Nick Pratto is an excellent baseball player. He’s so outstanding, in fact, that MLB Pipeline thinks he’s the Royals’ second-best prospect, trailing just Bobby Witt Jr. and just ahead of Asa Lacy.
He’s so outstanding, in fact, that Pipeline considers him one of the top first-base defenders in the game.
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And he’s so talented that between stints with Northwest Arkansas and Omaha last season, he smashed Double-A and Triple-A pitching, hitting 36 home runs, driving in 98 runs, and earning a.385 on-base percentage.
Is Pratto, though, talented enough to make fans of the Kansas City Royals forget about his poor 2019 season at High-A Wilmington, where he hit .195?
Will he be able to show in 2022 that 2021, not 2019, accurately reflects the real Nick Pratto and isn’t a fluke?
It’s impossible to predict how a rookie will perform in his first major league season, especially when he’s had such a wide range of results in the minors, as Pratto has.
What appears to be apparent, though, is that Pratto is the real deal, despite his dreadful 2019. When it comes to slashing, players aren’t usually one-hit wonders.
Pratto hit 280/.343/.443 in his second professional season at Low-A Lexington in 2018, then rebounded from a terrible third season by playing and hitting as he did in 2021. Pratto is expected to have a strong debut season.
But how much time he spends with the big club, and how good his numbers are, will be determined by what the Royals do with incumbent first baseman Carlos Santana, who had a great first half in 2021 but struggled with a lingering hip ailment for the most of the second half.
Despite hitting only .219, he hit 19 home runs.
How Tall Is Nick Pratto?
Nick Pratto stands at a height of 1.85 m.