Outfielder Jarren Duran is batting .378 with 12 stolen bases in 27 games with Class A Salem this spring. Duran was a seventh-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox last year. John Wacher
For 67 games, from 2006 into 2007, Jacoby Ellsbury wowed them at Hadlock Field. The Red Sox first-round draft pick in 2005, Ellsbury was a gazelle, flying around the bases and all over center field.
When Jarren Duran eventually gets from advanced Class A Salem to Double-A Portland, you’re going to say, “he reminds me of …”
Barring injury or a huge slump, Duran should be joining the Sea Dogs by summer — just like Ellsbury did his first full pro season.
Other similarities: Both are lean outfielders (Ellsbury 6-1, 195; Duran 6-2, 200), from the West coast (Ellsbury attended Oregon State, Duran Cal State-Long Beach) and both were 21 when drafted.
And, like Ellsbury, Duran can motor.
“He goes from first to third like no other,” Salem manager Corey Wimberly said.
Duran has heard the Ellsbury comparisons before. But, he said, there is one big difference.
“He’s made the majors and I haven’t,” Duran said by phone last week.
Duran takes nothing for granted and, considering his .378 average in Salem, he appears to keep improving.
After being drafted in the seventh round last year, Duran was sent to the short-season Lowell team where he batted .348 — with 10 triples in 37 games. Promoted Aug. 1 to low Class A Greenville, he hit .367. Now he’s raking in Salem — .939 OPS with five doubles, three triples and a homer. He’s stolen 12 bases in 15 attempts.
“He has tremendous bat-to-ball skills. And he’s a plus-plus runner,” said Wimberly, who also managed Duran in Lowell.
“Mix that with an outstanding work ethic, and that’s what makes him so successful. The kid works so hard. He wants it.”
Mention his statistics to Duran and you can almost hear the shrug over the phone.
“Just enjoying it right now and having fun,” Duran said. “When you start thinking about it, you put extra pressure on yourself.”
The fielding is coming along, considering Duran was a second baseman in college. Boston was not going to waste that speed in the infield.
“(The Red Sox) told me if they drafted me, I was going to switch (to the outfield) and asked if I would mind that,” Duran said. “I said I’d do anything to put me in the lineup.”
Wimberly said Duran’s “routes are getting better. He’s working on his footwork.”
Duran’s offense is what will have him boarding a plane to Portland. He has a career .363 average/.918 OPS in 94 games.
“His mindset separates him,” said Salem hitting coach Lance Zawadzki, who also was in Lowell last year. “Every time he’s up there, it becomes personal, between him and the pitcher. He’s out there to win every at-bat. He goes about his work like a professional, knows what type of hitter he is, and is always playing into his strengths as a hitter.
“It’s fun to watch, night in and night out.”
ALSO HITTING in Salem is shortstop Ryan Fitzgerald. Undrafted and signed out of the independent leagues last year, Fitzgerald, 24, is hitting .352/.905 OPS. … Outfielder Victor Acosta, in his third season in Salem, is hitting .346/.814 OPS.
Salem Ace Bryan Mata, just turned 20, looked to have his command problems behind him with seven walks in his first five starts. But in his sixth start, he walked four in 3 2/3 innings. Still, Mata sports a 2.15 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 29 1/3 innings. … Fellow starter Kutter Crawford, a 16th-round pick out of Florida Gulf Coast University in 2017, has a 2.60 ERA with 34 strikeouts/11 walks in 27 2/3 innings.
IN GREENVILLE, right-handed starter Thad Ward is a longtime Red Sox fan, watching Boston every spring in his hometown of Fort Myers, Florida. He once served as bat boy, in 2007.
“There was a Pedroia, Lowell, Varitek, Manny, Ortiz, Youkilis, Beckett,” Ward said, rattling off the players he stood next to. Now he is in the Red Sox system, a fifth-round draft pick last year out of the University of Central Florida. Ward has a 3.60 ERA, with 37 strikeouts in 30 innings.
IN PAWTUCKET, former Sea Dogs starter Mike Shawaryn is adjusting to Triple-A with a 2.72 ERA. In his last start, he threw eight shutout innings. With Boston’s starting depth shrinking, Shawaryn could get a call.
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