April 19th, 2019 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka It took a while – 15 games into the 2019 season to be exact – but highly touted 20-year-old Dodgers middle infield prospect Jeter Downs finally hit his first California League home run for the Dodgers Advanced Single-A affiliate Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on Wednesday night … and it was a doozy; a grand slam.
As Dodger fans may recall, Downs (who was indeed named after soon-to-be unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer Derek Jeter) was acquired by the Dodgers on December 21, 2018 as the key piece of the seven-player trade (and salary dump) that sent Yasiel Puig, Kyle Farmer, Matt Kemp, Alex Wood and cash to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for Downs, 32-year-old / 13-year MLB veteran right-hander Homer Bailey, and 21-year-old right-hander Josiah Gray, with Gray being assigned to the Dodgers Low Single-A Great Lakes Loons and Bailey immediately being released. (Note: Bailey was eventually signed to a $555,000 minor league deal by the Kansas City Royals, with the Dodgers paying him $23 million for the 2019 season).
The Reds selected Downs in the first round of the 2017 MLB First-Year Player Draft (32nd overall pick) out of Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami Gardens, Florida. He was ranked as the Dodgers 13th overall prospect by Baseball America and appeared in four major league spring training games with the Dodgers, going 3-for-7 (.429) with a double and one RBI.
As was expected, the 5′-11″ / 180-pound right-handed throwing and batting infielder was assigned to Rancho Cucamonga out of spring training, where he has appeared in 12 of the Quakes 15 games; nine at shortstop, one at second base and two as the designated hitter. In those 12 games, Downs is 10-for-52 (.192) with one double and (now) one home run. With his grand slam and a RBI single on Wednesday night, he has now driven in eight runs on the young season.
Although Downs has unquestionably gotten off to a slow start with the Quakes through the first two weeks of the 2019 season, if he can continue to do what he did on Wednesday night, the Rancho squad could very well runaway with the Cal League South Division and perhaps even win their second consecutive Cal League Championship.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
Go Jeter Downs!
Go Quakes!
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I’m not at all worried about Jeter’s slow start (unless he’s hiding an injury, which doesn’t appear likely). What he did last year at the low-A level was all I needed to see out of him regarding his overall talent. Just a matter of him finding his groove at the plate. If his 5-RBI performance last night is any indication, could be well on his way to doing so.
Speaking of slow starts, OF prospect Cody Thomas finally broke out of his in a MAJOR way the other night for AA Tulsa: 4-4 with 3 HR and 5 RBI! He was batting well under .200 before that outing and now he’s well over that mark. He also leads the club in HR with 5 as well as RBI with 13 through 12 games so far so at least he’s showing solid run production in the meantime. If he continues to trend upward, he just might be the one to finally force Joc Pederson off the big-league roster eventually. His tools remind me of Bellinger’s, as a matter of fact. Only difference is Bellinger played baseball full-time dating back to HS while Thomas split his time between that sport and football prior to being drafted by the Dodgers back in that landmark 2016 Draft so it’s been a slow yet steady progression for the latter by comparison. Still, he certainly bears close monitoring due to being a premium athlete for his position.
Jesse has an article on Cody Thomas in the mill. Stay tuned…
Can hardly wait. Thomas always intrigued me ever since the Dodgers nabbed him in the middle rounds of that 2016 Draft. Has already shown his power at every level he’s played so far, but last year for Rancho was the first time I really saw him starting to put all his considerable tools together (even showed that he can hit lefties consistently as well, close to a .300 avg that season). Gonna be fun tracking his progress this year at AA Tulsa…
Jeter Downs is worth following during his minor league career, because of his potential. I’m looking forward to reading about his base stealing talent among other things this player is capable of.
I am excited with Jeter’s potential, he convinced me in spring training that he is the real deal, it is just a matter of Dodgers patience, continued development, and maturing as a player.