O's Frederick Bencosme on signing with club, his big 2022 season and more

In an organization loaded with shortstop prospects – with Gunnar Henderson having signed as a shortstop and others like Joey Ortiz and Jordan Westburg and last year’s overall No. 1 pick Jackson Holliday in the pipeline – a young kid from the Dominican Republic can get overlooked.

But with a smooth-looking left-handed swing that is now producing some impressive stats, and a solid glove, we should not discount Frederick Bencosme from Moca, Dominican Republic.

Bencosme, 20, who could begin this year as starting shortstop at High-A Aberdeen, was indeed a bit overlooked before the Orioles signed him for just $10,000 on Aug. 14, 2020.

But he has put together a batting line of .311/.376/.425/.801 in two seasons on the O’s farm. He played 44 games in the Dominican Summer League in 2021 and 73 last year with two in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League, 59 for low Single-A Delmarva and 12 to end his year with Aberdeen.

Bencosme said he has gained a lot in two years on the Baltimore farm.

“I think I have grown a lot,” he told me in a recent interview with interpreting help from Brandon Quinones. “I’ve gained a lot of discipline and just experience. No longer go up to hit without a plan. Now it’s about going up with a plan, with an approach and knowing what to expect.”

For a low dollar signing, he is producing big results, which is not completely unprecedented on the international market.

“I had a lot of discussions with different teams,” he said of signing with the Orioles. “I just kept working hard, but other teams just liked other guys. So, I kept working until the opportunity came along for me. My agent texted me and said you should sign with the Orioles. Just a matter of waiting for things to work out. I knew I wanted to go professional as soon as possible. I was ready to go when they called us.”

So that led him to pro ball and ended several years where he had worked to get better as a player with the help of his youth coaches Melvin Gomez and Carlos Jimenez in the D.R.

“Started (really pursuing baseball) about when I was 13. The DR is different. We can sign a little bit young, and I realized at 12 or 13, this is a business, not just a sport. So, it was around then. I had played Little League and later my coach saw me and said, ‘I want that kid.’ He saw something in me. He told me it was time to get ready to play professionally.”

His first go-round at full-season ball went great last season in that 59-game run with Delmarva. For the Shorebirds he hit .336/.410/.432/.842 while playing a solid shortstop. He hit just .154 in the final weeks of the year with Aberdeen but added a three-hit game in the playoffs for the IronBirds.

“Since I was very young people always told me I have a nice swing," said Bencosme last week from Sarasota. "They said ‘That swing you have; it could take you to the next level. So always had a nice swing since I was very young and coach Jimenez helped me take that to the next level and perfect my swing and to get it to where it is now. So, it was a matter of just putting in the daily reps and working at my craft.”

Among O’s minor league players with 250 or more at-bats last season, his .311 batting average topped them all with Heston Kjerstad second at .309 and Henderson at .297.

“It was a really good year for me, getting to play in Delmarva. I had hoped going into 2022 to play half my games in Florida and I left that in God’s hands and wound up only playing two games there (June 6 and 7 in the FCL) before they sent me to Delmarva (on June 9). It was interesting how that worked out. Great to have the opportunity to play there. It’s the same baseball everywhere and I took that approach there.”

Bencosme is ranked as the organization’s No. 15 prospect by FanGraphs.com, No. 22 via MLBPipeline.com and No. 29 by Baseball America. MLBPipeline gives him 50 grades for hit tool, running, fielding and arm strength. He gets a kind of low 35 tool grade for power, but after a winter of getting stronger, the Orioles can foresee more pop coming with his bat. He has hit five homers in 117 career games.

Bencosme said he was thankful to have had so many good coaches on the Baltimore farm and noted his 2022 Delmarva manager Felipe Rojas Alou Jr. for his help along with citing Elvis Morel, Miguel Jabalera, Anthony Villa and Jeff Kunkel for their tutelage too.

He posted via Twitter recently a tweet showing him hitting and driving a ball that simply read “80% mental, 20% physical.”

“Where that comes from is that the physical side is always going to be there. Now you need your mental game to carry you the rest of the way. The mental preparation is really important and helps the physical aspect of the game and helps that succeed. I felt like it’s real important to prepare on the mental aspect and sometimes with my hitting, I envision myself getting the hit before it actually happens. If I prepare myself in a good way, I know the physical results will follow,” he said.

During our interview, Bencosme discussed the adjustments a young Dominican kid has to make when coming to the United States. He had traveled here a few times for baseball as a younger player, but last year he said was the most time he had spent in the country.

“The biggest adjustment is No. 1, being away from family and how much you miss them when you are not with them,” he said. “That was a challenge for sure. But thankfully this year with the help of the Orioles, it looks like my family may be getting some Visas to come with me to the United States and be with me this year and that will be great. And then another challenge is you have to adapt to a new culture. But I have a good understanding of English and I have been able to get by here and there. And also, it’s been cool to help out my teammates and other guys that don’t speak English well and have been able to translate and help them through that adjustment.”

Even during a phone interview where he spoke two languages, it was easy to hear and tell that Bencosme has an engaging personality and is excited to keep moving up in the game. Now he is doing just that. He’s getting top 30 recognition and he was our No. 2 ranked O’s international prospect.

“It is definitely one of the goals I had for myself going into last year. To accomplish that (top 30) feels great and it’s exciting to be part of this big Orioles farm system. That is why Matt Blood (O’s director of player development) calls me ‘big goals’ because that is a big goal that I had for myself. It is really exciting to be part of that group.”

For more Bencosme see two of his tweets here and here.