Yoan Manuel Moncada Olivera has long been hyped as the next big thing in Cuba during a distinguished amateur career. He was born May 27th, 1995. He’s a switch-hitter who primarily played third base in international tournaments as a youth, but mostly second and a bit of shortstop with Cienfuegos in Serie Nacional. There’s a good chance that he’s seeking to play in the US.

Detailed scouting reports are difficult to find, and I don’t have an accurate height or weight, but Moncada appears to be a premium athlete. He was named one of Cuba’s best young athletes in 2013. At Serie Nacional’s all-star skills competition last year, Moncada won for best home to first speed (3.48 s) as well as best time around the bases (14.15 s). Those numbers sound pretty ridiculous to me, and I’m not clear to me whether they included swinging the bat. It should be noted, though, that Moncada beat out Rusney Castillo, who was one of the best base-stealers in Cuba. For what it’s worth, his highlight video shows him looking very fluid in the field.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb9nfuHw9sU

Yoan Moncada Stats

	Tm	Age	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	R	RBI	HBP	BB	SO	SB%	lgSB%
2013	CFG	17	91	79	24	1	1	1	4	3	16	7	5	7	16	0.57	0.53
2013.5	CFG	17	81	59	15	3	0	0	9	2	10	8	6	13	19	0.82	0.56
2014	CFG	18	195	165	45	7	3	3	8	6	32	13	4	20	34	0.57	0.54
Totals			367	303	84	11	4	4	21	11	58	28	15	40	69	0.66	0.55

	Age	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	ISO	OPS+	BB%	K%	lgBB%	lgK%
2013	17	91	0.304	0.396	0.380	0.076	118	8	18	9	12
2013.5	17	81	0.254	0.436	0.305	0.051	103	16	23	10	12
2014	18	195	0.273	0.365	0.406	0.133	118	10	17	10	13
Totals		367	0.277	0.388	0.380	0.102	115	11	19	10	12

As a reminder, what I’m calling the 2013 season was actually split between 2012 and 2013. The “.5” designation indicates the second phase of the season, in which the top 8 teams advanced and played each other exclusively. Also, I’ve changed the way I’m designating age. Rather than using the MLB cutoff of July 1st, I have started to use January 1st. This makes things less confusing; I’m not forced to explain why Moncada was never actually 19 during his age-19 season.

Moncada played only a season and a half in Serie Nacional, which doesn’t provide much to work with. However, that he started as a 17-year old and hit above league-average in limited PA is very impressive. His swing looks line-drive oriented to my untrained eye; I would expect his power numbers to increase as he gets older.

Here’s a look at how he compares to recent defectors at the same age:

	Yr	Age	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	ISO	OPS+	BB%	K%	lgBB%	lgK%
Yoan Moncada	13-14	17-18	367	0.277	0.388	0.380	0.102	115	11	19	10	12
Jose Abreu	05-06	17-18	464	0.254	0.308	0.367	0.113	77	5	23	8	13
Leonys Martin	06-07	17-18	333	0.253	0.367	0.352	0.099	92	12	17	10	12
Aledmys Diaz	08-09	17-18	347	0.334	0.393	0.461	0.127	106	7	12	10	12
Adeiny Hechavarria	17-18	17-18	459	0.243	0.308	0.334	0.091	65	8	14	10	12
Yoenis Cespedes	04	18	336	0.302	0.378	0.503	0.201	128	8	20	8	13

Again, not much to go on, but very promising. If and when Moncada makes it to the US, I expect plenty of interest; he may well push the boundaries of how much teams are willing to pay for any given player under the current under-23 international signing guidelines.