espn top 100 baseball prospects

We've sorted the teams with the most star power under control through 2024. O'Hoppe delivered what many (including myself) thought would be a breakout 2022 season, hitting .275/.392/.496 with 15 homers in 75 games in Double-A for the Phillies before the trade. Henderson hit his 90th-percentile projection, crushing Double-A then crushing Triple-A then crushing the big leagues -- all at age 21. He might be more of a solid starter than a star and could debut in late 2023 or early 2024. 32 lingering post-draft questions: Will Lions have regrets? Last year, Cowser finished the season strong: He hit four homers in 62 games in High-A to start the year, then hit 15 more in the other 76 games, split across Double-A and Triple-A. Early in his pro career, his strikeout rates hovered near 30%, so there was some basis to those contact concerns, but Henderson also showed more patience and in-game power than most evaluators expected. 2023 Top 100 Prospects by Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin February 22, 2023 Prospect Week 2023 Updating the 2023 Draft Prospect Rankings Cardinals Like fellow two-way Mississippi prep player Austin Riley, position player was the right call and Keith hit the ground running at the plate with a solid year at High-A followed by an Arizona Fall League appearance at age 20. Hall, who just missed the cut but have already appeared in the majors. Salas has plus bat control, a decent approach and solid-average raw power along with a good enough glove to maybe stick at shortstop, though he might also slide over to second base. 1 overall pick as early as his sophomore year of high school in Southern California. He now sits at 94 to 98 with a plus run-and-ride to his heater, a plus-or-better-flashing hybrid 83 to 85 mph breaking ball and a changeup that's also above average at times. And there are other potential candidates including Jordan Westburg, Joseph Ortiz, Cade Povich, Connor Norby and Coby Mayo -- all of whom are on this top 100 -- along with Kyle Stowers and D.L. Alcantara is a superlative athlete with plus raw power, plus speed once he gets going and an above-average arm. Reminds me of: Kevin Gausman, but with a better breaking ball. He's also a switch-hitter and, unlike Oneil Cruz, De La Cruz has a skinnier build that allows him to actually play a big-league-caliber shortstop. Type: Maybe a catcher, with 30-homer upside. Tyler Freeman, 2B, Cleveland Guardians Even at just 19, Holliday has a chance to move quickly through the minors and up this list. It all adds up to arguably more upside at draft time than even Byron Buxton and almost any other prep hitter in recent memory. Like Francisco Alvarez above, Cartaya is a Venezuelan catcher, right at the top of the 2018 international signing class in bonus ($2.5 million) and prospect status -- and a reputation that came years before he even signed. Brown was a spring popup prospect at a Division II school going into the 2019 draft. Flores is on a path to go from a completely anonymous junior college pitcher to a top-100 prospect making his big league debut in a three-year span. Luis Matos, CF, San Francisco Giants Williams wasn't drafted in the shortened 2020 draft thanks to a combo of projected long-term injury concerns, relief risk and up-and-down performances at East Carolina that kept clubs from meeting his asking price. Free agency tracker . Hit: 45/60, Game Power: 50/60, Raw Power: 60/60, Speed: 50/50, Fielding: 45/50, Throwing: 55/55, Type: Above-average offense from a pretty good defensive shortstop, Reminds me of: Bo Bichette or Willy Adames. He is a plus runner and at least a plus defender in center field, with 15-20 homer upside and solid feel to hit, but he can get too aggressive at times, which would undermine his contact and power potential. MLB Type: One of the best amateur hitters in recent memory, with Jose Ramirez or Rafael Devers vibes. Harrison also does a very en vogue thing in pitching these days: He gets down the mound well, delivers from a low slot, and throws a fastball that isn't a heavy sinker like many low-slot fastballs are. To wit, two clubs that evaluate players in similar ways gave me wildly different feedback: One said he's probably not a catcher and to move him off the top 100, while another said he belonged in the top 30 spots. I mentioned above in the Termarr Johnson blurb that he and Collier were the two prep hitters in the Atlanta area and recognized by scouts as early as their freshman years for having high first-round potential. In that case, Baltimore could slowly ramp him up to have the option to use him at full bore down the stretch and (whispers) in the playoffs. The concern from scouts, some of whom thought Collier was a late-first-round talent because of this, is that he isn't that explosive, with below-average speed, just OK lateral mobility at third base, and solid-average raw power. In high school, Veen was a 6-4 athlete with plus speed, above-average arm strength and above-average power, but was expected to add significant bulk and move to right field (if not first base) while growing into what scouts projected would be plus-plus in power. The report On Mauricio has been about the same for four years: He has plus power potential, plus arm strength, slick actions at shortstop, and above average feel for the bat head, but swings far too often. Davis is most likely a first baseman if catching doesn't work out. In addition to talk that the Nats asked for Padres SS Jackson Merrill along with the package that ultimately landed Soto, there has been buzz that GM Mike Rizzo attempted to expand the deal to bring Painter (great pitcher name!) 13 overall in the 2021 draft out of a Florida high school. Ji-Hwan Bae, 2B, Pittsburgh Pirates As he dials in his launch angle and offensive approach, there's a shot he hits 30-plus homers. Rocchio doesn't come with sexy upside as he's 5-10 and his best selling points are plus contact skills, a solid approach and a steady glove at shortstop. High School Baseball Recruiting - Player Rankings - ESPN He's been a bit better than I expected out there and looks like he can be a solid-average defender in an outfield corner. Top 100 Prospects updated midseason rankings - MLB I expect these two to be ranked next to each other again next year and at this trajectory, they'll be fighting for the top spot on the list. Now -- prepare to be shocked -- he's improved a lot under the tutelage of the Dodgers' pitching development. Type: Glove-over-bat shortstop, but still a league-average hitter. Type: Rare hit/power upside from a teenager. He doesn't really use a changeup but more starters are now going multiple innings with two distinct breaking pitches, like Flores has. That said, Elly consistently hits the ball hard and can leg out infield hits, so I wouldn't just assume he's a locked-in .240 hitter against big league pitching, either. It helps his knockout, plus-plus changeup, which he throws almost as much as his heater, drew a 50% whiff rate last season across High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A. Standings. The second is "reminds me of." Reminds me of: A Giants low-slot lefty starter with above average stuff and command. The hesitation is that Jung showed an uncharacteristic aggression at the plate when he returned, walking under 4% in 49 Triple-A and MLB games last year after running close to 10% walk rates the rest of his career. He had a fantastic 2021 season punctuated by a legendary duel with Kumar Rocker in a Super Regional, where Williams went 7.1 innings with 13 strikeouts in a losing effort. Type: The biggest post-draft riser in baseball. Type: Mid-90s fastball with a plus-plus slider, recovering from Tommy John. He made his big league debut last summer and should get an extended low-pressure big league look on the rebuilding Nationals this year. He's also a really good player but further down that spectrum is Lewis Brinson, with both versions of Cody Bellinger somewhere between those two examples. The questions back then were his hit tool and pitch selection, because there was literally no data to consider against top pitching. De La Cruz has below-average pitch selection (a 35% chase rate in the minors last year while 33% is big league average, but that's against big league pitching) though young, superlative talents have proved this can improve a notch or two at the upper levels. He flashes four plus pitches, plus athleticism, and starter command pretty regularly now, but the quality of the total package and his feel for execution still come and go. His pitch selection is among the best in the minors -- let's call it plus-plus -- he has had all-field plus power and a swing geared to getting to it for years. The upside here is 55 or 60 hit, 60 pitch selection, 55 or 60 power and a fine defensive catcher. Type: Projection righty with frontline potential. There is a chance he's a 55-grade hitter with above-average pitch selection and 55 in-game power, average speed and average defense at second base, which is surprisingly similar to Gleyber Torres' 2022 season. Can street race king Perez challenge Verstappen for the title? Soon after that his velo was starting to climb, his secondary stuff was accordingly getting more crisp, and his command wasn't suffering. The Texans would jump at the chance to take Bryce Young If he does, he'll hit 30 homers, give us fun bat flips and nobody will care much that he's just OK defensively. Do we just comp them to a different player who would post a similar statline? Like Woods above, Walker was also a summer standout on the showcase circuit who swung and missed a bit while showing massive power. Type: Advanced hit/approach with enough power to profile everyday. At draft time, Painter offered a 6-7 frame with plus physical ability, starter command projection and four above average-to-plus pitches. As it stands, they traded one and kept one, and Merrill has the look of a future star. Youth. Type: If it all clicks, it looks like Max Scherzer. We've all been burned dreaming on a fireballing young prospect, but Espino is so fun to watch that he makes me want to believe he's one that will click. 2023 American League prospect rankings for every team - ESPN Also, Justin Verlander was sort of like this in the low minors -- and that's after spending three years in college. As a prep draft prospect in 2019, Volpe was seen as a skills-over-tools type with good makeup that was a likely big leaguer, but without big upside in large part because of the power ceiling due to his size (listed at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds.). Type: Late bloomer who is above average at everything on the mound. He followed that with an excellent summer and went ninth overall in the 2020 draft. Now imagine a homerun hitter with a natural uppercut to his swing. baseball This is a somewhat familiar song to prospect watchers; Nate Pearson was sort of like this a few years ago, Forrest Whitley before him, and so on. The comp thing starts to bother me here, because Holliday, Merrill, Montgomery, Mayer and Henderson, all in the top 18, are all advanced hit/power combos at shortstop without great big league comps (unless you squint at their size, and say maybe Corey Seager). He opted to go to a SoCal junior college so that he'd be eligible again in 2021. There have been questions about Wells' ability to stick behind the plate dating to high school, but he has made steady progress and now looks like an average defender -- though his arm is below average. The sales pitch today is the same as draft time in 2020: plus hit/approach/power and the feel to get to it in games. Hit: 60/65, Game Power: 40/45, Raw Power: 50/50, Speed: 50/50, Fielding: 50/55, Throwing: 60/60, Type: Well-rounded hit-over-power backstop, Reminds me of: The first two MLB seasons of J.T. Type: Premium hitter with enough other tools to be a strong everyday player. Brown's changeup and command are both fringy but fine, while his 95 to 98 mph heater, slider and curveball are all plus and his control is about average. He's generally seen around the industry as the headliner in the Luis Castillo trade, but that isn't unanimous with Noelvi Marte ranked just five slots later. Reminds me of: There isn't a perfect comp, but the best and most recent example is that huge 6.3 WAR season Brandon Crawford put up in 2021. Type: Plus athlete into the triple digits with a sky-high ceiling. 13 overall in last summer's draft. One exec summed up my conundrum thusly: "No one knows what to do with Chourio. There's still some relief risk and he may fit best in a five-and-dive starter or other hybrid role, but Brown's stuff is lively enough that he doesn't need fine command to get outs. Mayer has the choice to lean more into power or contact, but either way he will come with defensive value, like Yelich did in the outfield. He also now looks like he'll be an average defensive catcher with an average arm. Povich was an intriguing 6-3 college projection out of Nebraska in the 2021 draft when went to the Twins late in the third round. Which teams came out on top and who lost big? His fastball command is the main area for improvement, and he'll spend 2023 in the upper minors, where hitters are good enough to force him to improve. When I asked sources about Carter, everyone mentioned his excellent approach -- and, sure enough, per minor league TrackMan data, his chase rate (the rate at which he swings at pitches outside of the strike zone) is basically tied for best amongst everyone on this list. Type: Smaller-framed shortstop with sure bat and glove, sneaky power. Type: 6-3 athlete who has grown into above-average offensive force in the infield. He's also a solid-average runner and defender who is passable in center field in addition to having a plus arm. He leaned on his split-grip changeup more at Florida International, and the Guardians made him a second-round pick in 2020 due largely to his feel as a pitchability left-hander. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout of the Los Angeles 8 overall pick in the 2020 draft, going one pick before another prep outfielder from the southeast, Zac Veen (No. Williams was an intriguing 28th overall pick in the 2021 draft out of a SoCal high school. Other tools like throwing for position players or off-speed pitches are more based on visual evaluations, but there are some objective figures to round observations up or down. On the bright side, this is the part of hitting that clubs think is most coachable. While he's learned to tap into his power effectively, Peraza profiles around average as both a contact, approach and in-game power threat. White was a favorite of mine in the 2018 draft. That's an above-average everyday player, but probably not enough thump at the plate to be a star. Top 100 MLB prospects for 2023, according to Kiley Walker could hit 40-plus homers multiple times, but there are a couple subtle adjustments needed, as mentioned above. Here's who FOX Sports NFL Draft analyst Rob Rang ranks as the top 20 players On top of that, Alvarez has a real chance to be an everyday-quality defender behind the plate. The biggest reason the Padres are as good as they are is they don't need a ton of sterling scouting looks to identify and gamble on a potential star. He was preferred as a shortstop out of high school when he went 54th overall, but he was still raw at the plate. To give further context, I've also included some categories along with tool grades. Type: Lefty with above-average stuff and above-average command. Get the gang back together, or start a brand new tradition. Jake Eder, LHP, Miami Marlins That would become more of an issue in a robot ump future combined with the new rules that encourage more stolen bases, as throwing out runners is more important with more attempts and since framing wouldn't exist, catchers could sell out to block pitches. LIke the Braves just did on the NL side, the O's have a shot to sweep the AL ROY voting with Henderson and Rodriguez finishing 1-2. Mets 2022 draft pick Jett Williams joins MLB's Top 100 Prospect List Sports For the top tier of prospects, I present their tools as 45/60 meaning presently it's a 45 and projects to a 60 at maturity. Neto popped up in the 2021 fall as a potential late first-round pick and followed up with an excellent spring at Campbell en route to going No. Type: Late bloomer with above-average tools. WebStatcast Leaders Baseball Savant Top Prospect Stats. The Guardians took him 23rd overall, which was seen as a gamble at the time for the aforementioned reasons, but Williams was up to 101 mph with two plus breaking balls and showing starter command and a playable changeup, so the Cleveland pitching development machine seemed like a great landing spot. I find it difficult to come up with comparisons for the players at the top of these lists as they are outliers in many ways, which you then have to compare among the other outliers in the big leagues, and they rarely match up perfectly to another player. How the Savannah Bananas are changing the rules of baseball. Arroyo and Williams are back-to-back here because they're pretty similar prospects. Graceffo wasn't a big name when he went in the fifth round of the 2021 draft with athleticism and command at Villanova his main selling points. The upside is limited a bit by his average speed and likely long-term fit in right field. Type: Refrigerator box filled with dynamite. I mention this because Vargas is big-league-ready with plus bat control, plus pitch selection and 41 homers over the past two seasons -- even though his power will probably play closer to average at the big league level. Baltimore's position-player development machine has turned another midlevel prospect into a real dude. Grades for trades & signings Type: Lefty with (newly) above-average stuff and (same) feel, devastating changeup. Fast forward a few years and Gonzales isn't anywhere close to this list while Ortiz should get a big league look this year, tracking like a solid everyday shortstop. He's a jacked, squatty prospect who will play a corner-outfield spot and while we need to see more than the 84 professional games he has played, all the information we have is pretty exciting. ESPN releases top 100 prospects for 2023 here's where the Reminds me of: He's somewhere in the Venn diagram of Gary Sanchez, Cal Raleigh, Salvador Perez and Willson Contreras. Martinez seems like a familiar kind of prospect. The selling points here are three 70-grade tools: speed, defense in center field, and arm strength, along with a projectable frame that has plus power potential and a long track record of hitting strong pitching. Lawlar continues keeping pace with Mayer and the difference between them is basically a coin flip for me over a year after their draft. The big wave of Orioles prospects is almost here, with Rodriguez the potential ace of the group. The only real concern here is that if he loses a notch of athleticism and moves down the defensive spectrum, he's probably playing first base -- and would he then also lose some quickness at the plate? Graceffo threw 139.1 innings in 2022, mostly in Double-A, so he is in line to get some big league time toward the end of 2023 if the deep Cardinals rotation shows some weakness or the bullpen just needs some length.
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