Top IFA Breakout Is FINALLY Happening in Tampa
- Anashe Mapuranga
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
When the Yankees signed Brando Mayea as their top IFA prospect for $4.3M in the 2023 signing period, many expected great things from the Cuban native. However, injuries and inconsistent play has seen the young outfielder fail to capture his full potential. While Mayea hit for average, ran high OBP numbers and put up a .769 OPS over his first three pro seasons, inconsistent power led to him slugging under .400 overall with a .110 ISO over that span.
After spending those three years in rookie ball, Mayea finally got a taste of affiliated ball in his age 20 season, where through the first half of the season his play left a lot to be desired. However, Mayea has transformed into a different player in the second half of the season, seeing noticeable improvements in power, swing decisions and hit.
Through the first half of the season Mayea, slashed .227/.316/.303 for a .619 OPS with 2 HR through 48 games in Tampa. While he showcased very good power metrics, often hitting the ball hard and barreling it well, the primary issues for his struggles at the plate stemmed from his swing decisions.
The righty batter displayed below average plate discipline, often swinging at pitches out of the zone, while not swinging enough in the zone to combat this, a sign of struggles with pitch recognition, also highlighted by a low walk rate. On top of this, Mayea’s bat to ball ability exhibited someone who often wasn’t making a ton of contact within the zone, swinging and missing a lot and registering a high strikeout rate.
When the second half rolled around however, not only did we see Mayea’s offensive numbers skyrocket, we saw the under the hood numbers make a significant leap across the board. In the 22 games he’s played, Mayea is slashing .367/.419/.608 for a 1.026 OPS. 6 of his 8 HR on the season have come in these games and he’s had an ISO of .241, after a very underwhelming .076 ISO in the first half.
As illustrated above, Mayea improved upon his power metrics from the first half, most notably nearly doubling his barrel rate. This has allowed his power to play up even more and for him to get more opportunity for extra bases taking advantage of the power he already displays.
Next, has been improvement in swing decisions. While the decrease in chase rate may only be by about 4%, a noteworthy improvement, the biggest point of emphasis has been in his z-swing. The Cuban outfielder has now become an aggressive swinger when he gets a pitch within the strike zone and he’s punished pitchers greatly for it. Finally, has been the bat to ball ability; previously having been his most notable weakness, Mayea has been above average now in making contact within the zone, while improving the whiffs to a slightly below average rate and dropping his K% by nearly 5%.
Mayea has been on an absolute tear since August started, where he’s slashing .432/500/.703 for a 1.203 OPS and 3 HR with a .271 ISO in 11 games.
He’s maximizing his power to the best of his ability, barreling over 15%, hitting it hard over 50% of the time, while displaying ideal launch angles for that hard contact. And he’s shown remarkable plate discipline in the process, continuing his aggressive swinging within the strike zone, but showing significant improvement at recognizing pitches that are out of the strike zone, with a chase rate below 21%. The eye he’s shown has allowed him to optimize his best swings for hittable pitches within the zone, as he’s showing he won’t allow himself to be beat by pitches outside of it.
There is a long way for Mayea to go to recapture the top prospect many hoped for when he signed. While this hot 2nd half won’t itself make up for all the lost time, it has put Mayea in a very interesting position for the 2027 campaign. If he can continue this, he will end up back in top 30 lists, if not higher.
Every Prospect. Every Level. Every Day.
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