He had above-average command (still does) of average stuff and strong performances, but had been a full-time starter only in his abbreviated junior year at Central Arkansas, so the Dodgers were just betting on some qualities they liked more than a long track record of anything exceptional. Woods had a meteoric rise in 2022, going from roughly the 200th-ranked prospect in baseball going into the season to No. Rodriguez signed out of the Dominican Republic for $2.5 million in 2019 and was in the midst of a breakout 2022 season before a June knee surgery ended it. 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. 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. Montgomery is a shortstop for now and will probably be fine for a while, but any team with an above-average defender at short will slide Montgomery over to third whether he's a 45 or 50 defensively at shortstop. Elijah Green, CF, Washington Nationals While his numbers weren't eye-popping, you have to remember he was among the youngest players in the league, hadn't played much during the year, and against the lowest competition of anyone in the AFL, but the tools and quality of his at-bats stood out. The Orioles have the best farm system in baseball, but after landing Moreno in an offseason trade that sent outfielder Daulton Varsho to Toronto, Arizona has two of the top three prospects in the sport -- and both are ready for the big leagues right now. 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. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft, as an under slot choice that set up the rest of the Pirates' draft. Johan Rojas, CF, Philadelphia Phillies Thats 87 players that the industry feels pretty good about -- nearly a top 100 of top 100-caliber players. It all adds up to arguably more upside at draft time than even Byron Buxton and almost any other prep hitter in recent memory. 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 In his draft year at IMG Academy, he was patient, bordering on passive while trying to hit everything to the opposite field and generally did not lean into his strengths. Type: Late bloomer with three plus pitches, chance to start. 9. Arroyo will probably be able to make the subtle adjustments to stick as an average defensive shortstop, but that's still a bit of a question, whereas Williams is a slam-dunk shortstop. More prospect rankings: National League | American League | Ranking all 30 systems, Hit: 50/60, Game Power: 50/55, Raw Power: 60/60, Speed: 70/70, Fielding: 55/60, Throwing: 45/45. 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. Luciano signed for $2.6 million as one of many standout seven-figure signees in the 2018 international class that also included Francisco Alvarez, Diego Cartaya, Noelvi Marte (all ranked above Luciano on this list), Orelvis Martinez and Kevin Alcantara. So I've given up on any doubt: Perez is the best pitching prospect in the minors. In his full-season debut, Williams flipped his offensive scouting report on its head, striking out 32% of the time and hitting 19 homers, leaning into the power from his newly added bulk. He was preferred as a shortstop out of high school when he went 54th overall, but he was still raw at the plate. That's no problem, though, as Mayer is one of the best track-record shortstops in recent draft history, with scouts circling his name in their programs since early in his high school career. It was a different story in 2022 as his velo jumped a couple ticks to 91-94 mph with good ride and the same standout command. 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. Type: On the right day, four plus pitches and starter command. Type: Positionless Canadian-born hitting robot sent from the future. He inexplicably slipped to the No. Now -- prepare to be shocked -- he's improved a lot under the tutelage of the Dodgers' pitching development. He has always been built like a bowling ball, so his mobility isn't his biggest strength defensively. Norby was a pop-up prospect at East Carolina in 2021, lacking big tools but proving he could hit with enough skill to project as a low-end regular. Casas has held serve due to a sweet swing and an elite hit/approach/power combination that has continued to make him look like an above-average everyday player even while he has long shown little to no speed or defensive value. The O's have back-to-back best prospects in baseball and their farm system is the class of the sport, thanks in large part to a really strong pipeline of scouting and developing hitters. He has huge power and beats up on minor league pitching, but the question is if his contact qualities and pitch selection will be good enough at the big league level for him to hit to get to that power. 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. Wood still swung and missed too often the summer after signing, but his approach clicked in 2022 to the point that he was done a disservice not being promoted to High-A by Washington after being the headliner in the Juan Soto trade (ahead of Robert Hassell and Jarlin Susana, both later on this list, and MacKenzie Gore, who has graduated but was on last year's list). 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. He dominated High-A and Double-A in 2022 and is still just 21 years old. Type: Glove-over-bat center fielder, but probably still a league-average hitter. So there's an argument that Carter is the best on-base-percentage threat among the top prospects in baseball, and he's a good defensive center fielder on top of that. I'll lean to the higher offensive potential in Mayo, who also happens to be in a better farm system for hitter development, though the White Sox are trending up with Colson Montgomery, Ramos, Oscar Colas and Lenyn Sosa having strong 2022 seasons. Scouts are now projecting above-average command of a 70-grade fastball that is 95-98 mph with plus life and a plus curveball. ESPN releases top 100 prospects for 2023 here's where the 3 or 4 in a rotation looking most likely. The next two players are catchers who either could be a first baseman with below average contact skills while the other likely never hits 20 homers. Instead of cruising to being a first-round pick in 2023, he left high school after two years to go get on a professional schedule to pursue baseball: this seems like pretty good outward evidence of plus makeup, as well. 2023 Top 100 Prospects by Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin February 22, 2023 Prospect Week 2023 Updating the 2023 Draft Prospect Rankings Cardinals Carroll has plus feel for getting the bat head on the ball but even better pitch selection. 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). while run grades equate to specific times on a stopwatch, a 50 hit tool is about a .260 batting average, average fastball velocity is 92-93 depending on your role and handedness, and so on. There's an inherent injury risk from simply throwing that hard, no matter how careful, strong and flexible you are, and Espino is all three of those. Salas was traded from the Marlins to the Twins with Pablo Lopez for Luis Arraez. Velo: 95-99 mph, Fastball: 60/70, Slider: 60/65, Curveball: 50/55, Changeup: 50/60, Command: 50/60, Type: Silky-smooth 6-foot-8 potential ace. 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. 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. 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. Povich is still likely to give effective bulk innings, likely as a starter, maybe as soon as the second half of 2023. The top of this year's list is ruled by two up-and-coming teams that boast the strongest farm systems in the sport -- the Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks -- with their brightest young stars now starting to hit the major leagues. 1? 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. Since he's a bottom-of-the-scale runner, Quero would become a first baseman if he can't catch, so his progress behind the plate (his arm is average, receiving is a bit behind that) will be important to monitor over the next couple seasons. 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. 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. He's 6-foot-6, 235 pounds, regularly hits triple digits with his fastball, mixes in a plus-flashing slider and pitches with enough feel to be effective. Now let's move on to ranking baseball's top 100 prospects entering the 2023 MLB season. Hit: 45/55, Game Power: 50/60, Raw Power: 65/65, Speed: 50/45, Fielding: 50/55, Throwing: 60/60. He only threw 18.1 innings in 2022 due to non-surgical knee and shoulder issues, after his Spring Training outings had scouts and analysts raving. It was, to say the least, as Williams threw 115 sterling innings across High-A and Double-A last season while throwing 64% fastballs. He has the rare combination of skills to warrant a Seager mention as a comp and, if things keep going like they are, Montgomery will be knocking on the door of the big leagues at the end of 2023 with All-Star upside. Topps Prospects Signed En Masse; $250k Bowman Jones SuperFractor Bounty; Most Watched Auctions April 26, 2023 By Rich Mueller A couple of months before Wednesdays release of 2023 Bowman Baseball, about 50 young players gathered at a house in Arizona to sign cards that would wind up in packs. First, "type," which categorizes a player for comparison among other players. When you throw in his speed, it adds up to a lot of long counts, infield singles and bloopers that turn into doubles. Need to know what to make of the moves that shape the offseason? Arroyo and Williams are back-to-back here because they're pretty similar prospects. Type: Lefty with (newly) above-average stuff and (same) feel, devastating changeup. 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. This also helped him profile at his likely future position: third base. He returned with some swing tweaks and performed well in 2022, hitting his way to High-A with 16 homers and 32 stolen bases. There's frontline potential here, and you can scout the statline a bit: If he keeps his strikeout rate over 10 per nine innings and his walks gets below three per nine innings in the upper minors, he'll probably be moving up this list. He has played only 62 pro games in the U.S., most of those in Rookie ball, but all the signs are here. St.)The Rays have a Logan Allen, too. Before diving into pitchers that will almost certainly be available in your league, make sure you check if Jose Berrios (63% owned) has been dropped. 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. Turang's star dimmed a bit in the year before the draft, slipping to the 21st overall pick in 2018, but the basic scouting report has been the same for a long time. 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. He was good enough after returning that he certainly could have made his big league debut at the end of the season like fellow Baltimore prospect Gunnar Henderson did. 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. 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. Hit: 30/55, Game Power: 35/65, Raw Power: 65/70, Speed: 60/55, Fielding: 45/55, Throwing: 55/55, Type: A 6-7 plus runner with plus-plus power, Reminds me of: More toolsy version of Kyle Tucker. Type: Shortstop who is above average at everything, but still a teenager. You can expect a .260ish average with a plus walk rate (call it a .350 on-base percentage), plus power (let's say 25 homers -- but I bet he cracks 30 at least once) and above-average defense at third base, good enough to fill in at shortstop if needed. and, on the right night, he has three plus secondary pitches with enough control and command to turn over a lineup a few times. Do we just comp them to a different player who would post a similar statline? Kiley McDaniel ranks the best prospects and farm systems in baseball. Then, days after publication, it was announced that he needed surgery on his non-throwing shoulder and would miss much of the year. Kiley McDaniel covers MLB prospects, the MLB Draft and more, including trades and free agency. 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. He'll be in Triple-A this year after hitting 30 homers in Double-A as a 20-year-old, so bet against him at your peril. OK, I don't have proof for the robot or the future part -- but I can confirm Julien has never been a good defender anywhere and you can look up that he's French-Canadian without my help. He's the Venezuelan-born younger brother of the major league utility infielder of the same name and signed for $20,000 as an undrafted free agent in 2020 out of an Arizona junior college. The upside here is 55 or 60 hit, 60 pitch selection, 55 or 60 power and a fine defensive catcher. Kiley McDaniel's top 100 MLB prospects for 2023: Which future star is No. Everson Pereira, CF, New York Yankees Manzardo was a late-rising draft prospect at Washington State leading up to the 2021 draft, getting sandwich-round buzz despite a number of teams seeing him more as a third- or fourth-rounder. Type: Gifted hitter, good-not-great tools. Max Muncy, SS, Oakland Athletics He has plus power potential and solid-average tools across the board. He was part of the pandemic-affected 2020 draft class and came out of the gates slower than expected that spring, then never got a chance to right the ship. Here is who all 30 teams are most likely to trade in 2023. Walker could hit 40-plus homers multiple times, but there are a couple subtle adjustments needed, as mentioned above. 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? Collier, son of big leaguer Lou, reclassified into the 2022 class by enrolling at Chipola junior college and had a pretty remarkable spring for a 17-year-old facing largely 20- to-22-year-old pitchers: .333/.419/.537 with 8 homers, 12 doubles, 25 walks and 33 strikeouts. Davis missed about half of the 2022 season with a broken wrist and later some lingering soreness, so we can't fully judge him on his 2022 surface stats, but he has been a bit below expectations thus far. The further down in the minors you go, it becomes a tiered system of ranking prospects based on their trade value relative to top-tier prospects. Today's list kicks off our 2023 top prospect coverage with our ranking of all 30 MLB farm systems coming Friday and our team-by-team prospect lists for both leagues scheduled to follow next week. 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. Williams is two months older and went 20 picks earlier in the 2021 draft, but both are medium-framed shortstops with strong power showings in their full season debuts in 2022. 2 Grizzlies, LIVE Transfer Talk: Man United, PSG to battle for Abraham, Liverpool rescue three points, chase top-four finish after surviving epic Spurs comeback, Bayern back in charge, Yamal makes history, Napoli's party spoiled: Weekend Review, Who has the most talent in the minors? He has hit .271/.363/.491 with 40 homers and an 11% walk rate, 24% strikeout rate in 926 professional plate appearances, while being young for every level and playing in the infield. Normally, teenage pitchers who are tall and/or throw this hard have flat-out bad command that is often a career-long weakness. To give further context, I've also included some categories along with tool grades. The one thing I haven't mentioned is the contact ability -- and that's the one big question. 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. 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. 50 is major league average (which is a really good present tool for a minor leaguer), 55 is above average, 45 is below average, 60 is called plus (one standard deviation above average), 70 is plus-plus (two standard deviations), and 80 (three) is the top of the 20-80 scale, where just a handful of players in the big leagues reside. 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. 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. Over the past two seasons, Rocchio has hit 33 home runs and stolen 35 bases, showing his feel for the game by getting the most out of good-not-great raw tools. Type: Plus athlete who is above average at everything. Forrest Whitley and Sixto Sanchez are already cautionary tales, Grayson Rodriguez got hurt last year and Jesus Luzardo and MacKenzie Gore bounced back in 2022 -- but still not quite to the heights once projected. Ortiz was famous to scouts for putting up gaudy numbers in a bandbox at New Mexico State and being the "the shortstop is pretty good, too" next to eventual top-10 pick second baseman Nick Gonzales. 42 overall pick, mainly because of questions about his ability to make contact and stick at shortstop long term. As a 20-year-old, he went from Double-A to the big leagues, hitting 15 homers and stealing 17 bases. The question on Luciano's future is what position he'll play, with third base and corner outfield the leading options even though he's still only played shortstop in his pro career. 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. He's 6-4 but has below-average raw power and clearly prioritizes getting on base. 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. 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. Verlander's ability to change what he does every few years is that rare skill that separates him from the more ordinary outcomes we can also see from pitchers ranked this high. 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. Facebook; Twitter; Facebook Messenger; Pinterest; Email; I have now ranked the top 100 MLB prospects and all 30 MLB farm systems heading into the 2023 Marte, along with Arroyo above, were the two best prospects in Cincinnati's trade deadline haul for righty Luis Castillo. Type: Maybe a catcher, with 30-homer upside. That's also gone something like scouts expected, as he's now facing competition closer to his talent level. Join or start a league for free >>. Prospect Rankings Depth Charts MLB Players 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. Pfaadt popped up in the Cape Cod League as a new name scouts were intrigued by, a Division 2 righty from Bellarmine (KY) reaching the mid-90s with big league talent, but generally unproven and likely to end up a reliever. Now you understand how a softer tossing high school kid that now has grown into league average fastball velocity can strike that many guys out and is expected to do it against big league hitters, too. 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. Ramos and Mayo have been ranked near each other through my countless versions of this list. Type: Above-average-to-plus fastball, slider, curveball and command. He's also gifted in the baseball-specific skills of reads in center field and ability to stay compact and turn on an inside fastball. Joon Lee . Keith was an intriguing switch-hitting two-way prospect from a Mississippi high school in the 2020 draft, but you had to project to see a plus tool. This makes the plane as close to flat as possible. In his first full minor league season, Sweeney hit better than league average at High-A and got a late promotion to Double-A. He has solid power, plus arm strength and will occasionally give scouts a plus run time to first base, but will likely settle closer to an average runner. That's not what you normally see in an elite high school baseball prospect, but Ford also does the baseball stuff pretty well. 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. The Cards now have a glut of young position players at-or-near the big leagues that need to sort themselves out, but Winn figures to get a crack at the shortstop job, probably in 2024. Grades for trades & signings He hit .279/.360/.526 with 29 homers, 16 stolen bases, a 10% walk rate and a 21% strikeout rate across High-A, Double-A and Triple-A. I tend to round up on certain types (plus tools, plus makeup, middling stats) and round down on others (now velocity, teenaged right-handers). Making sense of Boston's investment . Baltimore's position-player development machine has turned another midlevel prospect into a real dude. Luckily this has gotten a bit easier, as Logan S. Allen signed a minor league deal with the Rockies in August after starting the 2022 season with the Guardians. He's on the 40-man and will likely make his big league debut at some point in 2023 with an advanced feel for the game that suggests he'll do well in any role. In his favor, Mead had a strong 2022 season with 13 homers in 76 games, showing control of the strike zone and posting gaudy surface numbers. The list, ranking prospects from Winn is one of the most physically gifted players on this list. You'll also notice a heavy dose of left-handed hitters, many playing the premium position of shortstop, early on in the rankings. Valera has plus raw power and a very good approach: That's the stuff that matters. His slider and curveball also improved to flashing plus with the added arm speed, and he has maintained his starter command and solid changeup. The Guardians turn mid-to-late-round college pitchers into real prospects at a frightening rate, and Bibee is the latest example. In the 2020 draft, Tiedemann was an intriguing 17-year-old prep lefty whose price wasn't met. Jung was 19th on last year's list -- and a strong second-tier AL ROY candidate. Marte has been on the radar for a while, as he was in the top tier of his international signing class when he got a $1.55 million signing bonus in 2018. Type: Late bloomer who is above average at everything on the mound.

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