IL St. Paul Saints

Anthony Prato's Massive Week Earns him International League Player of the Week

Published on July 31, 2023 under International League (IL)
St. Paul Saints News Release


ST. PAUL, MN - Since being promoted to Triple-A on June 10, Anthony Prato hasn't stopped hitting. He was finally recognized for the incredible numbers he continues to pile up by being named the International League Player of the Week for the week of July 25-30. Prato becomes the third Saints player this season to receive the honor joining Matt Wallner and Chris Williams.

Prato hit .550 (11-20) with six doubles, one home run, six RBI, and seven runs scored across six games against the Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit Tigers). Not only did he collect 11 hits, but he drew nine walks including a career-tying high four on July 28. Prato had a ridiculous .690 on base percentage, a 1.000 slugging percentage for a 1.690 OPS. He collected multi-hit games in five of six, doubled in four of six, including doubling twice in two games, and reached base safely in all six games.

Since joining the Saints on June 10, Prato is hitting .345 with seven home runs and 31 RBI in 37 games. He's scored 33 runs, smacked 16 doubles, walked 28 times while only striking out 28 times, swiping eight bases in 10 tries. He's reaching base nearly 50% of the time with a .487 OPS, a .664 slugging percentage for a 1.151 OPS. Since his call up, Prato leads the International League in doubles, tied for first in extra base hits (23), second in OBP, third in slugging, and OPS, fifth in walks, sixth in runs, and 10th in average.

The 25-year-old Prato was a seventh-round pick by the Minnesota Twins in 2019 out of the University of Connecticut. He hit .268 with two home runs and 18 RBI in 47 games in 2019, 45 with the Rookie Elizabethton Twins and two with Single-A Cedar Rapids.

In 2021, Prato played another 47 games split between the GCL Twins (five), Single-A Fort Myers (28), and High-A Cedar Rapids (14) hitting .260 with 10 RBI.

Last season Prato put up an impressive season between High-A Cedar Rapids (45 games) and Double-A Wichita (87 games) hitting .285 with 10 home runs and 64 RBI in 132 games. He scored 97 runs, had 30 doubles, eight triples, stole 22 bases in 28 attempts with a slash line of .285/.383/.444.

This season at Wichita he was hitting .171 with two homers and 15 RBI in 43 games.

Prato is the fifth player in franchise history to win International League Player of the Week, joining Drew Maggi (June 28-July 4, 2021), Alex Kirilloff (May 30-June 5, 2022) Wallner (May 30-June 4, 2023), and Chris Williams (June 13-18) as the only other players to win the award.

Check out the St. Paul Saints Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



International League Stories from July 31, 2023


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central