South Side Sox Top Prospect No. 84: Maiker Feliz

Though still young, this rookie league hot corner vet needs to take a nice step forward in 2019

By whisoxman20051917 Mar 6, 2019, 8:53pm CST

**Hot corner:** For a club without prime third base prospects, Feliz will have a lot of rookie league competition in 2019.

Maiker Feliz
6´0´´
195 pounds
Bats: Right
Age: 21
SSS rank among all third basemen in the system: 6

If it seems like Feliz has been in the White Sox organization forever, you’re not far off. The White Sox signed the Bani, D.R. native to a $450,000 signing bonus in 2013, the same year they signed outfielder Micker Adolfo to an even heftier $1.6 million.

While Adolfo finds himself in Birmingham this year, Feliz still finds himself lagging in the rookie leagues. While he hasn’t done enough to stand out to date, Feliz has shown enough flashes to still be interesting. In his five-year minor league career, he’s slashed .252/.353/.327, with a combined six homers, 92 RBIs, 100 walks and 182 strikeouts in 706 at-bats. Feliz looks bigger than his listed 195 pounds, so it’s a bit surprising he’s hit so few home runs. His mediocre production could be partly a result of sharing time with other young prospects; however, at 21, he’ll need to start producing fairly soon, as he’s not far from the league-average age in Great Falls.

In 2018 with Great Falls, Feliz hit .240/.310/.333, with two homers, 14 RBIs, 12 walks (8.5%) and 35 strikeouts (24.7%) over 129 at-bats. He’s spent the vast majority of his time defensively at third base, and has suffered difficulties there: In 179 career games at the hot corner, he’s committed 62 errors. This past season, Feliz made 11 errors in 29 games. Barring the White Sox drafting third basemen in the 2019 draft, he could be competing against utility men like Micah Coffey, Jimmy Galusky and Travis Moniot for playing time. If Feliz is unsuccessful, it may be an even longer journey for him to win his long-awaited promotion.