The AL West is a little bit of a multitude proper now. For the primary time in a decade, the Astros are nonfactor. The Mariners — defending champion and heavy preseason favourite — received out of the blocks slowly and are simply now kicking into gear. So virtually by default, Main League Baseball’s solely mononymous franchise is in first place.
I don’t assume anybody would accuse Carlos Cortes of driving the Athletics’ offense; his 67 plate appearances are solely about half what full-time starters like Shea Langeliers, Nick Kurtz, and Tyler Soderstrom have recorded. However in that restricted taking part in time, Cortes is hitting .377/.433/.689 with 4 house runs and solely 4 strikeouts.
That’s proper, Cortes is DiMiaggioing.
This brings me nice pleasure, as a result of Cortes is considered one of my all-time favourite bizarre baseball prospects, and I didn’t assume I’d ever get to share him with the massive league-watching public. That’s to not say he wasn’t an excellent prospect; the Mets picked Cortes within the third spherical in 2018 and gave him a million-dollar bonus.
However Cortes spent a variety of time tooling across the minors between then and his large league debut, and you bought the sense that after 4 straight years at Triple-A, it may not ever occur. Cortes went a pair picks earlier than Cal Raleigh in that draft, and solely made his main league debut final July. It’s been an extended developmental curve.
Why was Cortes so fascinating again then? Nicely, he’s veteran of the College of South Carolina, which is of private curiosity to me. (You wish to understand how previous Cortes is? He was in faculty so way back the Gamecocks had been good.) There, he twice led the Gamecocks in house runs whereas taking part in principally outfield, whereas being billed as a second baseman. A logical successor to Max Schrock, for these of you faculty baseball sickos who keep in mind different undersized Carolina sluggers.
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If you realize Cortes solely as an enormous leaguer, you’re in all probability conscious that he’s left-handed. See, right here he’s, scuttling over to select up a groundball, and tossing it again into the infield left-handed:
How may he have ever performed second base?
Nicely, Cortes’ father taught him learn how to throw right-handed as properly, since that means would vastly develop his alternatives. In the end, Cortes hasn’t wanted that means a lot on the highest stage; he solely spent a season and a half on the dust within the Mets’ system.
Swap-throwers are uncommon however not unprecedented in baseball historical past. Within the Eighties, earlier than fielders’ mitts had been widespread, there was a center infielder named William “Yank” Robinson who was well-known for throwing to first base right-handed and throwing to 3rd base left-handed. Whether or not this trick was well worth the bother will not be clear to me; in 1886, Robinson made 95 errors in 125 video games. Both approach, Cortes is obliged to put on a glove within the subject, which might preclude any Yank Robinson-style shenanigans.
Final August, Cortes grew to become the third documented participant, and first place participant, to change throwing fingers in a contemporary main league recreation. The A’s had pinch-run for Gio Urshela within the prime of the ninth, leaving them with no infielders on the bench. Cortes hadn’t performed third base since a number of innings within the Florida Collegiate Summer season League in 2016, and needed to borrow a right-handed glove. However on this figuring-out-who-speaks-the-most-Italian state of affairs, Cortes was essentially the most skilled infielder out there.
There’s no video of Cortes making a play right-handed, as a result of he solely spent one inning at third base and the one batted ball within the inning went to the opposite aspect of the infield. Pity.
Anyway, whilst an outfielder, Cortes is an fascinating prospect. He’s solely 5-foot-7, and whereas he was an influence hitter in his youth, he’s performing some wild bat management stuff in his restricted taking part in time this season.
Whereas I used to be penning this, MLB despatched out a press launch declaring Cortes the American League Participant of the Week, on the energy of his 13-for-24 efficiency over the earlier six video games. Six of these 13 hits had gone for further bases, together with three house runs.
Regardless of these large slugging numbers, Cortes will not be an enormous bat velocity man, even accounting for his smaller body. He has Twenty eighth-percentile common bat velocity, and his fast-swing fee is barely 13.4%. That’s within the backside half of the league as properly. So is his preferrred assault angle fee.
However Cortes’s anticipated stats from Statcast say he’s not simply blooping and dinking his solution to a 204 wRC+. Cortes has an xBA of .386, in opposition to a batting common of .377, and an xSLG of .648, in opposition to a real-world SLG of .689. He’s killing the ball, large bat velocity or no, good launch angle or no.
Combination bat velocity numbers might be deceptive. Examine Cortes to 2 different left-handed hitters with related common bat velocity. Bryson Stott and Mike Yastrzemski simply have middling bat velocity; Cortes’ bat velocity is everywhere:
Cortes is utilizing that various bat velocity to make extra contact. After operating contact charges within the 70s for many of his minor league profession, Cortes popped as much as 81.5% in Triple-A in 2025 and 80.1% in a quick main league cameo. This yr, his total contact fee is as much as 87.5% and his in-zone contact fee is 89.5%. That’s good — coming into Monday’s motion, Cortes was a tenth of a % behind Juan Soto on the Z-Contact% leaderboard — however under no circumstances distinctive.
The place Cortes stands out is his strikeout fee: 6.0%, second finest within the league behind Luis Arraez and principally unthinkable over a full season for anybody else. Certainly, Arraez himself is the one hitter to publish a strikeout fee beneath 6.0% in a full season. He’s on tempo to do it for the fourth yr in a row.
Pitchers pay their mortgages by their means to get hitters to swing at pitches exterior the zone; these are borderline pitches, included in Statcast’s Shadow zone, and tempting pitches farther exterior the strike zone, characterised as Chase pitches. Regardless of a paucity of taking part in time, Cortes is within the prime 15 within the league in run worth within the shadow zone. He additionally swings at simply 13% of pitches within the chase zone, which is half the league common.
And when Cortes does swing at pitches exterior the strike zone, he makes contact; his contact fee on pitches exterior the strike zone is 81.8%, one of many highest marks in baseball. Lots of actually good hitters don’t make that a lot contact on pitches inside the zone.
The power to make tons of contact on pitches exterior the zone, whereas not being a hacker and taking cricket swings at pitches a foot off the plate, properly, it’s a uncommon mixture. Cortes is considered one of solely 10 hitters with 50 or extra plate appearances (as of Monday morning) with an O-Swing% beneath 25% however an O-Contact% over 75%. The opposite 9: Miguel Vargas, Masataka Yoshida, Yandy Díaz, Kevin McGonigle, Liam Hicks, Chase Meidroth, Caleb Durbin, Geraldo Perdomo, and Steven Kwan.
This mixture of abilities is uncommon, sure, but it surely doesn’t assure that the hitter in query is nice. Solely that he doesn’t strike out a lot.
However of these 10 hitters, Cortes has the best hard-hit fee by greater than 9 proportion factors and the fourth-best EV90, behind solely Díaz (who can curl greater than Cortes’ physique weight), McGonigle (who may get MVP votes this yr), and Vargas (I’ve received nothing right here).
It’s a really, very small pattern, however Cortes is making good choices on when to swing, and when he’s swinging, he’s making contact. And when he will get his pitch, he’s hitting the stuffing out of the ball. We’ll see how sturdy these elements are because the season progresses, however the A’s are not any stranger to late-blooming prospects. A late-20s breakout could be regular, by Cortes’ requirements.