:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70213966/Screen_Shot_2021_11_30_at_9.19.33_PM.0.png)
[ed. note - “With interest in the Washington Nationals’ farm system at a high level, Federal Baseball has begun a series featuring the top 30 prospects in the system as of late last season, according to Baseball America. We will start with No. 30 and work our way to the top over the next few weeks, with one prospect highlighted each weekday.”]
WASHINGTON – The ranking for Jeremy De La Rosa may have dropped lower had the Baseball America list come out later in the 2021 season.
After missing the 2020 season since there was no minor league campaign, De La Rosa struggled at the plate for much of the past season.
He hit just .209 with an OPS of .595 while spending the year at low Single-A Fredericksburg, where the outfielder from the Dominican had 326 at-bats.
De La Rosa – who turns 20 in January – had five homers.
The previous year, he was one of the youngest players at the alternate site, also in Fredericksburg.
“We had an opportunity to bring a few position players to Fredericksburg. He was working extra hard down in the Dominican Republic with one of our hitting coaches,” Mark Scialabba, then the assistant general manager, player development, told Federal Baseball in 2020 about his stay at the alternate site.
“We felt he would fit in and he did so (in Virginia). Within a few days he was never intimidated,” Scialabba added. “He has plus-bat speed; he tries to go to all fields.”
De La Rosa has seen time at all three outfield positions, with a focus on center field early on in his pro career.
He hit .232 in 2019 in his first season with the Nationals, in the Gulf Coast League.
“We are happy with his progress; he is still learning. He is very green,” Scialabba said last year.