Francisco Hernandez

Position: 3B
Level: Extended Spring Training
Affiliate: XST Cardinals
League: Extended Spring Training
Born: 10/08/1999 (Age: 24)
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 190
B/T: Right / Right
Acquired: Signed as International Free-Agent July 7th, 2017

Prospect Spotlight

Hernandez signed early in the 2017 international period and has spent the last two summers in the DSL. Now 19-years-old, he’s an interesting mix of physicality and prototype 3B raw tools with the chance to develop into a prospect if he bat-to-ball skill improves. Listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds—but appearing a few inches taller than that up close—Hernandez has a muscular, square frame that’s already fairly mature. He’s aggressive at the plate with a strong pass through the zone, hunting fastballs with pull power that shows up in games. Hernandez showed consistent hard contact in my looks, also proving he can turn on a mistake by launching a cookie for a towering no-doubter to left field at one point. There’s less contact against off-speed, as he was caught off-balance on his front foot consistently versus soft stuff.

Defensively, Hernandez is a mobile defender at the hot corner who can charge the ball with agile actions moving to both sides. The arm-strength is at least average (and has a chance to finish better than that), though Hernandez’ throws consistently had less accuracy when his feet weren’t set. He’ll need to work on footwork and softening his hands defensively, but the physical ability is here to be a solid defensive 3B. All told, Hernandez is a fairly tooled up lotto ticket with the size, arm-strength, and power potential to be an interesting player to watch the next few years.