Photo Courtesy: Bryan Green
By Philly Charron
As we roll into the 2024 season, the ever-present youth movement brings some new and exciting names to the lists of top baseball prospects. General Managers are keen to challenge prospects at younger and younger ages; not sure which came first, Ethan Salas’ first Rated-R movie or his first AA hit. The 2023 draft has had several names come in and immediately put themselves at the door step of their MLB clubs. The evolution in pitching has perhaps lowered the value of pitching prospects due to the increasing risk associated with the position as you will find most publications have less pitchers amongst their top lists than in years past. There are still some gems to be found though as I highlight 4 pitchers amongst my top 25. Events like the Futures Game and the Spring Breakout games are helping to get the players to you earlier in development than ever before so take a moment to familiarize yourself with a few that are soon to be in the big leagues or at least a name you’ll see and hear a fair bit from this summer.
1 Jackson Holliday Age: 20 – SS/2B – Baltimore Orioles – Best hit tool in the minors, incredible intelligence and work ethic and a future all-star. Sky is the limit.
2 Junior Caminero Age: 20 – SS/3B – Tampa Bay Rays – Top 5 exit velocity in ALL of baseball last year as a 19-year old. Multiple 40 home run seasons in his future.
3 Paul Skenes Age: 21 – SP – Pittsburgh Pirates – Best fastball and slider in the minors with a developing change. Spencer Strider meets the Incredible Hulk.
4 Jackson Chourio Age: 20 – OF – Milwaukee Brewers – Future perennial 20-40 player with great defense in Center or Right. Will add more and more power as he matures.
5 Wyatt Langford Age: 22 – OF/DH – Texas Rangers – Made the Rangers’ opening day roster 8 months after being drafted. Incredible athlete that might hit .300 with 35 homers and 30 season stolen bases… THIS YEAR!
6 Ethan Salas Age: 17 – C – San Diego Padres – Mature beyond his years and on the Ivan Rodriguez trajectory. Potential to be plus at most offensive and defensive skills save for speed.
7 Jordan Lawlar Age: 21 – SS – Arizona Diamondbacks – Could be the Diamondbacks shortstop version of Corbin Carroll. 20 home runs and 50 stolen bases possible with great defense at a premium position.
8 Coby Mayo Age: 22 – 3B/1B – Baltimore Orioles – Will likely be the next Oriole to hit 40 homers in a season. Where does he get his at-bats? MLB? AAA? 3b? 1b?
9 Dylan Crews Age: 22 – OF – Washington Nationals – Hailed as “Mike Trout-lite” for the last few years due to plus power, speed, hit tool and above average defense in CF.
10 Walker Jenkins Age: 19 – OF – Minnesota Twins – Kyle Tucker with the range to play center field. Yeah, sign me up!
11 Marcelo Mayer Age: 21 – SS – Boston Red Sox – Rough 2023 but still tremendous upside at SS. Could move to 3B but upside of .300 and 25 homers.
12 Jackson Merrill Age: 20 – CF?/SS – San Diego Padres – Already notched his first hits in the bigs! Tremendous hit tools and the athleticism to learn CF this spring.
13 Roman Anthony Age: 19 – OF – Boston Red Sox – Big time power with potential to stick in CF .280 batting average and 35 homers upside.
14 Jackson Jobe Age: 21 – SP – Detroit Tigers – Future Ace. Hit 102 in a spring game this year. Absurd level of control for the power he harnesses.
15 Samuel Basallo Age: 19 – C – Baltimore Orioles – Made it to AA at 19 with a mix of hitting, power and defensive ability. Some guy named Adley is already catching, so maybe 1B?
16 Pete Crow-Armstrong Age:21 – OF – Chicago Cubs – Jim Edmonds with blue hair?? Gold Glove center fielder, learning to cut down on k’s and refine approach 270 25/40 upside.
17 James Wood Age: 21 – OF – Washington Nationals – One of the stars of this spring, power hit balls 450 ft just by looking at them. Needs to cut down on k’s but has limitless potential.
18 Colson Montgomery Age: 22 – SS – Chicago White Sox – How many times can we say he reminds people of Corey Seager? Great approach at the plate, solid defense, power will develop as his frame fills out.
19 Jasson Dominguez Age: 21 – OF – New York Yankees – Most likely to hit 600 homers and steal 1200 bases…or you know just be a good 5 tool contributor for the Yankees! Will be a star and fan favorite.
20 Cade Horton Age: 22 – SP – Chicago Cubs – Possible ace or #2. Very limited track record of high-level pitching, but performance has been off the charts. Should be up by mid-season but still building stamina.
21 Andrew Painter Age: 20 – SP – Philadelphia Phillies – Top pitching prospect before a Tommy John (TJ) injury shut him down for 2023 and 2024 (tried to rehab before finally choosing surgery) still ace upside and only 20.
22 Max Clark Age: 19 – OF – Detroit Tigers – Reminiscent of Johnny Damon. Hard gamer with great speed, hitting, arm and defense. Question mark is how much power will develop.
23 Sebastian Walcott Age:18 – SS – Texas Rangers – Broke into the top 100 last summer with flashes of huge power and hitting abilities. Full season ball this year will show how far along he is.
24 Colt Emerson Age: 18 – SS – Seattle Mariners – Possibly the steal of the 2023 draft. Great hit tool but now showing much more power than expected. Added 20 lbs. of muscle in the off-season
25 Dylan Lesko Age: 20 – SP – San Diego Padres – Highest rated HS pitcher in 2022 draft. Has the best change-up in the minors. Missed 2022 and some of 23 recovering from TJ.
You can find Phil on his blog “The Roki Horror Pitcher Show” and on the Tool Time Baseball Card Podcast part of the Eephus Baseball Card Pod Network.
