Indians: 6 prospects that completely impressed during the 2021 season
By Chad Porto
6. C/3B Bryan Lavastida
Ranked No. 21 in Prospect1500’s list of the Indians’ top minor league players.
Bryan Lavastida, the 22-year-old catcher, is not ranked over Bo Naylor for catchers on most of the top prospect lists. It’s curious, as far as minor league prospects go, Lavastida has had much better numbers. He had strong splits all season, splitting time between Single-A, Double-A, and Triple-A ball clubs. Sure, he struggled some in Columbus for the Triple-A Clippers, but he only played in seven games for them.
Across all three teams, Lavastida had impressive splits, .289/.380/.456 while racking up a .836 OPS. In 287 at-bats, he had 83 hits, 19 doubles, nine home runs, 51 RBI, 40 walks, and 68 strikeouts in 84 combined games.
The one area that seems to be in Naylor’s favor is defensive. Lavastida isn’t a bad defensive catcher by any means but Naylor does have fewer errors in more innings at the position, and unlike Lavastida, Naylor played all year as a member of the Akron RubberDucks, the Indians Double-A farm team.
If Lavastida can get on the same level as Naylor or even closer to his level of defensive output, he may be able to surpass Naylor as the team’s best minor league prospect. Even if he can’t, however, his steady hitting will surely get him to the Majors at some point and at some position.