I don't get to watch them play as much as I would like in the minors. I gotta go with what I can find online/by scouting reports. I am not exactly saying that Meija will end up Santana, since their is a fair amount of differences, but I am saying that we need to keep Meija since I feel he is a sure bet player that at worst is a productive MLB player. Santana is a productive player no ifs ands or buts about it. Now did he pan out like scouting reports said he could, no, but is he a deserving of a big league spot on like every MLB teams roster, yes. Meija still needs to work on his catching skills, but I think he will be better contact hitter/better catcher than Santana was. Not sure if he will ever put up the Hrs or walks but that's alright.
I've seen Mejia play a handful of times, all in 2015 when he was 19. I've seen Santana as a C plenty of times when he first broke in to the MLB
If you ever see Mejia in person, you'll understand why I say he has multiple Gold Glove talent, which differentiates him from Santana who you saw an eventual move to 1B or DH coming, and which was accelerated when he messed up his leg his rookie year...just most of it is raw right now with Mejia.
But I've played and watched a lot of baseball in my life, and I have never seen better raw arm talent, from any position, than Mejia's...and he was 19 at the time and looked like a bean pole in catchers gear.
His ceiling, defensively, is in another galaxy from Santana's.
And then there is the offense. Just because he is a switch hitter doesn't mean he should be compared to other switch hitters. The player with the most similar bat profile to Santana's as a prospect who is a switch hitter was Santander anyways (thanks for reminding me and breaking my heart again)...
His ceiling offensively is much lower than Santana's IMO. Think the only thing he will do more than Santana is hit for a higher average. But that's only because I can't see him getting all that much bigger, which will cap his power potential a bit...plus hitting for power isn't really his game.
He's an aggressive swinger with a line drive swing, whereas Santana is a patient swinger with a fly ball swing.
He's our best C prospect since Santana...I'll give you that.
But when I see the crazy arm talent at such a young age, I always go back to Yadier Molina, who was the last young catcher I remember with that kind of arm talent from the C spot. He's got a long ways to go to be Yadier with everything else (blocking, framing, calling games), but I'd put his ceiling as a switch hitting Yadier Molina, and his floor as someone like a switch hitting Kurt Suzuki with a better arm.
Think he ends up somewhere in the middle.
