Colorado Rockies: It’s time to give Raimel Tapia a real opportunity

Way back in 2011, Raimel Tapia was considered a top 100 prospect with a multitude of quality player attributes. Now, eight years later, Tapia may be the odd man out for the Colorado Rockies. The question remains: should he be?

As a 17-year-old, the Rockies signed Raimel Tapia, a budding speedy star, out of the Dominican Republic. Tapia is now 25 years old, and still hardly has experience at the major league level. In fact, over three seasons since making his debut in 2016, Tapia has just 108 games at the major league level.

Tapia began his career playing at the Rookie level. The first season for Tapia was respectable as he started in the right direction. He slashed .262/.336/.323 with one home run, 35 RBI, and 15 stolen bases. It was good enough for Tapia to finish with a .332 wOBA and 97 wRC+.

The following year, Tapia found his groove. He decreased his strikeout rate from 14.5% to 12.9% while improving in virtually every other offensive category. Tapia slashed .316/.383/.363 with a much better .373 wOBA and 122 wRC+. He finished with an identical 35 RBI and stole 13 bases.

By 2016, Tapia had worked his way to Triple-A. The power remained almost nonexistent; however it was an area of which was not part of his production. That year, before leaping, Tapia finished with a .346/.355/.490 line, producing an above-average .365 wOBA and 120 wRC+. At the time, it felt like it was his time to shine; however, the club felt differently.