San Francisco Giants Prospect Analysis: Daniel Carbonell

Daniel Carbonell Arredondo (most commonly known as Daniel Carbonell), born March 29, 1991 in Camaguey, Cuba, was a very sought out defector of Cuba earlier this season by at least seven known teams (including the Giants). The Giants were able to successfully sign Carbonell to a four-year contract worth $1.8 million, with a $1 million signing bonus.

Carbonell is 6’3″ weighing in at 196 pounds. As a right-handed batter and thrower, Carbonell has the ability and speed to play all the outfield positions. Carbonell is not considered a Cuban superstar like Yasiel Puig (Dodgers) or Jose Abreu (White Sox), but Carbonell is still a five tool player with speed being his biggest strength, and that’s something the Giants don’t have a lot of in their organization.

Daniel Carbonell has a lot of potiental to be a great hitter and overall player in the majors.

He has very fast hands and maintains a level swing, but he will chase pitches out of the strike zone, which shows a little lack of professional experience. Given the fact that this is his very first season in professional baseball after only playing four seasons for Camaguey in the Cuban National Series, he’ll have time to fix that. In the 2012/2013 season at the young age of 21, Carbonell hit .298 with five home runs, 28 RBI and nine stolen bases (62 games).

During his batting practice on Saturday, August 16th, Carbonell constantly hit line drives all over the outfield, including two monster home runs to left field and center field. He poses a good inside-out swing as well.

Carbonell is definitely a guy that is going to hit more for average than for power, but does have the ability to be a power hitter if the Giants push him to bulk up a little bit more. When you look at Carbonell, you can see that he is more built for speed and contact than power with his long legs and long strides when running the bases.

In Friday’s game, Daniel Carbonell went 1-5 with a three-run homer as the lead-off hitter and DH. He was clocked at 3.83 seconds from home to first after grounding out in his first at bat Friday night. The home run that Carbonell hit was an absolute no-doubter-bomb to left-center field that was almost hit off the scoreboard on a 91 MPH fast ball on the inside corner of the plate, as he was able to really show off his lightning fast hands and some of his power potential.

On Saturday night, Carbonell was the starting center fielder as he batted first again. He went 1-5 again that night with an RBI double off the left center field wall. Carbonell grounded out three of his at bats, averaging a home to first time of 3.80 seconds. Carbonell also impressed me with a two great throws from the outfield. He has a very strong and pretty accurate arm. One of his throws was an assist to home to end the inning.

Since Daniel Carbonell’s call up to San Jose, he is batting .343 (12-35) with a triple, double, home run, and five RBI.

Overall, Carbonell appears to have the ability to be an impact player in the majors, but he does require more seasoning in the minors to help work on his discipline at the plate. I expect the Giants to promote him next season to either Double A or Triple A, and depending on how his season goes there, he could be up with the Giants at some point in 2015.