34 overall pick in 2019, as a mid-major pitcher from Ball State with some violence to his delivery and below-average command. 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. Scouts are still concerned that he isn't quite nimble enough behind the plate and his arm strength plays down due to execution, though a robot ump future would help. 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. All three of these players have played only a little bit in Low-A but have plenty of upside so 2023 has a good shot at being their breakout year -- let's just be ahead of the curve, right? Reminds me of: Oneil Cruz on the whole, but with raw tools alone that are also similar to Bobby Witt Jr. 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. Do we just comp them to a different player who would post a similar statline? As a 20-year-old, he went from Double-A to the big leagues, hitting 15 homers and stealing 17 bases. He's behind Cartaya defensively and in arm strength (Alvarez, too). 13 on my midseason top 50 -- while playing just 64 games (none above Low-A ball) in that span. Garcia made his Double-A debut last season and ended the season in the big leagues but even after the Adalberto Mondesi trade, he's still behind Bobby Witt Jr., Hunter Dozier, Nicky Lopez and Michael Massey as homegrown second base/third base/shortstop options. Type: 6-3 athlete who has grown into above-average offensive force in the infield. He also hit nine homers and had a .492 on-base percentage, showing easy plus raw power and huge exit velos -- so some truly wacky stuff. 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. He spent a year at a junior college, then two years exclusively in the bullpen for the Aggies, eventually being passed over in the five-round 2020 draft. 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. He held serve all the way to draft day in 2021 as a toss-up with Jordan Lawlar for best prospect in the draft. 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. 96 on last year's list, fitting as the kind of high-variance bet I like to sneak onto the end of lists because of the possibility they could have a huge breakout. As a 19-year-old in Low-A, Amador hit .292/.415/.445 with 15 homers, 26 stolen bases and more walks than strikeouts. He was preferred as a shortstop out of high school when he went 54th overall, but he was still raw at the plate. There's also a lot of uncertainty with prospects, so it's by default looking at the rosier potential outcomes compared to some current MLB players. Michael Busch, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers Type: Another out-of-nowhere college pitcher for Cleveland. In 2021 (and behind closed doors because of the canceled 2020 minor league season) he took a massive step forward, adding about 20 pounds of muscle and a new swing geared to that frame, hitting 27 homers in 109 games. His bat-to-ball skills have become more relevant as he has added enough power that he can now punish mistakes, hitting 19 homers last year across Double-A and Triple-A. 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. It seems pretty obvious that Bradley is going to be pitching in the big leagues soon and the opposing broadcast team will incredulously ask where the Rays keep finding these arms. 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. That's an above-average everyday player, but probably not enough thump at the plate to be a star. NFL Draft prospects 2024: Big board of top 50 players overall, His limitation is that he probably will hit just 10 to 15 homers annually, with more gap power than anything else. They're similar in offering long-term performance, tools and having successful MLB time under their belts. On the bright side, this is the part of hitting that clubs think is most coachable. From my perspective (and plenty of other scouts), Collier has looked like one of the most gifted hitters for his age for as long as he has been scouted, gave a clear performance in 2022 to that end and he also has a 70-grade arm, which seems pretty explosive to me. He's now knocking on the door of the big leagues at a time when the Dodgers could really use their internal pitching depth to plug a few holes. There's a real shot he torches spring training, continues being ahead of schedule and grabs a spot in the big league lineup sooner than later in 2023, making me look a bit silly for hedging. Type: Power-and-patience outfielder with limited pro experience. Hall (6-3, 290) had a dominant start to last season with 4.5 sacks in Ohio State's first five games. He was dealt to Baltimore last summer as the headliner in a package for closer Jorge Lopez. He returned with some swing tweaks and performed well in 2022, hitting his way to High-A with 16 homers and 32 stolen bases. Despite being young at every level, he has demonstrated above average pitch selection and, at least average contact skills. Now let's move on to ranking baseball's top 100 prospects entering the 2023 MLB season. Collier went to junior college and reclassified into the 2022 draft class, but Johnson won the draft head-to-head. How the Savannah Bananas are changing the rules of baseball. He likely would've gotten more money with a full spring, but he had an up-and-down summer with some swing tinkering. Mayer isn't a burner and isn't traditionally explosive in the "I'd love to see this guy at an NFL combine" way, but he has all the little baseball-specific skills that are required to be a perennial All-Star. Type: Big power, fine contact, unclear position. Type: Plus fastball/breaking ball you see in late innings, but enough feel to be a starter. 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. Did Pats make Mac Jones happy? Jackson Jobe, RHP, Detroit Tigers 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. Rodriguez was part of Pittsburgh's return in the convoluted three-way deal that sent Joe Musgrove to San Diego, coming from the Mets for lefty Joey Lucchesi, who has thrown just 38 innings in the big leagues for New York. These tools also scale to commonly used numbers. Thats 87 players that the industry feels pretty good about -- nearly a top 100 of top 100-caliber players. He was ultimately expected to go in the second or third round, but somehow lasted until the Astros scooped him up in the fifth. Naylor has an excellent approach, good-not-great contact skills and 55-grade raw power along with sneaky average speed. 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. Carroll has plus feel for getting the bat head on the ball but even better pitch selection. The selling point here is Hassell can hit with a good approach. He is an average defender at first base, left field and right field, so there are clearly some options to get him in the lineup. His rise has been a slow burn as the Cards have tried to manage his workload, but Hence was outrageously good in 16 starts in Low-A last year. This isn't a true comparison, because most players don't have a one-for-one perfect analog. The Texans would jump at the chance to take Bryce Young 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. 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. The easy comparison as a 6-3, lefty-hitting shortstop is Corey Seager, but I don't think Mayer has the frame or projectability to get to the Seager or Carlos Correa level of power while also playing shortstop. Meyer was a personal favorite going back to his freshman year at Minnesota. It all adds up to arguably more upside at draft time than even Byron Buxton and almost any other prep hitter in recent memory. Grayson Rodriguez, RHP, Orioles. 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. Logan T. Allen didn't throw his changeup much in high school since it's more hittable by bad hitters than a good breaking ball. Johnson, like many of the hitters at the top of this list, has plus bat speed, pitch selection, raw power and in-game power. As a bad outcome, that's still a solid-average everyday player, so there's very little risk. His stuff spiked almost immediately, with 3-4 added ticks of velo giving him four above-average pitches with the same strong command, though his fastball doesn't have the en vogue bat-missing shape to it. Type: Square-framed corner type with big lefty thump. That's not what you normally see in an elite high school baseball prospect, but Ford also does the baseball stuff pretty well. Max Muncy, SS, Oakland Athletics Their late-first-round pick from the same draft (signed for underslot) is four slots later on this list and teams knew nothing about him until a few months before the draft. 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). Type: Late-blooming midrotation righty with a great changeup. 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. You'll also notice a heavy dose of left-handed hitters, many playing the premium position of shortstop, early on in the rankings. I'm using the same description as last year because Dominguez is still the same player. Dave & Adams Card World has announced a bounty on the autographed 1/1 SuperFractor in 2023 Bowman. 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. 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. Ji-Hwan Bae, 2B, Pittsburgh Pirates The big wave of Orioles prospects is almost here, with Rodriguez the potential ace of the group. 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. Abel was a standout pitching prospect early in high school, standing 6-foot-5 and getting into the mid-90s with feel for a breaking ball and throwing strikes. His in-zone miss rate (i.e. Panthers in awe after ousting 'unbelievable' Bruins, Curry sets G7 record with 50 as Dubs move on, Bills sign veteran RB Murray to one-year deal, Harper may return Tue., 160 days post-TJ surgery, Sources: Wrexham rewarded with Vegas trip, LB Barrett's 2-year-old daughter drowns in pool, Grizz's Brooks doesn't regret verbal jab at LeBron, Kraken win 1st playoff series, oust champion Avs, 'It's going to be epic': Stephen Curry and LeBron James face off -- again. Winn is one of the most physically gifted players on this list. That should tell you just how much upside the towering right fielder has, and just how disappointing his 2021 draft year performance was. Most importantly, Moreno is a definite catcher. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft, as an under slot choice that set up the rest of the Pirates' draft. Waldichuk is probably a midrotation starter but his polish, funk and 40-man roster status mean he might be that by midseason. Type: Gifted hitter, good-not-great tools.