2024 Cleveland Guardians Prospect Scouting Report: #26 1B CJ Kayfus

Kafyus is a hit over power first baseman, which is a very risky type of profile, but some of his plate skills give hope for more.

CJ Kayfus Bio

• Age (2024 season): 21

• Acquired: 2023 Draft (Round 3)

• 2023 Level: College/Low-A

• Height: 6’0

• Weight: 192

• Bats: Left

• Throws: Left

CJ Kayfus 2023 (College) Stats

• PA: 289

• AVG/OBP/SLG: .348/.464/.581

• 2B: 13

• HR: 13

• SB: 8/12

• K%/BB%: 15.2%/15.9%

CJ Kayfus  2024 Scouting Grades

• Hit: 50

• Power: 45

• Speed: 45

• Defense: 50

• Arm: 50

• Overall: 40

• Risk: High

• ETA: 2027

Build & Background

Smaller, slender build for a corner. Fairly long legs. Could add strength but not a real projectable frame overall. Very still and upright in the box. Very simple swing. Doesn’t use his lower half a ton. Very minimal front leg movement or weight transfer. Cleveland drafted Kayfus from the University of Miami in the 2023 draft in the third round. He signed for $700,000. Kayfus has experience playing on the Cape Cod league in 2022. 

What Kayfus Does Well

Because he’s a 1B (maybe a LF), Kayfus’ bat drives his profile. It’s a contact over power offensive profile. He does make a lot of a contact and shows good pitch recognition skills. Kayfus also shows good command of the strike zone, so it’s a contact and patience type profile. He’s got a nice easy swing that doesn’t have a lot of moving parts, especially in his lower half. Shows the ability to loft the ball at times. Appears to be an average defender at first and could be tried in left. He did have five steals in seven chances as a pro in 17 games, so perhaps he might have fringe speed for a 1B/LF type.

https://x.com/milb_central/status/1742360440678629704?s=20

https://x.com/bigdonkey47/status/1627424208509624321?s=20

Where Kayfus Needs to Improve

Perhaps some added strength and better use of his lower half in his swing could help Kafyus find some more power. Though he can loft the ball, he ran a high ground ball rate in his short pro debut. He’ll nedd to try a corner outfield spot to profle better in the pros as a hit over power first baseman is a profile that is very unlikely to yield high end results. 

Key Stats

After his freshman year, Kayfus never struck out more than 15% of the time at Miami and alway ran a similar walk rate. That was the case when he got to pro ball last year in a limited sample. In 17 games, the data is noisier than usual at the Low-A level, but he ran a 54 GB%, which won’t play well if he’s going to try to add power. 

Intangibles

Kayfus has experience on the Cape circuit, and success (.302/.387/.354), which is not always a guaranteed indicator of success, but it’s less likely a hitter has success if they struggle in the cape. However, Kayfus didn’t show much power there. He was the Hurricane’s team MVP in 2022 and was named to the All-ACC academic list in 2022.

Future

How far Kayfus goes as a pro is almost directly tied to his ability to add power at the pro level. He hit for solid power in college but none on the cape. It’s very hard to have a great level of future success in the pros as a contact-first, first baseman or any corner position unless you are proving speed and dfense, which are not top tools for Kayfus. The ranking here is based on liking Kafyus’ pitch recognition, strike zone control, and contact ability. I know Cleveland hasn’t exactly taken these profiles and helped them add a ton of power yet, but I think there’s some hope Kayfus can hit 20 homers. The risk is definitely high for that to happen. His skill set would make his floor relatively safe if he played any other position than first base. But due to his position, I’ve listed his risk as extreme because there’s not much of a future as a big league regular without adding at least fringe/average power. He should be more than ready for High-A Lake County to start 2024, and Cleveland would probably consider it a huge win if he forces his way to Double-A by the end of the season.

Role 

40 - Contact over hit first baseman/first base/corner OF backup and contact/walk skills