Padres Prospect Continues To Make Extremely Loud Contact

The San Diego Padres need power bats, but they don’t have many prospects in the pipeline who can hit with that kind of authority. Alex McCoy is proving to be an exception, though, as the prospect rocked the Arizona Fall League with a home run that registered an exit velocity of 118.2 mph.

The blast occurred in the fourth inning of Peoria’s 8-5 loss to Scottsdale at the Peoria Sports Complex on Thursday, and it measured out at 435 feet. According to a report from Sam Dykstra of MLB.com, it was the fourth hardest-hit ball ever since Statcast started acquiring such data back in 2015. 

The names of the other players who exceeded that number aren’t readily recognizable, but that’s the AFL. It’s a prospect proving ground, which makes it a great place for players like McCoy to show out. 

The pitch McCoy hit out ws a sinker that ran out over the plate at 89.3 mph, and the prospect made a meal of the meatball. McCoy noted that he’s been late on a lot of fastballs lately, so he wanted to rectify that, and he certainly got the result he was after. 

The outfielder has been doing this sort of thing all year long in the low minors. The Padres prospect hit an exit velocity of 119.5 mph on a groundout (!) for High-A Fort Wayne, and he hit 118 for Low-A Lake Elsinore. 

McCoy played in college at Hofstra, which isn’t exactly a prospect hotbed, and he was tutored there by former major leaguers Frank Catalanotto. He posted a slash line of .278/.355/.467 with 19 homers between High-A and Double-A, and he also added 24 steals across 123 games. 

The outfielder is also 24, so he’s a late bloomer whose primary risk is aging out of the “prospect” label. The Padres sent him to Peoria to see if he could hit for power against tougher comeptition, and he certainly has shown that ability so far. 

His main problem is a familiar one, however. McCoy struck out in all three of his other at-bats on Thursday, and he’s 6-for-25 (.240) with two homers and 11 K’s to start his time with the Javelinas, per Dykstra. 

Loud contact isn’t the same as consistent contact, so that’s the challenge at the moment. Right now McCoy is basically just a fun AFL story, but if he can make that jump he’s got a chance to be more than that.