On Friday, Dodgers’ outfield prospect Mike Sirota saw his quest for the Minor League Baseball record for consecutive games on base end at 72 games. That put him two shy of the record, set by infielder Andrew Velazquez back in 2014 when he was in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, playing at Single-A South Bend. The major league record is 84 games, set by Red Sox’s outfielder and Hall of Famer, Ted Williams, back in 1949
Fittingly for a prospect who has flown up prospect rankings like Sirota has, he put together a productive outing on Friday, despite not getting on base. The outfielder went 0-for-4, but drove in one run on a fielder’s choice and another run on a sacrifice fly. On the season, Sirota is hitting .314/.468/.554 with 14 home runs, 73 runs scored, 50 RBI, and 11 steals in 78 games split between High-A and Double-A.
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Like Sirota, Velazquez was just in his second full professional season at the time he set the record. However, unlike Velazquez, Sirota was a high draft pick and is one of the top prospects in baseball. The Dodgers’ outfield was the 87th overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft and is currently ranked as the 11th-best prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, which earned him an invite to this year’s Futures Game in Philadelphia during the All-Star break.
“It’s an honor,” said Sirota about being part of the game, in which he went 0-for-1 in just one at-bat. “I’m just extremely excited, trying to take it all in. You know, meeting a bunch of new guys, talking baseball with a bunch of new guys.”
Sirota also went into that game sitting on a 72-game on-base streak. He had to wait five days before he had a chance to see if he could wind up alone atop the leaderboard, but his first game back from the break saw the streak snapped. Even during the streak, it was an experience he was dealing with mostly on his own: “I don’t think people want to talk about it much,” he responded when asked if anybody from within the organization had reached out about tying the record.
Sirota himself barely knew there was anything to talk about until recently.
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“I wasn’t even aware of it until about 40 or 50 games in,” he admitted. “When I first heard about it, I kind of just brushed it off. I was just trying to play my game, but obviously, more recently, I’ve been thinking about it a little more.”
Not that the added attention from the record did anything to impact his play on the field. In June, Sirota hit .310/.477/.524 with four home runs, 14 RBI, 17 runs scored, and a 25/25 K/BB ratio. In eight games in July before the break, he went 9-for-31 (.290) with two home runs, 10 runs scored, and a 6/5 K/BB ratio. If anything, the 23-year-old thinks that closing in on the record actually helped his performance.
“I’m learning about myself from it,” he said before the Futures Game. “How to deal with this kind of stuff mentally. I’ve never had to deal with something like this before…Each at bat means a little more, I guess you could say. But meaning a little more could be a good thing. Obviously, with the extra added pressure to it, the extra adrenaline, I think it makes me better every time I go out there…Using it to take a little bit more adrenaline in each at bat, learning how to harness that, and use it to my advantage. It’s been great.”
This kind of success is certainly something the Dodgers envisioned when they aggressively pursued Sirota throughout his young career. Back in 2021, the Dodgers drafted Sirota in the 16th round of the MLB Draft. At the time, Sirota was a shortstop who decided to honor his commitment and attend Northeastern University. In 2024, he was drafted in the third round by the Reds, becoming the highest Northeastern draft pick ever.
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Yet, before Sirota could even make his pro debut, he was drafted. The Dodgers sought him out again and sent Gavin Lux to the Reds in exchange for Sirota and a Competitive Balance Round A Pick.
“Obviously, being wanted by an organization like the Dodgers just feels amazing,” smiled Sirota. “When I got there, they had a blueprint of what they wanted me to do. It was kind of just very personalized, with my swing and things like that, just a blueprint for me to look at and learn from. I just learned a lot from it… It’s just been great all around.”
Sirota immediately hit the ground running, batting .333/.452/.616 in 59 games between Single-A and High-A with 13 home runs and five steals. This season, Sirota seems to be going the other way less often and spraying line drives up the middle and to the pull side. He’s continued to be selective at the plate, swinging just 37% of the time, but making lots of contact and posting a walk rate (20.7%) that almost equals his strikeout rate (22.1%). While much of that success can be attributed to Sirota as a player, he also credits the lineup around him.
“I just have great hitters hitting behind me and in front of me in the lineups that we have at these affiliates,” he said, “so I was getting pitched to a little bit more selectively. I think it’s made me better, but a little bit more recently, I’m getting attacked a little more, so it’s unique, but it’s great.”
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The Dodgers’ lineup at Double-A Tulsa includes fellow top prospect outfielders Josue De Paula (4th overall, according to MLB Pipeline) and Zyhir Hope (19th overall prospect), as well as Kendall George, who is a top 15 prospect in the Dodgers’ organization.
That talent around him might also be why, at 23 years old, Sirota remains at Double-A, instead of at Triple-A or sniffing an MLB call-up.
The Dodgers’ Triple-A outfield features James Tibbs III, the 13th pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, who is hitting .289/.406/.553 with 21 home runs and 71 RBI in 87 games. It also has Ryan Ward, who has hit at least 34 home runs in each of the last two minor league seasons, and former MLB regulars Alek Thomas and Jack Suwinski. That makes it hard to see how Sirota can parlay this on-base streak into a quicker path to the big leagues. Not that that enters his mind at all.
“I don’t focus on [potential promotion]. I just try to go out there and do my best every day.”
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So far, that approach has made him better at getting on base than almost anybody in minor league baseball history. Even with the increased scrutiny and pressure to keep the streak going, Sirota wasn’t ready to put the streak in the rearview mirror. When asked if he thought there would be some weight off his shoulders when/if the streak ends, he said, “I’m gonna try and just keep going with it, honestly.”
Sadly, that quest ended on Friday. Yet, even without a record connected to his name, this 72-game journey may still be a stretch that propels Sirota’s career to the heights the Dodgers dreamed about when they tried to acquire him twice.
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