Prospect Watch: Cal Mitchell Looking to Build on Power Potential in Bradenton
The 2017 Major League Baseball draft saw the Pirates go for younger prospects with a lot of high school players being drafted. One of those names that the Pirates took a chance on was high school outfielder Cal Mitchell. Mitchell was another in a series of picks the Pirates based on raw power as they were trying to beef up their farm system. Mitchell was a great offensive talent at Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego, California and the Pirates saw a lot of potential from his bat. He was a young talent, and the Pirates saw it as an opportunity to help develop a young power hitter who could be a feature in the middle of future Pirates lineups.
Last season, Mitchell's third season in the organization, he made it to Advanced-A Bradenton where his power really started to shine through. He ended up hitting .251 with 15 home runs and 64 RBI in 118 games played with the Marauders. However, his numbers could have been a lot better if he hadn't had such a high strikeout rate. He changed his approach from the year before becoming more of a pull hitter and it caused him to miss out on some of those pitches that he was hitting out of the park the year before. He would like to see his batting average a little higher, but the power is by far his best trait.
Growing up in San Diego, California baseball was an all-year around sport for Cal Mitchell and his family. Mitchell was a baseball star at Rancho Bernardo High School starting in left field over the course of his four seasons. Right from the start of his freshman year he was in the starting lineup appearing in 33 games. His power hadn't quite developed yet, but he was able to hit .267 with six doubles and 14 RBI. He was one of the top run producers right away and he played perfect defense in the outfield with a 1.000 fielding percentage. His coaches knew he was a special kid and found a way to work him into the lineup everyday.
As he moved to his sophomore season, his raw power started to show through and he was hitting the ball on a more consistent basis. He upped his batting average to .333 while hitting six home runs and driving in almost double the runs he did in the season before with 31 RBI. He had a low strikeout rate going down just 11 times in 105 at-bats and showed some discipline walking 14 times. His stats kept rising as he entered his junior year as he had his first multi-home run year. He hit .371 that season with 12 home runs and 41 RBI in 34 games while leading his team to a 24-10 record. He started getting offers from colleges across the country, and ended up getting a commitment to the hometown University of San Diego.
However, professional baseball was still on his mind as he tried to raise his draft stock during his senior season. He ended up hurting himself a little, as he pulled the ball more often and ended up dropping his average to .369. He kept up his good power numbers with another double digit home run season, hitting 11 of them, while driving in 41 RBI. His power was the main thing that drew Major League teams to Mitchell and he was attracting attention from across the league. He played in several different showcases, but it was the Pittsburgh Pirates who would draft the young talent in the second round of the 2017 MLB Draft. He was contemplating going to professional baseball or heading to college, and he decided to sign right at his slot average of $1,357,300.00.
Because he was a high school player, he was sent to the Gulf Coast League to start his professional career, playing for the GCL Pirates. His offensive numbers weren't nearly as good as he wanted them to be as he hit just .245 with two home runs and 20 RBI in 45 games played. He wasn't showing the power numbers numbers that he showed during his high school career but he still picked up 13 extra-base hits in 45 games played. He was making contact at a high rate, but it wasn't translating to hits on the field. Both his strikeout rate (18.9%) and his walk rate (12.9%) were both good showing that he could make contact with the ball, he just needed to start finding holes more.
Defensively, he appeared in two games in centerfield and two games in right field, but he spent most of his time over in left field. He played pretty good defense on paper committing just one error in 298.2 innings of work, but his range limited the balls he could get to on the field. He showed an average arm in the outfield, but nothing that base runners would be afraid of. It was decent defense for a young outfielder, and with his power still waiting to develop, could make him a serviceable Major League player. Because of the fact that he was hitting the ball on a consistent basis, he was moved up to Class Low-A West Virginia for the start of the 2018 season.
As one of the youngest players in the South Atlantic League, Mitchell showed that he can produce at the lower levels of the Minor Leagues. He ended up hitting .280 that season and had his first double-digit home run season at the professional level hitting 10 home runs and driving in 65 RBI. He continued his good walk rate by walking 41 times that season, but also set a new career high striking out 109 times. He also used the gaps effectively and less the Power with 29 doubles that season while compiling 42 extra-base hits during the season. Now he was hitting for the power that he was drafted for and it started earning him some more recognition around the league.
He helped lead the Power to the playoffs that season and was named both a South Atlantic League Mid-Season and Post-Season All-Star. However, while his offense was on the rise, his defense was a little worse for ware in 2018. He ended up playing both corner outfield positions and produced an .875 fielding percentage in left field and a .985 fielding percentage in right field. However, he did show improvement in his throwing arm picking up a career high seven outfield assists as his throws were becoming more and more accurate. With Mitchell progressing nicely, he was once again moved up to the pitcher dominated Florida State League with Advanced-A Bradenton last season.
He saw a slight drop in batting average, hitting just .251 last season, but his power continued to get better for the second year in a row as he produced 15 home runs and 64 RBI. He ended the year among the leagues top power hitters finishing sixth in home runs and tenth with a .406 slugging percentage. However, he couldn't seem to keep the momentum going for any long period of time. Every time he started to really ramp things up with the bat, he would go through a lengthy period full of strikeouts. His strikeout rate was higher than it had ever been before at 28.8% and he wasn't walking as much as he had been in seasons past.
With a power hitter you don't expect much on the defensive side of the ball, but at least enough to handle the position. Mitchell did that adequately in right field last season upping his fielding percentage to .977 and picking up a career-high 10 outfield assists that season. His arm didn't seem to be getting stronger, he was just making the throws more accurately and on a more consistent basis. When Minor League Baseball resumes in 2021, I am looking for Mitchell to make the jump to Double-A Altoona. It will be interesting to see if his power can translate into the upper levels of the Minor League system and, if he can do that, he should be another strong power prospect for the Pirates.
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