St. Louis Cardinals: The struggles of prospect Delvin Perez

In 2016, Delvin Perez was considered one of the top prospects, not only in the St. Louis Cardinals system, but in baseball. But the 20-year old shortstop is still struggling in A ball for the Cardinals.

Going into the 2016 MLB Draft, Delvin Perez was considered to be one of the top prospects in the draft. Being compared to Houston Astros shortstop, Carlos Correa, Perez was expected to be a top-10 pick in the draft. The fact he fell to the St. Louis Cardinals was viewed as a steal at the time.

Additionally, he had been named the Most Valuable Player in the Victor Pellot Excellence Tournament, batting .556, leading the tournament in RBIs and runs scored, while leading his team to the championship. Blessed with speed and an already advanced glove, the future seemed set for then 17-year old Perez.

Then came reports of a positive PED test right before the draft. Although the St. Louis Cardinals still took Perez as the 23rd player overall in the draft, the reported failed PED test seems to have been a forbearance of Delvin Perez’s future.

A Decent Start, but then…

After signing with the Cardinals, Perez was assigned to the GCL Cardinals. In 43 games, he had a .294 BA, .745 OPS, with 19 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. Defensively, he showed a very respectable glove at shortstop with a 4.55 RF/9 and a 4.15 RF/G. RF/9 and RF/G is a metric that measures a player’s range factor and his defensive ability. The higher the better, with 0 being average.

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Delvin Perez’s stats in 2016 earned him a promotion in 2017 to the Johnson City Cardinals in the Appalachian League. However, after only 13 games, he was only hitting .140 and was promptly demoted to the GCL Cardinals. Eventually he returned to Johnson City in late July and had a slash line of only .203/.314/.271 with both clubs in 34 games. Perez only had five stolen bases and nine RBIs with GCL and Johnson City combined.

In 2018, the Cardinals assigned Perez to the Low A State College Spikes in the New York-Pennsylvania League. Perez struggles continued however, he only had a slash line of .213/.301/.272 with 21 RBIs in 64 games. His base stealing regressed also with only eight stolen bases and was caught stealing on six occasions.

If further regression was possible, Perez showed it this winter in the Puerto Rican Winter League. In 17 games, with the Gigtanes de Carolina team, he had a slash line of .045/.160/.045, with no RBIs or stolen bases.

Time is running out for Perez.

Delvin Perez’s future with the St. Louis Cardinals would definitely seem to be in jeopardy. Although only 20, Perez has regressed every year he had been in the Cardinals organization. He has fallen out of every top ten prospect rating for the Cardinals and the highest rating he comes in at is 39 via Prospect1500 which is below other shortstop prospects Tommy Edman(30) and Edmundo Sosa(24).

Currently, there is not a clear heir-apparent to Paul DeJong at shortstop in the Cardinals organization. Although DeJong could be the shortstop for the birds-on-the-bat for several years, without a rising future shortstop in the organization, gives the Cardinals less flexibility. That’s where a Delvin Perez could come in. Simply, Delvin Perez needs to start hitting. Perez’s defense continues to be solid and he has plenty of speed, but a three-year minor league slash line of .229/.313/.299 won’t cut it.

Perez has to improve his output significantly if he wants to stay in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. It would be beneficial for the Cardinals if Delvin Perez could rise to what the expectations were in 2016. But currently, one must say, it looks doubtful.