Ballesteros' work behind plate translating into even more productive fall at-bats

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Moises Ballesteros can be found at the following address this autumn:

Home Plate
Valley of the Sun, Arizona

MLB No. 44 overall prospect is making a residence at and behind the dish during his time in the Arizona Fall League, and as Ballesteros proved Sunday for Mesa in a 10-3 win at Surprise, his work on both sides informs the other.

The prime example was Ballesteros’ fourth-inning at-bat against the Rangers' No. 25 prospect, right-hander Josh Stephan -- a.k.a. Ballesteros' first homer of the fall.

Batting third in the Solar Sox lineup, the left-handed slugger had faced the Surprise starter in the first frame and took two pitches breaking away from him to begin that plate appearance -- first a 94.4 mph sinker and then an 88.9 mph changeup, both of which missed the outside corner by some distance.

Stephan responded with a 2-0 slider that broke over the heart of the plate and caught Ballesteros just off guard enough for a flyout the other way to foul territory in left field.

Ballesteros made sure he wouldn’t be caught similarly again.

“My adjustment was to look at the ball that was more inside to me,” he said via translator Analies Castro, “and hit it.”

Stephan opened that fourth-inning AB with a cutter on the outer half that Ballesteros just missed again. When Stephan's second cutter went middle-middle, the Cubs' No. 4 prospect connected for a 414-foot solo dinger down the line to right. It came off the bat at 110.8 mph, trumping the 109.9 mark that served as Ballesteros’ best Statcast-measured exit velocity during his 68-game sample at Triple-A Iowa during the regular season.

As much as the 20-year-old tries to keep his offensive and defensive work separate, the prep work for both bleed into one another and can make him a better overall prospect.

“I would look for the pitches I struggle with the most and keep working on that,” he said. “Put myself in the mindset of what they would pitch to me first and foremost and get after that.”

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Ballesteros knows the book on him says open with sinkers and changeups outside before coming in with the cutter -- the very philosophy Stephen employed in their two faceoffs. But the Venezuela native showed he could handle the soft stuff on the outside corner as well, later driving a 2-2 curveball at the upper-outer edge of the zone from Rangers righty Leandro Lopez the other way to left for a two-run single.

The 101.3 mph knock was one of three balls with triple-digit exit velocities hit by Ballesteros on his 2-for-4, four-RBI day. And like the homer, he relied upon his catching eyes to identify the timeliness and tipping of the curve before Lopez even delivered it.

“I was paying attention to his hand movements as he was getting ready in the glove,” he said. “I noticed that from the previous at-bat, and I made a note for myself. That’s what I was looking at in that pitch.”

Ballesteros can hit, that’s never been in doubt.

The Cubs have pushed the backstop aggressively since he moved stateside in 2022, and he’s responded with impressive batting averages and polished strikeout rates at virtually every stop. He slashed .299/.372/.495 with nine homers in 56 games at Double-A Tennessee, prompting a mid-June promotion, then spent the rest of the year with Iowa, where he finished with a .281/.340/.454 line. He was one of only two players aged 20 or younger to get 250 or more plate appearances at Triple-A in 2024. The Orioles' Jackson Holliday was the other.

Defense has been a bigger question.

At 5-foot-8, Ballesteros doesn’t provide a large target behind the plate, and his lack of agility has scouts questioning whether he can stay back there long term. To his credit, he did a solid job of keeping balls in front of him Sunday while working with five Mesa pitchers, including fellow Cub Luis Rujano -- who struck out five over three no-hit innings of relief. Ballesteros also went 1-for-2 in ABS challenges, overturning one ball into a strike after a review revealed the pitch had nicked the corner in the seventh.

Ballesteros did get eight games in at first base during the regular season between Iowa and Tennessee, though only two came at the higher level. There’s only one mitt he’s concerned with in Arizona, however.

“They haven’t said anything to me about playing first base,” Ballesteros said. “I’ve been focusing on playing catcher, and that’s what my focus is on now.”

Ballesteros the hitter might be better off for it.