Francisco Mejia Stayed Focused Despite Distractions

Best Player: It wasn’t just Francisco Mejia’s historic 50-game hitting streak—the longest since the minor leagues were reorganized in 1963—that was most noteworthy about the 20-year-old catcher’s season. It’s what he overcame to achieve the streak. He began the streak as a repeater at low Class A Lake County, then in the middle of it got promoted to high Class A Lynchburg. He missed some games during the streak due to injury, and he came close to being traded to Milwaukee in the middle of the streak.

When Jonathan Lucroy nixed that trade with his no-trade clause, Mejia, who was part of the agreed-upon package of prospects going from Cleveland to Milwaukee, stayed in the Indians’ system, and just kept hitting.

Mejia finished the year with combined numbers at Lake County and Lynchburg of a .342/.382/.514 with 11 homers, 80 RBIs and a .896 OPS.

“Francisco had a choice this year, either get frustrated that he was repeating the Midwest League and leave his development up to chance, or take advantage of the mental challenge and turn his game up another notch. Luckily he did the latter and the rest is history,” Indians farm director Carter Hawkins said. “The hit streak was merely a by-product of the work and focus he showed throughout the season.”

Best Pitcher: Triston McKenzie’s frame is thin, but his credentials are not. At 18, in his first full season as a professional, the 6-foot-5, 165-pound righty was pitching just as well at Lake County as he did at short-season Mahoning Valley earlier in the year.

After recording an 0.55 ERA in nine starts at Mahoning Valley McKenzie was moved to Lake County, and more than met the challenge of facing Midwest League hitters. In a combined 15 starts at two levels McKenzie was 6-5, 1.62. In 83.1 innings he had 104 strikeouts and 22 walks. His poise and maturity also drew notice. He could be a quick mover through the Indians’ organization.

Keep An Eye On: An 11th-round pick this year out of UC Santa Barbara, outfielder Andrew Calica had very little trouble adjusting to professional pitching. In 139 at-bats through 40 games at Mahoning Valley he had a .388/.491/.568 slash line, with as many walks (16) as strikeouts, plus 14 stolen bases. Promoted to Lake County for 10 games, Calica hit .359/.405/.513.