The Los Angeles Dodgers named Diego Cartaya their 2022 Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year and Gavin Stone as the franchise’s Pitcher of the Year. Both are top-ranked prospects in the Dodgers organization and are listed on MLB’s top-100 rankings.
The honor is a culmination of consistent performance through multiple levels of the Dodgers Minor League system and the first time both have received this award. Cartaya began the year with the Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, but after 33 games, the 20-year-old backstop received a promotion to High-A Great Lakes.
Cartaya , who appeared in this year’s Future’s Game is the Dodgers’ top prospect and in 2022 has posted a .270/.405/.547 batting line to go with 22 home runs, 69 RBI,and 56 walks in 84 games.
Cartaya is regarded as one of the best catching prospects in all of baseball and is praised for his advanced baseball IQ despite his young age.
When he signed with the Dodgers in 2016, Cartaya was regarded as the No. 1 international prospect.
Stone’s rise through the ranks
Stone was selected in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of the University of Central Arkansas. The 23-year-old has been in control of his meteoric rise through the Dodgers’ farm system, progressing through three levels thus far.
After just 25 innings and a 1.44 ERA with the Loons, Stone was promoted to the Tulsa Drillers, where he continued to dominate. In 13 starts, he posted a 1.60 ERA and struck out 107 batters in just 73.1 innings pitched. Stone has ascended to Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he should spend the rest of 2022.
Overall, Stone has a 1.85 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP in 102.1 innings this season, and he has allowed a remarkably low .209 batting average against.
Stone has become one of the most intriguing prospects in the Dodgers organization over the course of the season.
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