Two Major One Minor 040814

This is the 2014 debut of my Two Major One Minor segment. It marks the fourth year where I highlight two players in the Majors and one in the minors. Looking back at some of the minor league players touched on over the last three years I wrote about Paul Goldschmidt, Jose Altuve, Matt Adams, Jedd Gyorko, Yasiel Puig and Mike Zunino. The initial three to start off are Chris Colabello, Yangervis Solarte and Ryan Dent.

Colabello is a 1B\OF and is a late bloomer with shades of Roy Hobbs. He toiled in the Independent leagues for years before signing with the Twins in his age 28 season in 2012 and got acclimated to Double A. Then in 2013 he started the season with Triple A Rochester hitting .352/.427/.639 with 24 HR, 76 RBI, 58 R, 2 SB in 89 games earning the International League MVP. The Twins did call him up for part of 2013 and he took his lumps hitting .194/.287/.344 with 7 HR, 17 RBI, 14 R, 0 SB in 55 games. The Twins stuck with him through spring training as he hit .349/.462/.512 with 1 HR, 8 RBI, 8 R, 0 SB in 23 games. Those numbers continued as the season started as he earned the American Player of the week honors in week one and is hitting .370/.414/.630 with 1 HR, 11 RBI, 5 R, 0 SB in 7 games. It will be interesting to see how the bootstraps Rookie's season progresses. Colabello turned 30 on October 24.

Solarte is a rookie utility player that gives the Yankees options at 2B\SS\3B\OF and brought eyes on him in spring training. The Yankees could not ignore his hitting .429/.489/.571 with 2 HR, 9 RBI, 9 R, 0 SB in 24 Grapefruit League games. He has coninued to swing the hot bat to start the season as he has hit .458/.519/.708 with 0 HR, 7 RBI, 4 R, 0 SB in 7 games. Solarte spent the last couple seasons with Triple A Round Rock of the Rangers after rising through the Twins organization for six seasons. He did show the ability to hit for average at a couple stops for the Twins as he hit .320 over 45 games with Class A Advanced Fort Myers in 2010 and hit .329 over 121 games at Double A New Britain in 2011. He has 
the ability to touch double digits in home runs and can reach the gaps with doubles as he has had 31, 28 and 36 over the past three seasons. Solarte is just entering his prime as he will be 27 on July 7th.

Dent is another utility player capable of matching Solarte at 2B\SS\3B\OF while he is getting a reboot at Class A Advanced Salem of the Red Sox. He split the previous seasons between Double A Portland and Triple A Pawtucket and in 2013 hit .257/.320/.344 with 3 HR, 22 RBI, 26 R, 8 SB in 57 games at Portland and hit .167/.211/.167 with 0 HR, 1 RBI, 3 R, 3 SB in 16 games at Pawtucket. He has started 2014 off hitting .357/.500/.571 with 1 HR, 5 RBI, 3 R, 3 SB in 4 games. The Red Sox originally drafted him with the 62nd pick of the first round in 2007. Dent turned 25 on March 15.