Colorado Rockies: The top 25 players under 25 years old
By Jake Shapiro
8 Raimel Tapia
The completely unique — in today’s game — contact speed duo is featured in the lefty Tapia. He starts this season in Triple-A after 171 big league at-bats last season.
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He’s very much proved he can hit major league pitching, OPSing .903 in 387 plate appearances across two seasons in Triple-A.
Tapia does not have the potential that Dahl does but his floor is higher and he is the first call if any position player goes down. Tapia will very much be a part of the big league club in 2018 … it’s just a matter of when. Someday he will start too, but that might just not happen in Colorado. He’s better defensively than you think and its part of his game that has gotten better too. It’s at the point where that starting gig could even be in center field.
The 24-year-old comes from one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the world and at the time of his debut he became only the 18,866th person to play in the majors. He’s already been very successful in life and the attitude should carry him further.