Red Sox promote Duran to Double-A

Jarren Duran bludgeoned Carolina League pitching over the first two months of the season. He'll test his bat next in the Eastern League. 
Boston's ninth-ranked prospect will carry his Minor League-leading .387 batting average from Class A Advanced Salem to Double-A Portland. He's set to make his Sea Dogs debut Tuesday against Richmond. 

Duran rapped out 77 hits in 199 at-bats with Salem, driving in 19 runs and stealing 18 bases in 23 attempts. The 22-year-old recorded 22 multi-hit games with four four-hit efforts and reached base in 43 of 50 games. He played all 50 games in center field.

The Long Beach State product smacked four homers, 13 doubles and three triples in Salem. His .998 OPS led the Carolina League, and he won the circuit's Player of the Week award for May 13-19. For most of 2019, Duran's average hovered above the .400 mark and reached .422 as late as May 24. 
"I think anytime you're hitting .420-plus for almost two months, it raises some eyebrows," Salem hitting coach Lance Zawadzki told MiLB.com. "But they do a great job here knowing the right time when a guy's ready to make a jump. The biggest jump in the Minors game speed is to Double-A. So he continues to work on what he needs to here and I'm sure it's only a matter of time when you're doing what he's done up to this point."
Duran's performance didn't materialize out of thin air. After the Red Sox selected him in the seventh round of last year's Draft, he batted .357/.394/.516 in 67 games between Class A Short Season Lowell and Class A Greenville with 28 extra-base hits (11 triples) and 35 RBIs. For his efforts, he was named a 2018 MiLB.com Organizational All-Star. 

That spurred his rise as the system's top-ranked outfield prospect, who possesses 70-grade speed and a 50-grade bat, according to MLB Pipeline. He played mostly second base during his college days, but over 424 innings in center field, the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder did not make an error in 107 chances and racked up five assists. 
"Day in, day out, I work on my approach," he told MiLB.com on May 14. "It's a challenge every day, every at-bat. I'm staying strong in my approach, not swinging at pitcher's pitches.
"I don't get caught up in the numbers. I don't want to be an 'I' guy. It's not about me, it's about the team."