Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Meet a Prospect: Luis Cessa


Luis Cessa knows a thing or two about minor league baseball and New York and it’s a good thing since he was just recently traded to the New York Yankees in the Justin Wilson deal. This marks the second time that Cessa was traded this calendar year as he was also traded to the Detroit Tigers by the team who drafted him, the New York Mets, in the Yoenis Cespedes deal. Now Cessa, along with teammate Chad Green, head to New York to give the Yankees some Triple-A starting pitching depth, let’s meet him. This is Meet a Prospect: The Luis Cessa Edition.


Cessa is 21-years old and has a natural right-handed pitcher’s build. Cessa stands 6’3” and weighs 190 lbs. with plenty of room to grow and fill out his frame. Cessa was considered an underrated prospect while pitching in the same rotation as Steven Matz and Gabriel Ynoa but is still considered to have less upside than a frontline starter. Cessa is the type of pitcher to aggressively attack the zone and relies on his excellent pinpoint control to survive. Cessa keeps batters off balance with his developing curveball and is still considered raw since he was converted from the infield. The Mets drafted Cessa as an infielder in 2008 and converted him to a starting pitcher in 2011 so the 2016 season looks to be just his sixth professional season as a pitcher. That equals upside.


Cessa’s downfall may be his durability and the fact that he loses velocity the deeper he goes into games. Cessa doesn’t have electric stuff by any means but he gets the job done and could be an excellent relief pitcher eventually. Cessa is truly raw and the sky is the limit.


I was scouting around on a Mets Minors and found these grades from before the 2015 season:

Fastball: 45/55 Change-Up: 55/60 Curveball: 35/50 Control: 55/60 Mechanics: 60/60

Cessa is not going to change an organization by any means but at age 21 you never know. Justin Wilson was replaceable either inside the organization or via free agency so it’s not the biggest loss. At worst Cessa could become a serviceable relief pitcher, at best a decent starter.

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