Dreaming About The Upside of Chase DeLauter

How good can he really be?

Guardians’ top prospect Chase DeLauter is currently rehabbing in the Arizona Complex League after missing the first month and a half due to injury. Injuries have been a constant for him since even before he was drafted here, but do you know what else has been a constant? His ability to absolutely dominate his competition on the baseball field.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=delaut000cha

Above is a screenshot of Chase DeLauter’s baseball-reference page to show just how dominant he has been at every level of baseball. As you can see, his results have been phenomenal. Of course there have been a ton of players who have succeeded at every level and then failed in the major leagues, so what makes DeLauter different? In one sentence, I’d say that his combination of elite contact ability and raw power is unlike anything I’ve seen in any prospect—not just within the Guardians system, but across all of baseball.

DeLauter doesn’t just have good or even great contact skills, they are exceptional. His whiff rate in the minor leagues last season while dealing with injuries was 12.8%. To put that into perspective, Alex Bregman’s 12.8% whiff rate last season was 4th best among all qualified MLB hitters, behind just Luis Arraez, Steven Kwan, and Nico Hoerner.

Above you can see a picture of Chase DeLauter’s statcast data from the Arizona Fall League last year. This picture is the perfect depiction of who Chase DeLauter has been his entire career, and who he could eventually become in the major leagues one day. He posts elite exit velocities, as 94.1 AVG EV would have put him right behind Juan Soto for 5th in the entire MLB among qualified hitters in 2024. He has had EV’s up to 115 mph like this Home Run in Spring Training last season. You can see again here that the whiff rates and the zone contact rates are as good as it gets.

We have to keep in mind that sample sizes are incredibly important, and we have to be careful with small sample sizes. The issue with DeLauter is that, due to all of his past injuries, all we have are small sample sizes.

With that being said, it is incredibly easy to dream on the potential ceiling that Chase DeLauter has. We are talking about a player who has elite contact skills, elite raw power, well above average speed AND defense. If everything works out, he could potentially be a perennial 30-30 guy that hits .280-.300 AND plays great defense in RF. He is the definition of a five tool prospect.

When could we see Chase DeLauter in Cleveland? The big question with DeLauter is always going to be about his health. If injuries did not exist, he would’ve already made his debut in Cleveland last season. If he is able to stay healthy, I expect to see him in Cleveland by July or August, depending on how cautious they want to be with him and how long it takes him to get into a rhythm in AAA.

I have never felt this kind of certainty about a Guardians position player prospect. I truly believe that if Chase DeLauter is able to stay healthy, he will be a very special player for Cleveland for a long time. I will leave you all with this video of DeLauter hitting an insane Home Run off of Tigers’ top prospect Jackson Jobe in AA last year.