6’0” and 180 lbs, but does not have exceptional speed. Sweeney’s average speed is augmented by outstanding baseball instincts, making him an above average runner on the base paths. While that doesn’t directly show up in his statistics, his ability to go first to third and second to home is an asset desired by every team. In the field, those same baseball instincts give him an edge playing at the hot corner, where he's a solid-average defender. Arm strength is a bit of an issue with Sweeney, as he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2009 and the tool is still barely fringe-average. By leaving him at third, Toronto obviously expects him arm strength to return with time, otherwise a move to second base would be logical.

2011 Statistics and Analysis

35 AB, .114/.295/.143 (.438 OPS), 1 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 SB, 9/17 BB/K

When playing in short-season ball, injuries can quickly kill a season for a player, which is the situation that happened to Sweeney in 2011. After playing in only 9 games, he fractured the base of his thumb in a rundown on the basepaths in his June 30th game, and would not play again. In the games he did manage to play in, he didn’t really do his tools justice. The .114 batting average is not indicative of his batting ability, nor are the large volume of strikeouts. It’s very difficult to make any sincere analysis when the sample size is just so small; hopefully Sweeney will give us a bit more to work with in 2012.

Expected 2012 Assignment: Rookie-class Bluefield or Low-A Vancouver

Future Outlook

Sweeney is in a similar boat to #27 prospect Griffin Murphy, as he is now two years into his professional career but has only 80 career at-bats to his name. Given that, it might be time to give Sweeney a not-so-gentle push in an effort to get his career back on track. Players with talent will shine through the adversity of what may be perceived as aggressive assignments. I’d love to see Sweeney get sent to Single-A Lansing, as more than anything he needs at-bats under his belt, and he could get close to 500 with the Lugnuts. For players who have been sidetracked like Sweeney, repetitions are more important than results, and there are a lot more repetitions to be had in full season ball. Despite that, I expect Sweeney will spend another year in short season ball, pushing his Major League ETA back to late 2015 or 2016.

Perfect World Projection: In the perfect world, Sweeney would return to shortstop where his tools would make him an exceptional player. At third base, his potential is an average regular who hits 2nd in the lineup.