Johnny Giavotella, 2B, Kansas City Royals
7/10/1987
Height: 5’8″ Weight: 185
The Kansas City Royals have not been shy about calling up their prospects to the big leagues recently. Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas have already started playing their home games in Kauffman Stadium and Johnny Giavotella has now joined them.
Royals fans are getting a 24-year-old second baseman who was drafted in the second round in the 2008 MLB Draft. Since then, all Giavotella has done is hit. He eased in with solid years in 2008 in Low-A Burlington and 2009 in High-A Wilmington. Giavotella wasn’t showing a lot of power then but he began to show his ability to take a walk and to avoid strikeouts.
Giavotella had his breakout season in 2010 with Northwest Arkansas in AA. His strikeouts barely exceeded his walks and and he pushed his IsoP up to .138. That year, Giavotella hit only 9 home runs but knocked 35 doubles. A few troubling signs popped up in this year’s numbers. He has already hit 9 home runs and 34 doubles and his K rate has stayed consistent, but his BB rate has dropped. His IsoD has dropped below .050.
photo John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star
Now 24, Giavotella is getting his first taste of the majors. Defense is the biggest concern for Giavotella’s future as a major leaguer. It seems to have improved over the past two years, and scouts have started to give him better grades than early in his career, but the advanced metrics of the majors will soon give us a better idea of whether he can be an every day major league second baseman.
At the plate, Giavotella is calm and has a nice compact stroke. His size, 5’8″ 185 pounds, holds back his ability to develop much power, but his current gap power should expand. His swing, his improving power numbers throughout his career, and his doubles numbers, tell me that more power is coming. He’s still only 24, after all. Many wrote his 2010 numbers off to the hitter-friendly environment of Northwest Arkansas, but he has already surpassed them in Omaha.
Our Instinct
The defense is the key here. Giavotella can hit. He needs to get his walk rates back in line and continue to let his power improve. He will also need his relatively high BABIP numbers to remain consistent in the majors. While a .300 BABIP is generally considered average or normal, the truth is that what is average or normal is different for each player. So the fact that Giavotella’s BABIP has averaged in the .360s the past two seasons doesn’t discount those numbers. If the defense comes around, Giavotella should be able to hit more than your average major league second baseman. There’s a chance the power really comes around, but if it comes at the expense of his walk and strikeout rates, as it has this year, Giavotella risks destroying what makes him a valuable player.
