Waldichuk was another later-round Yankees find (fifth round in the 2019 draft out of St. Mary's) before becoming the headliner of Oakland's four-player return in last summer's Frankie Montas/Lou Trivino trade. With any growth at all, he'll be battling J.T. Caminero kicks off a three-man "maybe they haven't totally earned it on paper yet, but lots of smart people are buying in, so I am too" group as winners of a straw poll for spots near the end of the list. Francisco lvarez, C, Mets. The other question at draft time was if his pitch selection and approach would be good enough to get to all of his power in games? Caminero is a strong 19-year-old righty hitter with plus bat control, plus raw power and a decent idea of the strike zone already. There's just enough risk as a corner-only player without much speed and defensive value to slide him to the back of this group of top-notch hitters. 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. So I've given up on any doubt: Perez is the best pitching prospect in the minors. Early in 2022, he was sitting 95-99 and hitting 100 mph, throwing mostly just his heater and his slider (take a look), but it's not like he forgot how to throw his curveball and changeup -- he was just running a 34% whiff rate throwing those two pitches 94% of the time. Oh, and he's still just 19 years old. He is also a level (or two) below Peraza defensively, so whenever they do both grab everyday roles, Peraza should be the shortstop with Volpe more likely to move to second base. Type: 5-foot-10 gamer is a plus runner and hitter. Espino is all systems go for 2023 and could 1) grab a big league rotation spot in short order 2) be a dangerous relief pitcher down the stretch or 3) continue treading water due to health or command or other issues. He's now a franchise cornerstone in Baltimore, along with last year's top overall prospect, Adley Rutschman. During a disastrous, ill-fated deadline deal, the Mets shipped him to the Cubs straight up for Javier Baez on a rental while Crow-Armstrong was still recovering from shoulder surgery. 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. His slider is a clear third pitch but is average more often than not, so the whole package profiles as a midrotation type. Type: Snake-bitten by injuries, but with a bag of above-average tools. Type: Switch-hitting shortstop with massive upside, bad pitch selection. His defense is fine, mostly fringy but can be average with some work, and his arm is plus. He made the leap in 2022, crushing High-A and Double-A with a 70-grade heater that sits 95-97 with bat-missing life at the top of the zone along with a two-plane slider and changeup that are above-average to plus. After three solid years at Cal Poly, his back was never an issue and he raked in the spring -- and in the summers for Team USA -- en route to going eighth overall last summer. Perez is almost impossible in that he seems so good at everything at such a young age and extreme height that we basically haven't seen this kind of pitching prospect before. What the longest game in MLB history says about baseball today, Which teams will reach the NBA conference finals? Type: Lanky right fielder who is above average at everything. For still unclear reasons, both players slid out of the top three (Henry Davis, Jack Leiter, Jackson Jobe went with those picks and are all much lower on this list or just off of it). Both his contact ability and ability to stick at third base were open questions at draft time due to his 6-foot-5 frame. He is likely an offensive-oriented backup who can DH, play first base or offer depth at third until his defense gets to the level of a nailed-down starter. Merrill played high school ball in Maryland, alongside James Wood (ranked 13th above) in some youth events. Following the graduation of Yankees infielder Oswald Peraza, Mets 2022 first-round draft pick Jett Williams became the latest addition to MLB's Top 100 prospect list. Jones has longer arms that can lead to him being a little awkward at times, so projecting exactly what he'll be physically and offensively has a bit of an error bar. That said, scouts I spoke with aren't getting the fuzzy feelings they got with Acuna and Tatis at the same stage and there's some worry that Chuorio could be more of a fringy on-base threat who needs to get to most of his power -- maybe more like Luis Robert? 13 on my midseason top 50 -- while playing just 64 games (none above Low-A ball) in that span. Upgrade to a Disney Bundle plan and start streaming something for everyone today! He can do almost anything at the plate. Druw is the son of should-be Hall of Famer Andruw and was the top player on my draft board last summer when he went second overall behind Holliday. Now imagine a homerun hitter with a natural uppercut to his swing. Johnson is a squatty, second-base-only fit with average speed and arm strength, but that's not why he was the fourth overall pick. Henderson looked like he'd be a late first-round pick in 2019 as a well-rounded high school shortstop in Alabama. He has above-average command of a 94-96 mph fastball and mixes in a plus slider as his primary out pitch, but his solid-average curveball and changeup also have their moments. At this point, he projects for average in-game power, roughly 15-18 homers annually. Now you can see where the dart throwing comes in. Pfaadt took even another step forward in 2022, dominating Double-A and Triple-A over 167 innings, with scouts raving about his feel and competitiveness while penciling him in as a mid-rotation fit as soon as the middle of 2023. Winn also has a history and even some pro experience on the mound, where he sits in the mid-90's and will show a 70-grade breaking ball. Grayson Rodriguez, RHP, Orioles. Did Pats make Mac Jones happy? He has progressed well as a hitter, showing electric bat speed and feel to get to his plus raw power in games. Type: Power-and-patience package at the plate, probably a catcher. 22 overall in the 2020 draft. 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. Over the past two seasons, he's hit 40 homers with a walk rate over 10% and strikeout rate under 20%, finishing 2022 at Triple-A. The last catcher the Dodgers took out of Louisville was Will Smith, at the 32nd overall pick. Type: League-average offensive threat who can stick behind the plate. There are some question marks in his profile though: Tovar swings a bit too often, and that hasn't kept him from succeeding in the minors, but could in the big leagues. Type: Late-blooming midrotation righty with a great changeup. If he doesn't improve there, Tovar will be slightly below league average at the plate, but helped by Coors and his standout glove, so probably just a low-end regular. He'll get a big league look at some point in 2023 and I'm rooting hard for him because baseball is more fun with more Kyle Schwarber types. He was dealt to Baltimore last summer as the headliner in a package for closer Jorge Lopez. 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. His numbers were actually better in 2022 than 2021 and his slider became his best secondary pitch. That's largely the way things have gone from a performance standpoint, but with Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt getting MVP votes on long-term deals ahead of him, the Cards moved him to the outfield part time in the 2022 regular season and then exclusively in the outfield in the Arizona Fall League. Moreno falls short of the 65 FV tier because his raw power is merely average -- and given his style of hitting, it may play a notch below that in games: somewhere in the 8-15 homer area annually. Still a teenager, he broke out in 2022, making it to Double-A sitting in the mid-90's with a 70-grade fastball, 60 slider and 55-or-60 changeup, along with comparable control/command from his time in junior college. Williams was an intriguing 28th overall pick in the 2021 draft out of a SoCal high school. Like many pitchers in this range, his stuff and/or performance jumped in 2022 and at least some of this group will give back some of those gains because pitchers are susceptible to injuries and mysterious loss of arm speed or command. To give further context, I've also included some categories along with tool grades. Kevin Parada, C, New York Mets 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. WebHigh School Baseball Recruiting Database. Meyer was a personal favorite going back to his freshman year at Minnesota. Type: Positionless Canadian-born hitting robot sent from the future. I've decided to put him at the back of that slam-dunk group yet ahead of the riskier, health-challenged, less-proven or less-talented prospects who follow on this list. If you can pair that dorky fastball plane theory with some good scouting meat-and-potatoes stuff like plus command and plus offspeed stuff, then you're talking about the ingredients for a guy capable of a lot of strikeouts. Type: Another well-rounded, lanky center fielder with power questions. If he doesn't, he's a high variance corner wrong-side-of-the-platoon guy who is just an OK defender. Kiley McDaniel ranks the best prospects and farm systems in baseball. 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. Velo: 94-98, Fastball: 60/65, Slider: 55/60, Curveball: 50/55, Changeup: 60/70, Command: 50/55, Type: Potential frontline righty with a devastating changeup. You'll also notice a heavy dose of left-handed hitters, many playing the premium position of shortstop, early on in the rankings. The company says itll pay $250,000 for the card if its Lawlar has excellent feel for the game and has always hit well in games, along with being a plus-plus baserunner, while the defensive questions are mostly a matter of focus, so I have no doubt he'll round into a solid average defender. Alcantara is a superlative athlete with plus raw power, plus speed once he gets going and an above-average arm. Again, it's still early as he has faced only the lowest levels of the minors, but the pieces are here. Pretty soon they're all going to be on whatever has the cachet of a Sports Illustrated cover these days. 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. The selling point was that I didn't know his name because he wasn't playing much summer baseball due to getting Power 5 interest as a 6-4 point guard in Indiana. Type: Power-over-hit third baseman with a solid glove. The main reason there's a tier break here is that Moreno offers premium ability, but in a more subtle package that a fan might not notice right away. Type: Power-over-hit with unclear positional future. In the year leading up to the draft, the 6-foot-3 righty was up to the mid-90s with almost perfect backspin to his four-seamer, an inconsistent, rarely used curveball that was a 55- or 60-grade pitch when he nailed it and a truly awe-inspiring changeup that many scouts graded as a present 80 pitch, which I'd never heard of for a high school pitcher. Top 100 prospects | Bold predictions His velo jumped from 88-92 mph to 92-94 mph almost immediately after he signed and that's where it stood for all of 2022. 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. He produced a combined 23 homers and 23 stolen bases over the three levels. At the plate, he has an average hit tool and pitch selection -- have to hope those don't end up being a notch or two lower -- with 25-30 home run upside if it all clicks. His velocity is still new, he's only made 18 pro appearances, and his command is a notch behind Harrison's. Do we just comp them to a different player who would post a similar statline? Lee was a late-first-round prospect in high school, but teams were ultimately scared off by a back issue. This offseason's four biggest free agents signed massive megadeals that are not only risky, but that started a historic hot stove trend. Are you gonna make me say it? Even at just 19, Holliday has a chance to move quickly through the minors and up this list. That's also gone something like scouts expected, as he's now facing competition closer to his talent level. That also puts a cap on potential upside if he basically has to be valued like a first baseman, whether that's where he's playing or not, and it makes him another prospect with small margin for error if he doesn't hit at the level that's expected. He was pretty good in the complex league and Low-A, so Detroit sent him to the Arizona Fall League where his control was well below average. Type: Gifted hitter, good-not-great tools. Type: Advanced hitter growing into his power. 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. If you look back over the past five to 10 years for players who did these things, you get a list that includes Ronald Acuna Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. Chourio has the kind of upside where it's just normal to mention him next to those two names. His slider is a 60-to-70-grade pitch depending on the day. Susana didn't get much attention when he was included in the Juan Soto trade as he was the fourth-best prospect in the haul, behind James Wood, MacKenzie Gore and Robert Hassell. 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.

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