San Juan Makes In House Scouting Discovery
Juan General Manager Mike Best took a call from Suezo Azuma on Monday morning, May 26. The Santo Domingo (AAA) manager was calling from Fayetteville where the Tourists were in the third day of a three-day series.On Friday’s day off, pitcher Jorge Pagán had been joking around with fellow Cuban Pedro Morán about Moran being promoted from SA to AAA solely for his defense. Morán pretty much hit his weight (.184) last year at Homer (SA) and at 23 had no real future in the organization until a need for a utility fielder popped up at Santo Domingo after António Correa got promoted. Like Correa, Morán can play five positions.
Defending himself, Morán said he could at least hit better than Pagán and the two made a bet. At batting practice before Saturdays game, it wasn’t long before Pagán began turning some heads. First hitting coach Juichi Matsumoto stopped chewing the fat on the sidelines and took notice. Then he grabbed Azuma, Moran being outmatched wasn’t necessarily the surprise as was how good Pagán’s swing looked. He regularly drilled balls deep, five landing in the right field deck and another landing inches from the wall at dead center, 434 feet in at Fayetteville. Azuma asked Pagán to take practice again on Sunday. The performance repeated.
The 23-year old Pagán, who signed to San Juan’s International Complex at age 16, relayed that he had not hit in a formal game since his mid-teens but “fools around some times.” He admitted that while he was rehabbing an elbow injury between the 2028 and 2029 seasons he was forbidden to throw the ball but that nobody had said he couldn’t swing the bat a bit.
“He got a pretty good swing, seems to be able to spray to the gaps but mostly has big-time power,” Azuma excitedly relayed to Best. "Alberto (Morán - no relation) is still hampered by his thumb injury and I think we should give him a shot in the lineup in his place.”
Pagan went 1-for-4 that night. The Tourists returned home to face Raleigh the next night but it was Pagán’s turn in the rotation, hurling seven strong innings in a 2-1 victory. With Pagán back at DH the next night, Best flew out to see for himself. Pagan drilled two doubles in the game, both with men on, and scored a run himself. The phenom went hitless the next night but had an rbi triple and scored vs Newport News on Friday, May 30. He stands at .267 with a .533 slugging percentage.
Front office insiders said Best shows no hesitation in wanting to try Pagán at the AAA level, particularly in that he can give the team a 12th reliever without costing a bat. The lefty might be able to platoon at DH with the struggling Luis Bonilla if not replace him altogether.
Pagán did well in relief at San Juan last year but was unable to prove he could start in the big leagues and, being waiver exempt, was the odd man out a couple weeks ago getting sent back down to AAA. Over the past three seasons he has ranked between 51 and 59 on the top PEBA prospects list.
In four starts in AAA, Pagán is 2-1, 3.42 but three of four ion his starts were strong. The outlier was three days before the Saturday batting practice after he’d given up a three-run homer leading to a six runs in 4 1/3 innings.
“it felt good to go out and get some rips at the plate after that,” he said.