2023 Cleveland Guardians prospect scouting report: #38 INF Dayan Frias
2023 Cleveland Guardians prospect scouting report: #38 INF Dayan Frias
The Colombian infielder has interesting plate discipline and a versatile glove.
Build & Background
The Colombia native has grown a few inches and has maintained a moderate infielders build in his frame. Little room to fill out or add strength to stay in the middle of the infield. Athletic yet stout overall. Frias played a prominent role in the Colombian Winter League for a championship and joined team Colombia as the starting shortstop in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
What Frias does well
Plate discipline and strike zone awareness right now are Frias’ best offensive tools. He showed spurts of power as a 19/20 year old in Low-A in 2022, but stayed within the strike zone and worked walks. He’s a switch hitter with similar swings from both sides of the plate and isn’t afraid to take a big swing when he gets a pitch he likes. Solid-average rates of contact. Solid defender at short, better at second and third.
Where Frias needs to improve
There was more swing and miss in Frias’ game in 2022 than previously thought. He avoided chasing badly but struggled in the zone at times. He needs to make contact to carve out any sort of future big league role. He could get out of the bo harder, quicker and learn to make better reads on the bases. His speed is fringe at best and he’ll need to maintain his current build to support staying up the middle and having defensive versatility.
Intangibles
Winter ball and the World Baseball Classic should be two good learning experiences for Frias to take the game back to spring training and rely on to improve in 2023.
Future
Better contact rates would have made Frias jump a tad more as a prospect. Still, Low-A pitching can be pretty dicey and it’s important to be careful judging a players plate discipline at that level. With a solid idea at the plate and some decent raw power, Frias could have a future role as a utility type infielder, depending on how he maintains his body and cleans up his swing to face more advanced pitchers in the next few years. He projects best as a potential bat first utility infielder with some good pop. Look for him to find some consistency with the bat to go with his solid glove this year in High-A Lake County.
Role: 40 - Utility infielder/depth infielder