2025 Cleveland Guardians Prospect Scouting Report: #38 OF Wuilfredo Antunez

Interesting toolset, looking for health and consistency

Bio

• Age (2025 season): 23

• Acquired: International FA (2019)

• 2024 Level: High-A

• Height: 6’0

• Weight: 205

• Bats: Left

• Throws: Right

2025 Scouting Grades

• Hit: 45

• Power: 45

• Speed: 50

• Defense: 50

• Arm: 55

• Overall: 40

• Risk: High

• ETA: 2027

First Impression

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. Still not on the field as much as you would like for his age, not yet playing 100 games.

What Makes Antunez Fun

There’s actually a decently well rounded skill set here. Antunez is a bit of an aggressive hitter, but he make contact at a decent rate. He hits the ball hard for his size. Takes big, hard hacks to do it sometimes, but he creates good angles and shows good hands, so I’m not out on the hit tool. He might not have enough power to profile in a corner everyday, but he’s not without power. He is a good defender in the corners but can handle centerfield maybe in a pinch. He closes on balls well with above average speed and has an above average throwing arm. It’s not quite enough to scream anything, but there’s enough here to pay attention to, to see if it all clicks.

What Could Hold Antunez Back

Aggressive offensive profile rely on high BABIP to carry. Which means you have to hit the ball very hard and/or run very well. It’s not a profile I tend to like much. Antunez hits the ball hard - for his size, and runs well enough, but neither are good enough to carry the high BABIPs necessary for such an aggressive profile to succeed at a high likelihood (think Tim Anderson’s good years). If he were a no-doubt centerfielder, I would say you can live with that offensive risk because of the defense and speed, but he’s more of a backup CF long term and profile better in right. That puts more pressure on the bat. Antunez also shows struggles with left handed pitching.

Key Metric

.347 - That was Antunez’s BABIP in Single-A in 2024, then dipped to a more normal .316 at High-A, where we saw some average regression despite better fly ball and pull rates. His swing rate increased to 7% with the promotion from an already aggressive 56.3% to 63%. Despite making more contact, this is an unsustainable level normally unless you have elite bat to ball skills, which I don’t completely buy in Antunez.

Intangibles

Antunez plays the game aggressively and takes an overall intense approach to the game, which the Guardians might like to see him focus more between the lines.

Future

Antunez needs to play everyday in High-A in 2025 and be on the field for the full year, which he should do if he stays healthy and keeps things in check. I think the ceiling for him right now is likely a corner outfielder/platoon type bat in the same vein as like a Will Brennan. He actually reminds me some of Carlos Moncrief, though I think Moncrief had more raw power. But there’s enough intrigue here to me to keep an eye on if he can put it all together. Approaches are hard to change though and his aggressive approach might stall him in Akron or Columbus, but there is high risk upside here in the form of a MLB bench/platoon OF.

Role/Risk

40/High - Aggressive, platoon or bench type OF