Smith among prospects who had best second-half turnarounds

Baseball, as it has often been said, is a game of adjustments. Players who can make those adjustments — within a season, a game, even an at-bat — are those who succeed for a long time.

All players struggle at some point in their career. It’s how they get out of those tough times that can truly make a player. That’s especially true for young prospects trying to make their way to the big leagues. Talk to most big leaguers and they’ll point to a time that they slumped while coming up as a period of important growth and learning.

This 2016 season has been no different. There’s still playoff baseball being played in the Minor Leagues, but for the vast majority of prospects, the year has come to an end. There are many who started the season poorly, but turned it around in the second half to enter the offseason on a relatively high note.

Whether that breeds confidence heading into 2017 remains to be seen. But these hitters and pitchers all experienced second-half turnarounds they, and their organizations, should be proud of.

Hitters

Rafael Devers, 3B (Red Sox’s No. 3 prospect)1st half: .233/.300/.3352nd half: .331/371/.555

Playing all year in the Carolina League at age 19, Devers began by hitting .138 with a .504 OPS in April. It got better in May, when he hit .248 with a .652 OPS, but he really got it going in June (.313 AVG with a .738 OPS). A 1.078 OPS in July, followed by a .845 OPS August capped off the year as Devers hit seven of his 11 home runs and drove in 40 runs in those two months. He ended up in the Carolina Leauge’s top 10 for both RBIs and SLG.

Isan Diaz, SS/2B (Brewers’ No. 10 prospect)1st half: .232/.309/.3702nd half: .296/.404/.569

Like Devers, …

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