Under the Radar Prospects: Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians are the focus of this week’s installment of Under the Radar Prospects. We discuss five prospects that bring an assortment of talents to the table — two speedsters that excel at getting on base, a slugging outfielder who toiled away in the minor leagues for years, and two unheralded hurlers that blew hitters away at Double-A last season.

Johnathan Rodriguez, OF

24-year old Johnathan Rodriguez was selected by the Guardians in the 3rd round of the 2017 draft. Since then, it’s been a long climb up the Guardians organization ladder for native of Puerto Rico. Although he’s stumbled quite a bit during parts of his career, over the past two campaigns Rodriguez has discovered his power stroke and is starting to become a potential impact player.

Since the start of the 2022 season, Rodriguez has hit .278 / .346 / .534 with 55 homers. His slugging percentage and ISO were among the best in all of minor league baseball across that two year span. Rodriguez is prone to striking out and his overall contact skills are well below-average. However, Rodriguez performed well enough to merit a midseason promotion to Triple-A where he hit .280 / .376 / .560 with 11 HR over 202 plate appearances, albeit with a 32.7% strikeout rate.

Rodriguez had been in the Guardians organization long enough that he would have become a minor league free agent in November had he not been added to the 40-man roster. He’ll report to the team’s spring training complex with an outside shot of making the Opening Day roster.

Nate Furman, 2B

Nate Furman possesses several plus physical tools to complement his elite ability to make contact. The 22-year-old is a plus-plus runner and has the potential to have a 70-grade hit tool in the future. The Guardians selected Furman from Charlotte in the 4th round of the 2022 draft. After hitting .328 / .486 / .375 in a stellar debut in Single-A, Furman struggled to match that line after a promotion to High-A, hitting .227 / .340 / .267. Furman had maintained a 20% walk rate prior to the promotion, but that dropped to 11.3% in High-A, and he also saw a slight increase to his strikeout rate.