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Ronaiker Palma
Prospect #45. Ronaiker Palma (1.5 points, 2 ballots) — a 2017 international signee out of Venezuela who wasn’t protected or selected in the Rule 5 draft this year, the 23-year-old is an athletic catcher noted for his high-contact ways and strong catch and throw skills. Palma hit well in High-A Spokane, with a .300/.336/.401 line (106 wRC+) in 247 PA as the back-up to top 100 prospect Drew Romo. Fangraphs likes Palma enough to rank him 31st in the system as a 35+ FV prospect:
Palma is built like a Volkswagen Beetle and is extremely difficult to make swing and miss in the strike zone. He’s been in pro ball since 2018 and has only struck out 36 times during affiliated games. He’s also barely played, in part due to injury, and has only averaged about 40 annual games as a pro. Healthy Palma is a plus athlete with great catch-and-throw skills thanks to the quickness of his release. His offensive skill set is similar to Yohel Pozo and Willians Astudillo, and Palma has a seemingly pathological need to put balls in play, though he doesn’t yet have the same kind of power on contact as either Pozo or Astudillo. For now, he’s an interesting sleeper at a very shallow big-league position.
Palma’s lack of physicality might be a barrier between him and being drafted, but he has fantastic catch-and-throw skills and could be a 40–60 game [MLB] backup in 2023, with more long-term upside because of his contact skills. - purplerow.com from their Colorado Rockies prospect rankings, pre-season 2023 series
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