Smooth-Hitting Royals Prospect Vinnie Pasquantino Draws Comparison to All-Star - Sports Illustrated

As the Major League Baseball lockout continues throughout the 2021-22 offseason, Minor League Baseball discourse is in full swing. For the Kansas City Royals, a team with one of the top farm systems in all of baseball, there's plenty to talk about. Vinnie Pasquantino is a player who doesn't always come up first in conversations regarding the best prospects in the Royals organization, but he's beginning to get more credit.

Ranked by MLB.com as the Royals' No. 17 prospect, Pasquantino is lauded for his hit and power tools. He's a 6-foot-4, 245-pound first baseman who thrives on quality contact, good plate discipline and the ability to drive the ball for power. There aren't a ton of holes in Pasquantino's game and while he only made it to Double-A Northwest Arkansas in 2021, he's flashed plenty of potential that suggests he could be ready for the jump to the big leagues in 2022.

In a recent article on MLB.com, Jim Callis held an MLB Pipeline Inbox. To close out the story, he answered a few questions about Pasquantino. The reader inquired about the 24-year-old's true ceiling and whether the Royals would be able to find a role for him with consistent at-bats and fielding opportunities. Here's what Callis had to say in response:

With Pasquantino, it's going to come down to his bat. I'll admit I didn't know much about the 2019 11th-rounder from Old Dominion before last season, but he caught my attention by hitting .300/.394/.563 with 24 homers with as many walks as strikeouts (64) in 116 games between High-A and Double-A.

Though Pasquantino has improved defensively, he's not going to dislodge potential Gold Glover Nick Pratto as Kansas City's first baseman of the future, leaving DH as his fallback because he's a 6-foot-4, 245-pounder without much speed. But he does make a lot of hard contact and shows the potential to hit for average and power, so he may provide enough offense to make it at DH. His combination of profile and makeup have led the Royals to liken him to Anthony Rizzo.

All of what Callis wrote is valid. Pasquantino was terrific in 2021, he's a better defender than he was when he entered the Royals' system but he's also likely a designated hitter due to Pratto seeming destined for a big-time role at first base at some point soon. The Rizzo tidbit, however, is something that even Pasquantino's MLB.com prospect profile echoes. Rizzo is a multi-time All-Star and one of the better first basemen of his generation so if Pasquantion turned out to be even 85% of the player he is, that would be a massive boost for the Royals. 

There's also another big-bodied first baseman to consider here, and one that those in Royals circles should be familiar with: Billy Butler. Butler wasn't much of a fielder and was one of the worst baserunners in the game, yet he made his bacon as a sure-hitting presence with some pop in his bat. Comparing the trio of Pasquantino, Rizzo and Butler is far from perfect but for the sake of perspective, let's do so. Below are the numbers from Pasquantino's 55-game stretch in Double-A this past season, followed by Rizzo and Butler's performances in a larger span of time:

Pasquantino, Rizzo & Butler

All data pulled from FanGraphs' database.

Player Name	Slash	wRC+	BB/K%	ISO
Vinnie Pasquantino	.310/.405/.560	153	13.1/11.0	.250
Anthony Rizzo	.263/.334/.481	118	9.6/21.4	.217
Billy Butler	.331/.388/.499	132	7.7/12.5	.168

Natural regression to the mean is reasonable to expect, so this isn't to say that Pasquantino would have sustained this level of success over a sample size greater than 100 games. Rizzo and Butler also handled the jump to Triple-A quite well and were obviously ready to play at the MLB level due to their dominance at their final minor league stops. With that said, Pasquantino's raw numbers are pretty easily the best of the group there. To this point, despite his lack of reputation relative to Rizzo or Butler when they were prospects, his Double-A production was superior.

2022 will be the tell-tale year for Pasquantino. Is he a long-term DH that the Royals can count on to bring a professional approach, quality plate discipline and a good amount of power to their big-league lineup? On the flip side, was 2021 a flash in the pan for him? Can he continue to hit at such a high level and parlay that into a successful career against the most challenging competition he'll ever face? 

The Royals should get at least part of their answer by the end of the year. Pasquantino may not have a crazy prospect story and he does have deficiencies in his game but at the end of the day, he's deservedly getting lumped into more and more critical conversations. The Rizzo comparison is extremely loose may carry lofty expectations, but the numbers are difficult to argue against for now.

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Smooth-Hitting Royals Prospect Vinnie Pasquantino Draws Comparison to All-Star - Sports Illustrated
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