Top prospect Oswald Peraza made his long-awaited MLB debut in 2022 and hit .306/.404/.429 in 57 plate appearances. This stat line is extra impressive because Peraza was not getting consistent playing time. Developed as a shortstop in the Yankees’ system, he will be competing for the starting role in Spring Training. There is a lot to look forward to with Peraza, so let’s jump right in.

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Power and Quality of Contact

Peraza was given a 50 power tool by MLB Pipeline, which is average at the Major League level. So he’s not going to be a major power first hitter, but he does have an average amount in the tank to contribute.

In Triple A last season, Peraza hit 19 home runs, which made up 19% of his total hits.

65% of his hits were singles. While there is certainly nothing wrong with hitting singles, Peraza does tend to hit a lot of ground balls.

Trouble with Ground Balls

In his MLB debut, Peraza had a career-high 58% ground ball rate. Peraza has had a handful of seasons in the Minor Leagues where he hit more ground balls than ideal, but did a great job at limiting them in Triple A last season. Instead, he was hitting more fly balls and line drives.

Hopefully with more consistent playing time this season Peraza can get closer to the batted ball profile from his time in Triple A last year.

Peraza has above average speed, which is helping him overcome the ground ball issue for now.

Peraza’s Plate Approach

Peraza has a very aggressive approach and swung at the first pitch 44% of the time last season, which is 14% more often than MLB average.

He also had a high zone swing rate (9% higher than average) and was not chasing (5% less than average). This is important because he wasn’t just swinging at everything, he was swinging primarily at pitches in-zone and did well at laying off out of zone pitches.

Unfortunately, this occurred in a small sample and I’m not confident it is indicative of Peraza having above average plate discipline. While I would still agree his approach is likely on the aggressive side, his walk rates tell me that he likely has closer to average plate discipline.

While we only have the average for MLB, we’d need to see higher walk rates throughout his minor league career to say he has above average plate discipline. Based on these historical walk rates, I’d expect Peraza to walk an average amount (8.4%) or slightly worse, around 7% of the time or so. 

Bat to Ball Skills

Now let’s take a look at Peraza’s hit tool. In his small Major League sample, Peraza flashed above average bat to ball skills with a 6% better strikeout rate than average and 8% better in-zone miss than average.

Similar to how we determined his plate discipline, I’m not confident these stats are telling the whole story for Peraza because of the small sample they occurred in.

While we don’t have contact rates from the minor leagues, we have strikeout rates.

Peraza’s strikeout rate has steadily increased throughout his minor league career. This is normal, but for a player to have an above average hit tool, we’d need to see much better strikeout rates in Double and Triple A. While Peraza’s strikeout rate did dip in Triple A in 2021, that was only across eight games. His 99 game sample at Triple A in 2022 is much more telling.

Based on the trend in Peraza’s strikeout rates, I would expect him to post a strikeout rate similar to or slightly worse than he did in Triple A in 2022, 24% or so.

Looking at his offensive profile as a whole, I would say Peraza will have an output that is close to Major League average this season. However, if Peraza does not get consistent playing time (if he is sharing time at shortstop with Isiah Kiner-Falefa), I could see him doing a little worse than average at the plate.

Defensive Ability

While Peraza has an average offensive profile, he is an above average defender at shortstop.

Peraza has above average speed, his sprint speed ranked in the 90^th percentile in 2022. He also stole 33 bases in Triple A last season. While having above average speed doesn’t always mean a player has above average defensive abilities, it certainly helps with expanding range.

Peraza also has a strong arm, and generally seems to have good feel for plays.

What do you think of Oswald Peraza?