First the good news about shortstop Oscar Tejeda: he won’t hit the “ripe” age of 21 until December 26.
Now the bad news: Boston has a veritable glut of shortstops in its farm system including, in no particular order, David Renfroe, Derrik Gibson, Jose Iglesias and Yamaico Navarro.
And just imagine if Boston decided it would be best served by having Casey Kelly play shortstop instead of pitch.
In a sense, Tejeda has been running on a treadmill in that last season was his second at low-A Greenville. But the fact he returned to the Drive might have been expected considering he contracted a staph infection in a forearm which hampered him much of the 2008 season. And that was after he had off-season surgery to repair a tiny hole in his heart.
Tejeda last season wound up hitting .257 with 13 doubles, 50 runs scored and 50 RBI.
At face value, those numbers don’t exactly jump off the page. But, again, consider his age — he was 19 for the season.
Tejeda is rated as an outstanding athlete who has above-average speed and a strong arm.
While he’s adept at making the spectacular plays — the type that would be shown on ESPN — it’s the routine play that irks the organization. It’s not because he boots routine grounders, but that he has a tendency to make off-balance throws which means fans sitting behind first base must be alert at all times.
Once he improves his footwork, those errant throws should become a distant memory.
Tejeda has good bat speed and a smooth swing through the hitting zone. When he makes contact, he’ll spray line drives all over the park. But, so far, he’s yet to show that he has much power. (At Greenville last season he only hit three home runs).
That in itself isn’t what will determine his future as compared with his ability to hit for average and field his position sans errors.
And to improve his average, Tejeda must do a better job of hitting off-speed pitches. That’s one reason why, last season, in 370 at-bats, he struck out 89 times and only drew 30 walks.
Another thing Tejeda has in his favor is that he already has learned how to speak English which puts him ahead of the curve when compared with other young Latin American players.
Given his age and his athletic ability, Tejeda still figures in Boston’s plans. But it would behoove him to ring up better numbers this season, especially if he’s bumped up a level or two.
**EXTRA BASES: Through his first 34 games with high-A Salem, Tejada was batting a hefty .344 with six home runs, 23 RBI and a .938 OPS … Conversely, he’s already been charged with eight errors.