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Colt Keith, 2B, Tigers: In his first month and a half in the majors, Keith was one of the worst hitters in the major leagues. Keith was so bad in that stretch that his overall numbers don’t seem to reflect it, but from May 17, the day he homered twice, he’s actually been a very solid contributor in the Tigers’ lineup. Keith extended his hitting streak to five games with a two-hit day on Sunday. Since May 17, he’s hitting .301/.355/.490. Overall he’s hitting .244/.291/.363.

Heston Kjerstad, OF, Orioles: Kjerstad’s third callup to the majors is going much better than the first two. Kjerstad had a brief callup in 2023, and he played infrequently in a seven-game stint earlier this year. But given regular playing time since being recalled on June 24, Kjerstad has hit .367/.431/.733 over 10 games in this third try at the majors. He hit his third home run of the MLB season on Sunday. Kjerstad also hit 16 homers in just 56 games at Triple-A Norfolk this season.

Drake Baldwin, C, Braves: The Braves depth of position player prospects is thin, but the two bright spots this year have been the play of infielder Nacho Alvarez and Baldwin. Both have earned promotions to Triple-A, and both have hit quite well in the International League. Baldwin homered for a second straight game on Sunday, hitting his ninth home run overall this year. He’s hitting .264/.351/.390 overall and .310/.431/.512 since he was promoted to Triple-A.

Tre’ Morgan, 1B/OF, Rays: Morgan went 4-for-5 with a double on Saturday for High-A Bowling Green, raising his batting average to .354. That’s notable because it edged him one point ahead of fellow Rays prospect Chandler Simpson for the MiLB lead in batting average. Morgan is now 8-for-9 over his past two games, having already put together five four-hit games this year.

Connor Norby, 2B, Orioles: It’s hard to map out a clear path for Norby to hit his way into the Baltimore lineup, but it’s also becoming more and more clear that the second baseman/left fielder has figured out Triple-A. Norby hit a pair of home runs off Durham starter Mason Montgomery on Saturday, his 13th and 14th of the season. Norby has now hit 39 home runs in Triple-A in 218 games over three different seasons. He’s a .294/.367/.504 hitter in Triple-A over those 218 games, and he’s hitting .292/.378/.517 this year for Norfolk.

Jacob Wilson, SS, Athletics: When Wilson came off the injured list in late June, he was hitting .375 for Triple-A Las Vegas. Nine games later, he’s hitting .446. Wilson went 4-for-5 on Saturday with a pair of doubles. It was his second four-hit game of the past two weeks and he’s hit safely in all nine games since he returned. But that doesn’t explain how exceptional Wilson has been. In those nine games, Wilson had 20 hits, five doubles and four home runs. He struck out once. But even that doesn’t explain it. While getting 20 hits and nine extra-base hits, Wilson had only swung and missed three times in 45 plate appearances. Carson Seymour got Wilson to swing and miss on a sinker in Wilson’s first at-bat of his second game back. Carson Whisenhunt fooled him with a changeup on June 30. River Ryan got a swinging strike on a first-pitch cutter on July 3. That’s the entirety of Wilson’s swings-and-misses through nine incredibly productive games.

The Prospect Wire updated throughout the holiday weekend. Check out the latest on Jackson Jobe, Leodalis De Vries and others. 

Want to get ahead? Each day we’ll surface one prospect from recent Baseball America coverage who could be on the rise.

Baseball America Helium Pick Of The Day

Jancel Villarroel, C, Astros: Prior to the season, Geoff Pontes identified the then 18-year-old Villarroel as a prospect with outstanding exit velocities for his age. Well, in 2024 the teenager has seen his 90th percentile exit velocity rise to 106 mph and set a new top max exit velocity in the process. The Astros target a certain archetype of hitter, as RoboScout explains this week, and Villarroel fits the bill. He’s one of more than a dozen standouts in this week’s installment of RoboScout.