All systems go on Chavis
Sox hopes are high for IF prospect
This day was coming.
For better or worse, the Red Sox earned it.
Wednesday marked the club’s “Rookie Development Program,” an annual weeklong event in which the Sox host some of their finest prospects and prepare them for what it’s like to be a major leaguer living in Boston. They show them the locker room, introduce them to the big league staff and give them pointers on how to talk to reporters.
It’s basically a crash course, one that current big leaguers have since praised for helping them ease more smoothly into the majors.
Dave Dombrowski’s trades have done a lot to thin out the talent in the farm system. And while the program has previously touted the likes of Mookie Betts, Yoan Moncada, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr., this year’s group of invites isn’t likely to be accused of being overhyped.
The pride and joy of the 10 players seen yesterday was undoubtedly Michael Chavis, a 22-yearold infielder who was the final first-round pick by former general manager Ben Cherington, who opted for Chavis out of Sprayberry High School in Georgia with the 26th overall pick in 2014.
The short and stocky Chavis is listed at 5-foot-10 with tree trunks for legs and an upper half to match. His structure has thickened over the years, much to the Red Sox’ delight, and he’s now considered among the best power hitters in the system.
A year ago, he was on the fringe of the abyss.
Nowhere to be seen on Baseball America’s list of the Red Sox’ top 10 prospects last winter, Chavis was far behind the likes of Moncada, Andrew Benintendi and Devers, who have since graduated to the majors. Also ahead of him was Sam Travis (currently in Triple-A Pawtucket), Mauricio Dubon (who was traded along with Travis Shaw and others to the Milwaukee Brewers) and Luis Alexander Basabe (part of the Moncada trade to the Chicago White Sox).
That Chavis is now the organization’s top positional prospect, ranked second overall behind the talented and mysterious lefthander Jason Groome, is in part because there’s hardly anyone left, and in part because he had the kind of 2017 season the Red Sox desperately needed one of their minor leaguers to have.
“Incredible year from Michael,” gushed the club’s vice president of player development, Ben Crockett, during the workout at Boston College.
In 2015, Chavis hit just .223 with 16 homers, striking out 144 times in 109 games. His 2016 season was equally as dull, with a .244 average, eight homers and 74 strikeouts in 74 games, all before reaching Double-A.
Last year, Chavis was a monster, hitting .318 with 17 homers in 59 games at High-A Salem before earning a promotion to Portland, where he hit .310 with 14 homers in 67 games.
“He really took some big steps forward,” Crockett said. “His offensive approach really matured. I think that’s first and foremost. There weren’t really major mechanical changes that we made. It was really him kind of understanding who he is as a hitter, understanding what makes him successful — looking for the right pitches to hit, to lay off and recognize pitches he can’t do as much damage with, and really start to understand what he’s trying to do.”
His walk rate remains feeble and he strikes out too often, but that makes him a product of his generation. And the high average and potent power has the Red Sox so confident that they’re trying him out at first base, the only position the big league club has no long-term answer for, but one that requires premier offensive production.
“I think first base is the focus now,” Crockett said.
Chavis was drafted as a shortstop — who isn’t? — but has played mostly third base in the minors. He was often used as the DH last year due to some health issues with his throwing arm. He’ll play both third base and first base in 2017, but first base is growing on him, he said.
So is the idea of playing at Fenway Park, which suddenly doesn’t seem so farfetched.
“I’d like to say I feel like I’m pretty close, significantly closer than I felt like I was last year,” Chavis said. “Obviously that’s not up to me and it’s not something I really can control and say, ‘Hey, I’m ready,’ so that’s not really something I worry too much about.”
Crockett said Chavis has put himself on the “major league radar.”
To see him in the big leagues this year would probably indicate failure by the major league club to fill the voids at first base, where Mitch Moreland was signed to a two-year contract to play, and DH, where Hanley Ramirez remains the only candidate for playing time.
The Red Sox invited Chavis to big league camp for spring training, which begins on Feb. 14.
“I was thrilled when I found out,” Chavis said. “I was actually eating lunch and I got called into the office. I thought I was in trouble. I started thinking about everything I had done and I was like, ‘I don’t know what I did.’ But then I found out I was invited to camp and I was thrilled.
“It was one of my goals I set before this past season was to be invited to fall league and also be invited to big league camp after the season, so having accomplished both of those, it was a big moment yesterday finding out.”
With another solid year or two of development, the Red Sox may have another quality big leaguer ready to graduate from the farm system.
‘Incredible year from Michael. . . . He really took some big steps forward. His offensive approach really matured. I think that’s first and foremost.’ — BEN CROCKETT (right) Red Sox VP of player development, on prospect Michael Chavis (left)