This past week will be a tough one to top for Edmundo Sosa and his pro baseball career. He started it out by catching the final pop up for the Memphis Redbirds to win the Pacific Coast League championship, then Memphis topped Durham to win the overall Triple-A title. Sosa was since rewarded with a call-up to finish the season.

The Cardinals signed Sosa for $425,000 out of Panama in 2012, and has since made a stop at every Cardinals’ minor league affiliate along the way. Sosa split 2018 between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis and hit a combined .270/.313/.420 with 30 doubles, a triple, and 12 homers. He also went 6-for-10 on the base paths. The 22 year-old Sosa doesn’t wow you with the stat line or have one plus tool that makes him a must see player, but he’s advanced for his age and projects to have a lengthy Major League career. Sosa projects to have an average hit tool, with his best offensive trait being his ability to make contact. His career contact rate in the minors is around 80%. He made a mechanical change at the AFL in 2017 and it resulted in him hitting for more power than he ever has while still making contact at his usual rate. Sosa is allergic to ball four, but he did double his walk rate (3% to 6%) after his promotion to Memphis. He will never be an OBP asset.

In 2017 Sosa had surgery to repair a broken hamate and ended up playing in the Arizona Fall League to make up for the lost development time. While predominantly playing shortstop as he came up through the minors, Sosa began playing other positions in the AFL and that carried over to 2018. Despite his limited range Sosa still projects to be a league average shortstop because he will catch what he gets to. Sosa is worth a flier in 20+ team leagues just to see if the spike in his power production is for real.

Matthew Thompson (@mdthompFWFB)