This year, Painter will need to upgrade the command a notch, though his stuff is good enough that average control (throwing it over the plate) and fringy command (hitting his spot) could be enough to make him one of the Phillies' top five rotation options pretty soon. The son of your favorite 2004 Red Sox player (and an '04 Yankee!) Expectations have come down a bit as Veen looks more like he might give you 55-grade tools across the board as a right fielder, which is a good-not-great player -- though there's still some chance he could still develop into a middle-of-the-order terror. Type: Projection righty with frontline potential. 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. He has become more aggressive as his velocity has crept up to 90-93 mph with his plus command and plus ride that help it play up. Type: Glove-over-bat center fielder, but probably still a league-average hitter. Here is who all 30 teams are most likely to trade in 2023. Carroll is a plus defender in center field, he's a plus-plus runner (a top-of-the-scale 80-grade runner for some), and he's a baseball rat with instincts to match: 33/39 on stolen bases last season over three levels. That physical development now makes staying in the infield defensively a longer shot, but his bat will profile anywhere. Johan Rojas, CF, Philadelphia Phillies First the good: He is 6-7 with deceptively plus speed and loose, easy actions in all phases, especially a low-effort lefty swing that creates massive raw power. A 10-15 homer likelihood eats into his overall upside, but he may be plus at everything else on the field and has lots of pro scouting support for his ranking after an excellent 30-game stint in Double-A after signing. 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. Drew Romo, C, Colorado Rockies Michael Busch, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers That hasn't happened, as he still has a lanky build and runs well, but is exclusively playing a corner outfield spot. USC's Caleb Williams the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner and North Carolina's Drake Maye, are franchise quarterbacks in waiting. Now imagine a homerun hitter with a natural uppercut to his swing. Elly De La Cruz is going to become appointment viewing once he gets to the TV league, in the same way that Oneil Cruz and Fernando Tatis Jr. lit up Statcast on a nightly basis when they hit the big leagues, Velo: 95-99, Fastball: 65/70, Slider: 55/60, Curveball: 50/60, Changeup: 45/55, Command: 40/50, Reminds me of: (leans in, whispering, looking around) Justin Verlander. ), switch-hitting shortstop with plus-plus speed, power, and arm strength! 49 on this list), so they're often compared. All this to say, the pick seemed like a great one for the White Sox at the time and has worked out even better than expected so far. Wicks might be big league-ready by midseason and is looking like a midrotation starter with the risk being that the velo bump regresses and he ends up more of a steady backend type. Now -- prepare to be shocked -- he's improved a lot under the tutelage of the Dodgers' pitching development. Mead has some similarities to Jung as a bigger-bodied third baseman with above average-to-plus hit and power potential and Triple-A success. The analytics models that teams now use love nothing more than when a prospect is 1) young for his level, 2) plays an up-the-middle position well and 3) posts in-game exit velos that are way above average. At 6-foot-2, Ramos is shorter than Mayo and that's a big factor in why Ramos is also a solid average defender at third base who can also play a decent second base. He made his big league debut last summer and should get an extended low-pressure big league look on the rebuilding Nationals this year. 1 overall pick missed the whole 2020 season, then missed the whole 2021 season with a torn ACL and his 2022 campaign ended early with surgery to repair a partial tear of the same right ACL and he won't return until at least June. If he does, he'll hit 30 homers, give us fun bat flips and nobody will care much that he's just OK defensively. Hit: 30/40, Game Power: 40/65, Raw Power: 65/70, Speed: 70/70, Fielding: 45/55, Throwing: 45/45, Reminds me of: A sealed mystery bag of fireworks with a wick sticking out, I wasn't sure where to put Chourio so I sent this list around for thoughts with him here, and nobody told me to move him. The value of six-plus years of control of a big league ready catcher with an above-average glove and offensive package is enormous, when a 2.0 WAR season (i.e. On top of that, Alvarez has a real chance to be an everyday-quality defender behind the plate. Lawlar is a little more of a conventional standout athlete, as a plus runner with a plus arm and plus raw power, with a little more bounce defensively and at the plate. The real reason for excitement here, like during that initial pitch by an agent, is that after a strong first full pro season, Montgomery may now have plus bat control, pitch selection, bat speed, and raw power -- so it's just a matter of how he wants to use those abilities at the plate, to be more contact- or power-oriented. He opted to go to a SoCal junior college so that he'd be eligible again in 2021. Sweeney was a late pop-up name in the spring leading up to the 2021 draft with a lack of previous buzz due to playing at Eastern Illinois, not being in the elite summer wood bat leagues and having a big leg kick in his swing that turned off some scouts. 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. He will likely find a happy medium on the contact vs. power spectrum in the coming years, but even when striking out a lot, Williams had above-average pitch selection. Type: Rare hit/power upside from a teenager. Amador gives plenty of margin for error in his projection as the base of his skills -- plus hitter, plus pitch selection, switch-hitter, plus runner, plus arm, solid-average defender at shortstop -- check a ton of boxes while his performance in 2022 was better than anyone could've expected. He's still young enough that he can dial things in, but his glove and simply putting the ball in play will likely make him a low-end starter at minimum. Alvarez's combination of game-changing power and premium position are the carrying tools. Type: Smaller-framed shortstop with sure bat and glove, sneaky power. After publishing my final rankings, I heard lots of buzz that Rushing would go in the 20s and I would've slid him up into that range in the days before the draft, buying into his hit/power combo and trusting that he'd figure out a way to stick behind the plate. 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 Williams was an intriguing 28th overall pick in the 2021 draft out of a SoCal high school. Type: 6-foot-5 likely third baseman with plus power and arm strength. Type: Middle infielder with advanced hit tool, 20-homer potential. Type: League-average offensive threat who can stick behind the plate. 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. Those aren't major concerns right now, though, as he's got massive power in games, is young and talented enough to make adjustments, and is much younger than the pitchers he is facing. He's a lanky 6-footer with plus speed, a plus arm, an above-average glove at shortstop and plus feel for the bat head. 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. 15 overall in the 2020 draft. We've got you covered. He might be more of a solid starter than a star and could debut in late 2023 or early 2024. St. Louis took him a bit earlier than some thought he would go at 21st overall, and he immediately made the Cardinals look smart by putting up startling exit velocities while bullying pitchers years older than him and reaching Double-A in 2022 as a teenager. Play Ball Youth Baseball & Softball. Our way-too-early lineup rankings look at the best -- and worst -- offenses ahead of the 2023 MLB season. Arizona has seven total prospects named at least once on the four lists and four consensus top-100 guys - Carroll, Jones, Jordan Lawlar, and Brandon Pfaadt. Frelick was a late bloomer as a standout multisport athlete in Massachusetts who turned into a middle first-round pick at Boston College. 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. Topps Prospects Signed En Masse; $250k Bowman Jones He also has a slider and changeup that both flash above average but are rarely used. 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. 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. Turang has been famous to scouts for years, looking like a real candidate to be the No. His changeup is still plus and with the added arm speed, his two breaking pitches now play above average. 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. On the bright side, this is the part of hitting that clubs think is most coachable. 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. Type: The biggest post-draft riser in baseball. 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? Type: Shortstop with a chance to stick and have plus hit/power from the left side. Like Division-II product Pfaadt earlier on this list, Brown had a good arm with mid-90s velocity and some relief risk but Brown's separator then (and now) was a plus hammer curveball that is now a plus-plus pitch. 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. This makes the plane as close to flat as possible. Late in the draft process last summer, ESPN college baseball analyst Chris Burke told me to run Rushing up my draft rankings and I didn't listen enough. Now buzz is growing that Painter might break camp with the big league team this spring, as GM Dave Dombrowski remains one of few GMs in the league not trying to win a gold medal in the Service Time Olympics. Type: Gifted hitter, good-not-great tools. Bogaerts feels like a good comp since Lawlar isn't getting to all of his BP power in games right now and there's enough up-and-down to his defensive performances to make scouts pause. WebStatcast Leaders Baseball Savant Top Prospect Stats. 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. Lewis has been on the verge of sticking in the big leagues for years now -- but the 2017 No. 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. Our experts predict every series, Memphis wasn't 'fine in the West' -- getting there hinges on massive culture questions, Why the Lakers' real test begins now, after dispatching the No. Ranking every MLB system from 1-30, Ranking the top MLB prospects for all 15 American League teams, How bright is your team's future? Valera has plus raw power and a very good approach: That's the stuff that matters. 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. It is important to remember that he is facing pitchers who are generally five years older than him and these issues tend to be fixable for young, superlative talents. Since he was 15 years old, scouts have been worried that he could start regressing athletically in his 20's because he developed so early. Turang is ready for a big league look and could be a bit above average among shortstops as a hitter, fielder and baserunner, though he might get his first reps playing second base in deference to Willy Adames. Type: Shortstop who is above average at everything, but still a teenager. 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 been a bit better than I expected out there and looks like he can be a solid-average defender in an outfield corner. Cristian Hernandez, SS, Chicago Cubs Hit: 35/60, Game Power: 30/50, Raw Power: 55/60, Speed: 60/60, Fielding: 40/55, Throwing: 60/60, Type: Plus athlete with plus feel for the game. He has always shown above-average raw power and pitch selection, along with around average bat control, so he profiles as an everyday player at any position, with hope that the overall defensive package will be at least average. His velocity is still new, he's only made 18 pro appearances, and his command is a notch behind Harrison's. His numbers were actually better in 2022 than 2021 and his slider became his best secondary pitch. For context, Carroll suffered a serious shoulder injury in the seventh game of the 2021 season (after missing the whole 2020 season because of the pandemic) at High-A when he swung so hard on a home run that his shoulder couldn't handle the impact. Type: If it all clicks, it looks like Max Scherzer. to Washington. He went No. The Giants surprised some by paying him $2.5 million (late first-round money) in the third round in the 2020 draft. It wasn't shocking because of Painter's 2022 velo spike that helped his stuff play even a notch higher than it did when he went No. Even after recovering from COVID-19, his velo would tail off in some starts just before the draft, while his command would come and go. I'm using the same description as last year because Dominguez is still the same player. He is shorter than you'd prefer an elite pitching prospect at 6-feet tall, but was a plus athlete with a plus-plus-slider, mid-90s heat and plenty of changeup and command to make it all work. 1, Panthers' Bryce Young is all 'business now', XFL semifinals: Defenders roll Sea Dragons, set up title showdown with Renegades. I think the four names in the Reminds Me Of section give you an idea of the different paths his career could take, with Gary Sanchez's a familiar roller-coaster ride that Mets fans are hoping to improve upon. The Rockies are a confusing franchise to try to understand as a whole but the top of their system took a step forward in 2022, with the emergence of Ezequiel Tovar and Amador alongside Zac Veen and Drew Romo. The issue now is that the track record of pitchers with that title isn't great. Type: Corner-utility type who can really hit. Did Pats make Mac Jones happy? He doesn't really use a changeup but more starters are now going multiple innings with two distinct breaking pitches, like Flores has. Crow-Armstrong became a known name early in his high school career in southern California and held serve, going 19th overall in 2020 to the Mets. 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. 2023 Top 100 Prospects | FanGraphs Baseball Marte, along with Arroyo above, were the two best prospects in Cincinnati's trade deadline haul for righty Luis Castillo. 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. 10. Ramos also has 55-or-60-grade power while Mayo's is a grade or two better. I give Henderson the slight edge because of Carroll's general approach to the game and the slight concern that there could be some durability issues along the way. The added arm speed also improved both breaking balls, and the changeup is a plus to plus-plus weapon. He's now a high-likelihood big league starter, with No. There's a real shot he hits 25 homers at some point, but I'd expect more 15-20 on an annual basis. He's behind Cartaya defensively and in arm strength (Alvarez, too). 2023 NFL Draft: Top 20 players remaining after Round 1 The selling point here is Hassell can hit with a good approach. As you can probably guess, the question here is on the overall offensive impact. Kevin Parada, C, New York Mets Which could work against him behind the plate, too -- even if he could stick, his bat may get to the big leagues fast enough that he won't be given time to finish becoming a big league catcher. He is now 23 and about average defensively at third base, but can contribute at all four corner spots. Now Manzardo may be knocking on the door of the big leagues late in 2023, just two years after being a divisive draft prospect. Reminds me of: If you put at shrink ray on Bryce Harper, trading some power for a lot more speed. LHP: Brandon Barriera (TOR), Matthew Liberatore (STL), Kyle Muller (OAK), Jared Shuster (ATL), Carson Whisenhunt (SF), Brandon Williamson (CIN) C: Joon Lee . Naylor was a first-round pick out of a Canadian high school (in 2018), like his older brother and Guardians teammate Josh (in 2015). 15 overall. But the very positive early reviews since signing, followed by a great full-season debut with shockingly good advanced data, helped Merrill springboard into the Arizona Fall League with hype and he continued to deliver. Lewis isn't a slam dunk at the plate, either, as he has long had issues tinkering with his swing and dialing in his approach, but he is so naturally talented -- plus raw power, plus speed, feel for the game -- that he'll likely figure it out once he gets back onto the field. In two minor league seasons, he has answered those offensive questions by hitting .270 with a 10% walk rate and 28 homers in 655 plate appearances. a solid, low-end starter at any other position) would be in the top dozen catchers. 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. Marte currently looks like an above-average hitter with above-average in-game power, but his physical development, ultimate defensive home and offensive approach will evolve over the coming years. Type: Advanced hit/power/approach at age 18. Type: Above-average-to-plus fastball, slider, curveball and command. Which teams came out on top and who lost big? Hence was a late-rising prospect in the 2020 draft who probably would've gone higher with a healthy spring for scouts to watch him. Velo: 93-95, Fastball: 60/65, Slider: 55/60, Changeup: 50/55, Command: 45/55, Type: The next low-slot frontline starter -- Aaron Nola, Chris Sale, Luis Castillo-esque. Kiley McDaniel ranks the best prospects and farm systems in baseball. Montgomery opted to focus full-time on baseball, and over the next two years the only real critiques that materialized were that he's probably more of a third baseman than a shortstop long-term (still probably true), and he was 19 years old on draft day in 2021. There will always be contact questions given the length of his arms and good-not-great pitch selection, but he's continuing to progress, hitting .273/.360/.451 at Low-A as a teenager with 15 homers, 14 stolen bases and solid control of the strike zone for his age. The Padres took him 62nd overall, but gave him a $2.6 million bonus commensurate with the 26th overall pick. Luisangel Acuna, SS, Texas Rangers 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.