A Change of Scenery Has Resulted in Anthony Prato’s Best Hitting Stretch in the Minors

[Theodore Tollefson]

Sometimes success can be rediscovered with a change of scenery, that’s been the story of Anthony Prato’s 2023 season in the Twins minor league system. He struggled in Wichita to start the year, then got called up to St. Paul on June 10 to become a much better version of himself. Find out more about the secret to his successful turnaround. 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

St. Paul - The 2023 season did not start out as Anthony Prato hoped it would. He was with the Wichita Wind Surge and the success he had seen at the plate from last season when he had a .294 batting average, a .403 on-base percentage, a .419 slugging percentage, and .822 OPS in 87 games for the Wind Surge.

But the first 16 games of his 2023 season were the complete opposite as he only managed seven hits in his first 16 games. April turned to May, May to June, and things only staggered for Prato at the plate. He had a .171/.305/.248 triple slash with a .553 OPS in 43 games on June 9, and things didn’t seem like they would change anytime soon.

That was until the Twins recalled Edouard Julien on June 10 and a roster spot for an infielder opened up in St. Paul. Prato then got the call-up to join the Saints and his season has become a different story since then. 

“I definitely think it was tough to start,” said Prato. “Once you get going and you’re struggling it sometimes feels like it can pile on. I think it was nice to get a change of scenery and see the zeros on the batting average, instead of seeing .150, .160, .170.”

That change of scenery was a great benefit to Prato’s season. Since his call up to St. Paul, he’s had a .330 batting average, a .472 on-base percentage, a .642 slugging percentage, and 1.114 OPS in 35 games. 

“Hitting’s a lot of, hitting with confidence, so once I got off to a good start here I was able to keep it rolling,” said Prato.

A lot of the help for him has come from Saints hitting coach Nate Spears. Spears is in his first season with the Twins organization having spent the last two as the hitting coach for the Atlanta Braves High-A affiliate. 

“He’s had a lot of good pitch selection. Pitch selection has been huge, consistency in his routine, he’s like the same guy every day. Doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low comes in and does the same thing in the cages every day,” said Spears. 
The best way Spears has helped Prato in his time in St. Paul is with his batting practice pitches 

“Nate’s got the best BP I’ve ever hit so that definitely helps. Nate just puts it where he wants it, that’s great and he’s a really supportive hitting coach too. He does great with the reports and I really like hitting with him,” said Prato. 

Spears chuckled at that statement from Prato and responded saying, “Yeah, I’m trying to be in the zone with him. I take a lot of pride in being in the zone with the players because when I played if you had a bad BP thrower it can get frustrating. So I try to be in the zone as much as I can with the guys and cater to the types of pitches they want.” 

Prato can be described as a quiet, easygoing guy. A kid from Brooklyn who talks more with his bat than he does with words. That’s how Spears and Saints manager Toby Gardenhire have come to see him in the short time he’s spent with the team. 

“He’s not the type of guy that really shows his emotions. He goes out there and plays every day and works hard,” said Gardenhire. “He seemed really fine to me when he arrived here, he’s had some really good years in the past. This year I think he was just having a tough time and sometimes it just takes a change of scenery.” 

The change of scenery has not only helped with his on-field performance but how he’s opened himself up with his teammates in the clubhouse as well. 

“From what I saw in Spring Training, I think he’s been even more outgoing here because of that clubhouse culture that’s allowed him to open up and be himself,” said Spears. 

Prato grew up a Yankees fan, admiring the history and culture of the franchise. One guy who helped him open up more is now a former teammate but a two-week Yankee in Ryan LaMarre. Even with his short stint in pinstripes, Prato took advantage of the mentorship LaMarre had to offer him. 

“I honestly think it’s cool to see guys I’ve watched and get to play with them here. Like LaMarre on the 2021 Yankees, he was pretty good for a few games. It was cool talking with him about what he’s been through. He tells all the stories about them and the way he talks about it, it sounds like he’d been there for 10 years and not two weeks,” said Prato. 

While 35 games in Triple-A is still a small sample size Prato has made enough noise to garner more attention on his prospect status within the Twins organization. He may be 25 years old, but this utility man could be ready for his MLB debut in late September if the Twins roster works in his favor. 

“If you’re consistent in this game really good things will happen. It’s going to come down to him to ride this wave as long as he can,” said Spears.  
 

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[Althebum82]

Great article!  Enough to convince me that Spears needs to be promoted to help the big league club score more runs and strike out fewer times......

This development highlights just how deep this franchise is with infielders, and why Urshela, Arraez, Encarnacio-Strand and Steer were considered expendable for pitching.....Yake also looks like he is coming into his own!  Farmer and Solano have been solid signings, but it appears we don't have to feel pressured to hang onto them with Prato, Helman, Martin, and one could also add Lewis still at this point as well Miranda to make an impact on the Twins future.

[Nashvilletwin]

Thanks for the info on Prato and his development/resurgence.

He may or may not be ready now or soon to be a true major leaguer.  But certainly one take away from this article is how Prato is just another young player who comes to the Saints and finds his bat.  One take away is the job that Spears and Gardenhire are doing.

[Kenny Powers]

Good write up.  I've been watching Prato for a while now.  My gut tells me this is still a flash in the pan - but we shall see.  I'd love to give the hitting coach credit.  But then I look at what Martin and Miranda are doing and I think "not so fast".  IDK what to think.

Michael Helman was another UT guy who seemed to come out of nowhere and start mashing.  Assuming one of those two can maintain anything close to what they were doing at AAA, they certainly can push guys like Farmer, Castro, Gordon off the roster.

[jorgenswest]

I wonder if including that his BAPiP in AA was .217 and in AAA is .398 would have added some useful context to the article beyond change of scenery. These kind of in season variances happen often even when the scenery has stayed the same. It can give the appearance a player has improved significantly.

There is reason to be hopeful about Prato but patience is in order here. 

[Azviking101]

On 8/1/2023 at 10:16 AM, Kenny Powers said:

Good write up.  I've been watching Prato for a while now.  My gut tells me this is still a flash in the pan - but we shall see.  I'd love to give the hitting coach credit.  But then I look at what Martin and Miranda are doing and I think "not so fast".  IDK what to think.

Michael Helman was another UT guy who seemed to come out of nowhere and start mashing.  Assuming one of those two can maintain anything close to what they were doing at AAA, they certainly can push guys like Farmer, Castro, Gordon off the roster.

I think one piece of context that’s often missed is that the league wide OPS is over .800 for the intl league and era is over 5. He’s been great and there’s credit to be given, but all these AAA guys have great OPS’ for a reason. Hitting stats in this league are just so bloated every year 

[FlyingFinn]

On 7/31/2023 at 2:44 PM, Althebum82 said:

Great article!  Enough to convince me that Spears needs to be promoted to help the big league club score more runs and strike out fewer times......

Exactly what I was going to say. Promote Spears! Miranda was terrible when he went down and he kept improving until he was called back up. Martin got a very late start and started slow, but has also been improving of late.

[Mike Sixel]

So, he plays third and LF .... And isn't up? 

He's having a great year, and I'd love to see what he can do.

[jorgenswest]

On 8/3/2023 at 12:54 AM, Mike Sixel said:

So, he plays third and LF .... And isn't up? 

He's having a great year, and I'd love to see what he can do.

He has had a great two months but the year is pretty ordinary. His OPS for the year is .831. That sounds really good until you realize the run scoring context in the IL is really high this year. The average OPS in the IL is .802. That really gives us distorted perception of both hitters and pitchers.

Combining both his performance in the AAA and AA he is about 8% better than league average by OPS. For comparison the league ERA is the IL in about 23% greater than Randy Dobnak. Relative to league Dobnak is performing better than Chris Williams by a little and the full season of Prato by more. I would no be advocating for Dobnak’s return though relative to league he is doing better than Williams and Prato over the season.

What if we ignore the abysmal performance in AA across 129 at bats? Prato’s BABIP in AA was .217 after all. Maybe it was just bad luck. That leave us with the outstanding OPS in AAA across 124 at bats. If we want to ignore the AA due to BABIP should we also ignore his AAA performance due to a BABIP of .382?

As a whole, Prato’s season follows his career of a better than league average batter at the minor league level. I don’t think it would be wise to cut a partial sample in half and then throw out the bad part due to a low BABIP but make decisions based on the other part in spite of the high BABIP.

I would hope the Twins aren’t looking at numbers like OPS at all. They need such a large sample to stabilize. The pitch level data and statcast data I can’t see has to tell a better story for the whole season. The Twins must have seen something encouraging in that AA data in spite of his abysmal OPS start to the year in AA. They could have brought someone else up.

Prato has given them further reasons to be encouraged and worthy of consideration of an addition to the 40 man roster in the off season.