In the end, Scott Kingery did not turn out to be a more talented Dustin Pedroia.
During the spring of 2018, though, the hype surrounding the Phillies’ young second baseman/super utility man was off the charts. Scotty Jetpax was a universal top-35 prospect in all of baseball, Kingery was unstoppable in spring training, hitting .411/.441/.786 with 5 HRs and a team-best 23 hits, 8 more than anyone else.
The hype was so great that, in a now-deleted Buster Olney tweet, he quoted a rival talent evaluator as saying Kingery was like the Red Sox’ star second baseman “only more talented.