Tampa Bay Rays farmhand Kean Wong didn’t win any MVP awards or make an all-star team, but he’s still a rising star in the organization’s eyes.
The second baseman and 2013 Waiakea graduate batted .274 with a .319 on-base percentage and a .652 OPS in Advanced A ball for the Charlotte Stone Crabs.
“My season was good. I learned a lot, how pitchers pitch differently,” he said. “I really had to dial in to hit my pitch.
“I try to get my pitch and drive the ball. I try to keep my swing level, and hit to all fields. I’m not a power hitter. I’m a guy who gets on base. When I get my pitch, I drive it up the middle.”
Charlotte captured the Florida State League championship, and after the season Wong was handed a lofty promotion to the Arizona Fall League.
The AFL is considered a finishing school for top prospects. His brother Kolten Wong, the St. Louis Cardinals second baseman, played in the AFL in 2012, then went to Triple-A and made his big league debut in 2013.
Like his older brother, Wong, 20, has jumped a level after every season. The Rays have scheduled him for Double-A next year with the Montgomery Biscuits in the Southern League.
For the first time since he could swing a bat, Wong is not working out every day.
He hurt his right wrist during a check swing, missed a week and a half, but toughed it out during the playoffs.
Wong is wearing a brace and rehabbing his wrist. He’s not expected to pick up a bat until December, when he’ll go back to work at his dad Kaha Wong’s hitting cage on Railroad Avenue.
“I’m not hitting at all. I can’t hit until December,” Wong said. “I’m just relaxing, fishing, but I’m still keeping in shape.
“It feels weird. I wake up and want to hit. I feel I should be up and getting my swing right.”
Head of class
Wong acknowledged the obvious that the pitchers in Advanced A were more efficient than Low-A ball.
He didn’t have an ideal on-base rate, but he had 65 strikeouts against 29 walks, a 2.24-to-1 ratio, which suggests he wasn’t overmatched.
Here’s something to think about that Tampa Bay’s evaluators already know: performance reveals talent, and where a player is drafted doesn’t matter once he plays ball.
Wong is ranked as the farm system’s 30th prospect, according to mlb.com. Nick Ciuffo, a prep catcher from South Carolina drafted in the first round in 2013, is No. 20.
In his first full season at Single-A Bowling Green, Ciuffo batted .258 with a mediocre .595 OPS, and had 55 strikeouts and seven walks, an ugly 7.86-to-1 ratio.
Wong tore up Bowling Green last year, when he batted .306 with a .717 OPS. He was named to the Midwest League All-Star Classic, despite being two years younger than most of the league.
His 2013 prep draft classmates ahead of him, second-round infielder Riley Unroe and third-round outfielder Thomas Milone, also made their full-season debuts at Bowling Green.
Unroe and Milone each had worse stats than Ciuffo. Neither is ranked on mlb.com’s Top 30 Rays prospect list. The three are all good buddies with Wong, especially Unroe, a spring training roommate.
The only second baseman ahead of Wong on the mlb.com Rays list is Ryan Brett at No. 9. He batted .247 with a .288 on-base clip at Triple-A Durham.
Brett, a prep third-round pick in 2010 out of Seattle, wasn’t invited to play in the AFL. However, he was called up and has played three games for the Rays.
Christmas present
Next to the Oakland A’s, the Tampa Bay Rays are probably the best organization for a farmhand to advance because of their low-revenue status and big league roster turnover. That’s largely due to an untenable home stadium, Tropicana Field, which draws a lot of empty seats.
Wong may not be highly ranked like his brother was or his draft classmates, but he has good standing in the organization.
That’s based on his track record. Last year, he went to instructional league, not to play games, but to brush up on his defense.
This year, he was chosen to represent the Rays in the AFL, an honor of the highest order on the minor league ladder.
It would have been an intriguing challenge for Wong, coming out of Advanced A ball and facing pitchers one inch from the majors.
“After the season, they pulled me into the office and told me I wouldn’t go to instructs. I was supposed to go to the Arizona Fall League,” Wong said. “They told me I couldn’t go. I was kind of bummed. I said, ‘I can still go.’ They said, ‘No,’ and sent me home to rest.
“They liked the way I worked and how I work with my dad. They like my swing and the way my dad teaches me and Kolten. What benefits me is when I go home and work on the same things again.”
Wong and his brother Kolten have followed a family tradition to work out every day, including their birthdays and Christmas.
The theory is that the competition may be resting, and it’s a chance to gain a step, and get better. That’s why Wong will be looking forward to December, not to open presents on Christmas, but the opportunity to get back to work.
“When you put up good seasons, they move you up. Winning a championship looks good under your name,” Wong said. “My dad pushes me and Kolten. He doesn’t want to let anybody beat us. He’s getting us ready for all this. That’s what has made me and Kolten who we are today.”
