The Rays acquired the athletic Gregorio from Seattle in October 2017 as part of the Ryan Garton and Mike Marjama trade (that also included Luis Rengifo). Gregorio was initially signed by the Mariners for a paltry $15K as a late-blooming J2 signee just shy of his 18^th birthday. Now 20-years-old, I caught a three-game look at him this summer in the Appalachian League.

Gregorio played third base in all three games, logically ceding the six to top prospect Wander Franco. He’s a surefire to stick on the left side of the dirt with a 55-grade arm and excellent footwork. Light on his feet, Gregorio has the range to play shortstop and could be average at the position. There’s projection remaining on the body, and Gregorio’s build is one that can get stronger without losing mobility. Offensively, length to his swing limits his ability to get to power in games right now, but the tools are here to project average game power in time. He can lift pitches up in the zone and shows projectable hard line drive contact when he squares up something down. Gregorio shows signs of recognizing spin, but gets over-aggressive when he’s looking for a fastball and gets out on the front foot against soft stuff. Lots of his offensive blemishes are a function of his age and experience; the barrel-feel is solid, and the ingredients are in place for an average future hit tool.

Put together, Gregorio has four average tools with the above-average arm he needs to profile at shortstop. That is good enough to profile as an average MLB regular, an excellent outcome for a small bonus signee and small-trade PTBNL acquisition.