The 2024 Minor League Baseball Rodney Dangerfield Award Winners
“I ain’t get no respect”
Rodney Dangerfield said it best. The standout joke from his standup routines. For the following minor league players, like Dangerfield, the respect has been a bit hard to come by. Thus, I am awarding the following prospects the “Minor League Rodney Dangerfield Award”. This is given to the hitters and pitchers, who, despite performing at a very productive level, have not gotten the true respect they deserve.
CJ Kayfus
As a South Florida native, I enjoy watching local players get their shine. Kayfus, a graduate of Palm Beach Central High School, will be a major league mainstay. The biggest question after this season is, how soon until he gets there?
The Guardians have 1B depth at the major league level. With Josh Naylor, Kyle Manzardo, acting as the primary 1B, and Jhonkensy Noel and David Fry having experience in the position, the Guardians will not be in a rush to bring up Kayfus. The profile of Kayfus makes him a bit of a mystery as the future Guardians 1B.
Hit over power players are not what you would associate with 1B. Kayfus is just that, hit over power. With that being said, Kayfus has shown he can drive the ball, just not necessarily out of the park. Across Hi-A and AA, he’s racked up 26 doubles and 6 triples in 2024. The overall production did not take a dive at all during his transition from Hi-A to AA. The average slumped a bit, that might be attributed to Kayfus needing to adjust to AA pitching. His OPS lowered as did his OBP. Kayfus was striking out more but still was able to make hard contact. If anything, the fact that his counting stats did not really suffer, shows he was making the most out of the pitches he was able to make contact with. If Kayfus can lock into the AA (and higher level) pitching as he did in Hi-A, the proof is in the pudding that he will contribute. Cleveland might look to move Kayfus to the outfield, especially given the logjam at 1B in the system. One thing to watch is the number of extra-base hits produced. This gives us some indication that Kayfus is hitting the ball hard and well. The Guardians could look to get the ball to lift more off the bat and turn the swings into more HRs. However, why break what does not need fixing?
Micheal Arroyo
At one point, I had Arroyo in the top tier of a national prospect site. I was told he needed to be removed due to his age and status as a DSL player. Yes, it is hard to predict what a 17-year-old will do and what he will develop into. Was I just s bit too eager and jumped the gun a tad? Sure. Now, I am safely going to say, I WAS RIGHT! Arroyo came into Lo-A Modesto in 2023 hot like a bowl of soup from the microwave. His stats declined a tad over the course of Modesto’s season. It seemed as if the confidence was not lost. As someone who saw Arroyo live on many occasions, he just did not have that killer instinct. Flash forward to 2024, Arroyo is one of the best pure hitters, not only in Seattle’s system but all of baseball. While he does have a slightly higher K rate than that of the Mariners’ top prospect, Cole Young, there is some possible power in the bat. Dare I say this, could we be seeing a similar ascension to Guardians HOF player, Jose Ramirez? The key for Arroyo is maintaining that confidence. If he can take the K’s with the HR”s and hits without letting it deter him mentally, as this was a big takeaway that I got from him over the last two years seeing him live, this could be a special player for the Mariners infield.
Andy Perez
If you look at MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 prospects for the Colorado Rockies, Andy Perez is absent from that list. I am not sure why he is not given the credit he is due. It’s easy to look past Perez considering he spent a full 2023 season in Lo-A and a bit more than half of the 2024 season there. While I have seen Perez play a good amount of live baseball, some may have never heard of this infield prospect from the Rockies organization. Perez hit 22 doubles in Fresno for the 2024 season. That should be enough for those at the pipeline to take notice. Perhaps the high ground ball rate (47.9%) in Lo-A had some concern. However, Perez maintained a BABIP of .319 in Fresno. If that tells us anything, he was just a tad bit unlucky in some of those ground balls going as outs and not hits. Perez can smack the ball around the infield. He’s a 48% pull hitter and a 31%b opposite field hitter. There is enough contact in this bat to suggest a high average as he progresses and adjusts through the system. Will Perez be a Top-1oo prospect? I do not think he is going to get there. Outside of the solid contact skills that get the ball through the outfield gaps, there is not much else in terms of standout traits. Yet, the key is finding players who can contribute in some way.
Miguel Ullola
The lone pitcher on this loss, I had the pleasure of watching Ulloa’s AAA debut. Scouts rave about his fastball. While the pitch is not going to hit triple digits, Ullola knows how to play the pitch all throughout the strike zone. His secondary offerings are far behind the fastball. The reason Ullola is a Dangerfield recipient, despite the less-than-ideal secondary pitches, his seemingly rapid ascension through Houston’s system was due in large part to the dominating fastball. At the very least, it shows the framework of a dominant MLB reliever. Most are not going to give Ullola the credit he deserves in large part to the secondary offerings. The fastball alone gets Ullola to the majors as an RP. His high K rate only adds to his big-league potential.
Image Source MILB
Daniel is a guru of baseball and basketball prospects. He’s a very experienced Amusement Park traveler as well. Follow him and his hot takes on Insta @dgentleman9288
