He’s mastered Double-A. Triple-A has proven something altogether different
Tyler Neslony
Left Fielder
5´11´´
210 pounds
Age: 30
2023 SSS Top Prospect Ranking 49
2022 SSS Top Prospect Ranking 43
2023 High Level Charlotte (AAA)
Age relative to high level +2.7 years
SSS rank among all left fielders in the system 6
Overall 2023 season stats 97 games ⚾️ 13 HR ⚾️ 40 RBI ⚾️ .239/.343/.399 ⚾️ 21-of-27 (77.8%) SB ⚾️ 53 BB ⚾️ 96 K
Tyler Neslony, after a solid senior campaign with Texas Tech in 2016 where he slashed .307/.400/.537, was selected in the ninth round by the Atlanta Braves. After receiving a mere $8,000 signing bonus because he lacked leverage as a fourth-year senior, Neslony concluded that year’s minor league season with Single-A Rome.
The 2017 season saw Neslony provide his best full season in the Braves system, as he slashed a combined .263/.342/.363 with 21 doubles and five homers for the High-A Florida Fire Dogs and Double-A Mississippi Braves. He returned to Mississippi for 2018 where he slashed .244/.297/.333 in 125 games; that year, he established career highs in hits (110), doubles (24), and RBIs (48), and was named a Southern League All-Star.
Neslony got off to a great start in 2019 with Mississippi, but his year was hampered due to two long stints on the injured list due to a strained oblique. In 58 games that year, he slashed .292/.369/.458 with five homers, 21 walks (9.7%), 43 strikeouts (19.8%) and 140 wRC+. After the pandemic cancelled the 2020 season, Neslony got off to a terrible start in 2021 on yet another return to Mississippi; he slashed just .164/.250/.255 in 63 plate appearances. Then, on July 11, he was traded to the White Sox for cash considerations.
Being mired in a deep Braves farm system, Neslony seemed stuck in neutral. Freed from those chains, he seemingly turned his career around overnight. In 38 games for the Birmingham Barons spanning 138 at-bats, all Neslony did was slash .355/.444/.678 with 16 doubles, seven homers, 28 RBIs, 19 walks, 31 strikeouts and a whopping 203 wRC+! This while playing half of his games in the cavernous confines of Regions Field.
AD
Skeptics would say that Neslony played against competition 2.5 years younger, and they’d be right. But perhaps a clean slate and a change of uniforms may have been all that was needed to reignite his career.
As an “old” prospect, however, Neslony is always going to be last in line for advancement. This proved true when the White Sox returned him to Birmingham to start 2022. Despite killing Double-A once again (.982 OPS in 64 games, sheesh, Oscar Colás thought he had cause to complain …) Neslony wasn’t promoted to Triple-A (making it for the first time, at age 28) until the All-Star break. Neslony only had one healthy month in Charlotte and got off to an utterly dreadful start with the Knights. However, he bounced back for a relatively-successful .689 OPS over 27 games.
And if 2022 was rough for Neslony in a waiting-game way, 2023 was just plain rough. He started in Birmingham, again, and didn’t move the needle whatsoever. He received a courtesy call-up to Charlotte at the end of June, and struggled there as well. All indications are that Neslony is a Double-A MVP who has hit a brick wall moving up to Triple-A.
Neslony’s Baseball Cube player ratings
Power 75 (-2 from 2022)
XBH 73 (-2)
Hitting 72 (-6)
RBIs 62 (-7)
Durability 63 (+2)
Contact 62 (-3)
Speed 52 (+6)
Runs 54 (+9)
Team Winning Percentage .511
Between the impact Neslony made in the White Sox system in 2021-22 and the fact that there are so few prospects of measure in the system, Neslony earns a spot in our Top 100 by the back of his baseball card alone. However, all indications are he’s hit his ceiling, somewhere on the road between Birmingham and Charlotte.
2024 South Side Sox Top 100 White Sox Prospects
95. Tyler Neslony, LF
96. Drew Dalquist, RHSP
97. Jason Matthews, SS
98. Jonathan Stiever, RHSP
99. Tommy Sommer, LHSP
100. Daniel González, LHRP