LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The buzz about Braves top prospect Jose Peraza is getting louder by the day, and Braves manager Fredi Gonalez is contributing plenty to it.
“He’s a special guy,” Gonzalez said of the 20-year-old Venezuelan second baseman. “He’s not coming in to just have fun and experience his first big-league camp.”
Gonzalez said he and Braves coaches have had discussions about Peraza and debated whether he’s ready.
“Half of them say, ‘he’s ready to go,’” he said. “Some say, ‘give him a couple of months, he hasn’t been any higher than Double-A.’ It’s always a good discussion.”
To back the argument that he’s ready, Gonzalez said some of them went so far as to research great players who debuted at a similar age or younger.
“There’s a couple of guys that have dropped Robbie Alomar (comparisons on Peraza),” Gonzalez said, who was now getting nearly giddy discussing Peraza on Tuesday with an ESPN.com writer among the circle of reporters taking it all in. “We’ve dropped Mickey Mantle, Robin Yount, those 19-year-old (phenoms in the majors). Al Kaline. All those guys are Hall of Famers, by the way.” (Gonzalez laughed.)
Phil Gosselin, Peraza and the Braves’ other top young middle-infield prospects, non-roster invitee shortstops Johan Camargo and Daniel Castro, have all worked at both second base and shortstop in early drills. Not because they’re considering switching Peraza back to his original shortstop position (or moving one of the others to second), but because they want the youngsters to have a chance to play more innings while in major league camp.
With Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons recovering from a strained oblique and expected to miss at least the first few spring-training games, the Braves will have plenty of innings this week that they can give to some of the younger kids.
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