2024 Cleveland Guardians Prospect Scouting Report: #28 OF Wuilfredo Antunez

Antunez is a low-money international signee with a blend of offensive tools that give him starter upside

Justin Lada

Feb 28, 2024

Wuilfredo Antunez Bio

Age (2024 season): 22
Acquired: International Free Agent (2019)
2023 Level: Single-A
Height: 6’0
Weight: 157
Bats: Left
Throws: Right

Wuilfredo Antunez Stats

PA: 384
AVG/OBP/SLG: .275/.354/.420
2B: 17
HR: 7
SB: 11/17
K%/BB%: 18.8%/10.2

Wuilfredo Antunez 2024 Scouting Grades

Hit: 45
Power: 50
Speed: 55
Defense: 50
Arm: 55
Overall: 40
Risk: High
ETA: 2027

Build & Background

Medium built athlete with a bit of a slender, but strong frame. Slightly broad shoulders. Some room remaining to add strength despite his age. Antunez only signed for $10,000 in 2019 out of his native Venezuela. He reached Low-A last yeat at age 21 but a few injuries have kept him off the field for parts of time in 2022 and 2023.

What Antunez Does Well

The bat is what will ultimately carry Antunez if he makes it up the minor league ladder. He has some good feel for the barrel with a short stroke. He has strong forearms and an upper body overall, giving him the ability to drive the baseball. He’s got a pull-fly ball profile, standing up on the plate, ready to take anything on the inner half that way and cover the outer half of the plate as well. Looks like he has decent command of the strike zone at this stage, not too heavy of a chaser against lower level offspeed stuff yet. Antunez does have solid speed with his current build. If he maintains most of his current physical build, it should be enough for him to continue to play centerfield. He has range and generally gets a good jump on the ball. He’s got enough arm to profile in right field too if he moves off of center defensively.

Where Antunez Needs to Improve

A variety of injuries have kept Antunez off the field too much in the last two years, so that’s a big issue to start. As a hitter, adding a bit more strength in his lower half would allow him to grow into more of his power naturally. If he has to move off of centerfield, there would be more pressure on the bat, where he might not be quite good enough offensively to profile as a corner type slugger. He could get more consistent with his routes in the outfield and use his speed on the bases better. He also sometimes will struggle with pitch recognition and will need to improve to realize his offensive skill set against upper level spin.

Key Stats

As long as he make contact, Antunez could have a shot to get plenty of whatever power he has. He put the ball in the air at a 42.6% clip in 2023 and pulled it 45.6% of the time overall, even though he has strength to drive the ball the other way.

Intangibles

Antunez plays the game with intensity and passion, though Cleveland might want him to harness his emotion a little more in between the lines.

Future

Antunez has offensive gifts that would fit well for someone who could man centerfield. They’re a little more fringy as a corner profile type outfielder, even though he has the arm for right. It’s really average raw power, but his pull-fly ball tendencies give you hope that he can get to it in games as long as his pitch recognition gets better and his approach is consistent. He hasn’t been on the field enough yet and is only reaching High-A at age 22, so there’s still reason to be skeptical here. But is he can maintain his current build, I think he’ll be able to handle centerfield enough to stick, which takes some pressure off the bat, even if he’s not a glove first outfielder. He probably has fringe-regular upside for the most part, but there’s enough interesting tools here for a bit of a late blooming regular.

Role

40 - Fringe starter/backup OF