While most will see the Kansas City Royals trade with the San Diego Padres that sent left-handed reliever Tim Hill from K.C. to San Diego for outfielder Franchy Cordero and right-handed pitching prospect Ronald Bolaños and cover Cordero or perhaps Hill, this trade evaluation is on Prospects Live, so our focus will be on the prospect, so we will take a look at Ronald Bolaños.
Bolaños was the #18 prospect in our Padres offseason top-30 prospect list. Padres list writer Diego Solares had this to say about Bolaños in that ranking:
"Bolaños made his big league debut with the Padres this past season. He made a couple of starts and a handful of relief appearances, and while the numbers aren’t impressive, he did show big-league caliber stuff.
“Platinum Ron” is a physical 6-foot-3, 220-pound figure on the mound that can easily touch 96-98 mph with explosive arm action. His fastball has life and is clearly his best pitch as both his secondary offerings need work. He features a tight slider and a curveball that shows depth, with the former being the more advanced pitch.
Bolaños has been a starter for his entire professional career, but his long-term role is likely that of a reliever with the Padres. His lack of trustworthy secondary pitches is concerning and Bolaños could be an elite bullpen weapon with his explosive fastball."
Originally signed out of Cuba just weeks before he turned 20 years old, Bolaños moved quickly through the Padres system, handling an assignment to full-season ball as his first official ball in stride. While his control has not always been sharp, he's made considerable strides while also being pushed quite aggressively by the Padres through their system.
Bolaños offers that high-velocity fastball that Diego mentioned in his offseason write-up, but Bolaños comes from a high 3/4 to nearly over-top arm slot to get a strong downward plane on the ball. His ability to generate ground balls with his plane and the sharp, short break on his slider could allow him to work as a backend starter. However, his curve is Bugs Bunny slow, coming in under 70 MPH with a big loop that absolutely freezes hitters.
The Royals can be more patient with Bolaños than the Padres had been, and that could be to Bolaños' benefit, potentially allowing him to add in something like a split-change to add to his ground ball generation or a cutter rather than a straight change in order to get something that has more horizontal movement.
With the recent heavy drafting of college arms that are populating the upper minors of the Royals system, Bolaños could fit right into that group of young arms coming in a significant wave to Kansas City over the next two to three years to establish the rotation of the future. His relief "fall back" is certainly a strong one if the rotation doesn't work out for him as well.