Format = Team Position Player | Age | Level | ETA
1. Red Sox OF Roman Anthony | 20 | AAA | 2025
2. Athletics 1B Nick Kurtz | 22 | MLB | 2025
3. Royals 1B Jac Caglianone | 22 | AAA | 2025
4. Brewers SS Jesus Made | 18 | A | 2028
5. Rangers SS Sebastian Walcott | 19 | AA | 2026
6. Padres SS Leo De Vries | 18 | A+ | 2027
7. Reds RHP Chase Burns | 22 | AA | 2025
Interesting times at the top. Made and De Vries both feel like a smart place to put your money during these volatile economic times. Kurtz and Caglianone get these spots partly for floor, but they’re also closer to the Torkelson-Vaughn vortex than anyone in the lower minors. Gotta try to account for all facets of reality, and in doing that, I can see Chase Burns making a Skenesian impact over the final stretch this season. The pitcher penalty felt pretty outdated as I watched him dominate. The only thing most people can agree on here is that Anthony represents the best combination of proximity, probability and potential.
8. Orioles C 1B Samuel Basallo | 20 | AAA | 2025
9. Giants 1B Bryce Eldridge | 20 | AA | 2025
10. Diamondbacks SS Jordan Lawlar | 22 | AAA | 2023
11. Cubs 3B Matt Shaw | 23 | MLB | 2025
I believe in Basallo, but it’s tricky to rock a rhyme that’s right on time, and Baltimore’s been missing the beat. Lawlar’s in a similar scenario. Laws seem pretty fluid these days in general. As does the future. I’ll miss the Eldridge puns once he’s graduated. Give the board game Eldritch Horror a try if you’re looking for a fun couple of hours.
12. Pirates RHP Bubba Chandler | 22 | AAA | 2025
13. Phillies RHP Andrew Painter | 22 | AAA | 2025
14. Dodgers RHP Roki Sasaki | 23 | MLB | 2025
15. Cubs RHP Cade Horton | 23 | MLB | 2025
Tough to punish Sasaki too much for pitching with a new baseball while adjusting to a new continent and perhaps pushing through an injury for a little while. Painter looks good on the road back. Chandler . . . I wrote a few jokes in bad taste here (too soon), so I’m just going to move along. I like him the best of this trio, talent wise, but he’s in the worst org of the three, but . . .
16. Dodgers OF Josue De Paula | 19 | A+ | 2027
17. Pirates SS Konnor Griffin | 19 | A | 2029
18. Red Sox SS Marcelo Mayer | 22 | MLB | 2025
19. Dodgers OF Zyhir Hope | 20 | A+ | 2027
20. Red Sox SS Franklin Arias | 19 | A+ | 2028
21. Phillies OF Justin Crawford | 21 | AAA | 2025
Here we are again. Griffin is an extreme talent and my favorite of the group, but he’s a Pirate, so Yarrrr. Arias is still underrated somehow, in the echo chamber sort of way. Hope and De Paula are monsters. They’re looking like the next jolt in a team that doesn’t need one.
22. Twins OF Walker Jenkins | 20 | AA | 2026
23. Guardians 2B Travis Bazzana | 21 | A+ | 2026
Injured dudes who should be higher than this and will be soon enough.
24. Cubs RHP Daniel Palencia | 23 | MLB | 2024
25. Orioles 3B Coby Mayo | 23 | AAA | 2024
I’m setting these two aside mostly because it interests me to pose the questions: Who would you prefer on a contending team? Who would you prefer on a rebuilding one? For me, it’s clearly Palencia either way, but I know I’m a closer-pusher, so I have to pump the brakes sometimes. Still, how could you trade Palencia out of a contending lineup to add an indefinite Mayo to your minor leagues. And even when he comes up next, will he hit? Will he stay? Gimme Palencia.
26. Tigers SS Kevin McGonigle | 20 | A+ | 2026
27. Blue Jays SS Arjun Nimmala | 19 | A+ | 2027
28. Cardinals SS JJ Wetherholt | 21 | AA | 2025
29. Mariners SS Cole Young | 21 | AAA | 2025 .409 w 5 HR 4 SB in last 22 games
30. Brewers RHP Jacob Misiorowski | 22 | AAA | 2025
31. Cubs C Moises Ballesteros | 21 | AAA | 2025
32. Rangers RHP Kumar Rocker | 25 | MLB | 2024
This part of the list feels pretty strong for this time of the year. McGonigle and Nimmala are hitters in search of their level. Neither should be in High-A much longer. The Cardinals being in contention gives them incentive to push Wetherholt, who’s at 128 wRC+ with more walks than strikeouts through 33 games. Skills wise, Young has graduated Triple-A. Just waiting for an opening now on a team that’s got plenty in waiting. Ballesteros is teetering close to the O’s zone in the sense that he has no path to playing time. The club even reached around him to grab Reese McGuire, who erupted early for two home runs in his first game. Rocker’s just as hard to rank, but he was great in his latest rehab start and has a path to a quick value boost.
33. Nationals RHP Travis Sykora | 20 | A+ | 2026
34. Tigers OF Max Clark | 20 | A+ | 2026
35. Brewers SS Luis Pena | 18 | A | 2028
36. Guardians OF Chase DeLauter | 23 | AAA | 2025
37. White Sox LHP Noah Schultz | 21 | AA | 2025
38. Twins 2B Luke Keaschall | 22 | MLB | 2025
39. Angels 2B Christian Moore | 22 | AAA | 2025
40. Athletics RHP Luis Morales | 22 | AAA | 2025
Here we break from the tram lines because I’m not as high on Shultz as others. Bad org plus he’s 6’10” and might need pretty good coaching to actualize. Clark’s another guy I’m just not that into, compared to what I perceive to be his value in the echo chamber. DeLauter is back on the field and hitting bombs after missing a couple months. Sykora, Pena and Morales are all in a hurry to jump up the list. Keaschall would be higher if healthy. Moore is playing like he’ll be higher a month from now. Keith Law skeeted some snooty snark when the club promoted him to Triple-A, but he was good in Double-A last year and had been playing well for a few weeks at the time of his promotion. He’s slashing .361/.455/.472 through nine games at the level.
41. Nationals 3B Brady House | 22 | AAA | 2025
42. Mariners C Harry Ford | 22 | AAA | 2026
43. Tigers 1B Josue Briceño | 20 | A+ | 2026
44. Rays OF Brailer Guerrero | 18 | A | 2028
45. Mets SS Jett Williams | 21 | AA | 2025
46. Dodgers C OF Dalton Rushing | 24 | MLB | 2025
House could soon provide shelter for those in search of some help at the hot corner. His 27.3 percent strikeout rate suggests it might take a while before he develops into a home, but he’s got ten home runs and a 120 wRC+ through 51 games, and Washington does not have a third baseman. Ford is cruising through a fun season in Tacoma, slashing .315/.431/.483 with six home runs and three stolen bases in 39 games. He’s still behind the plate, but they’ve moved him around in the past, so perhaps they have confidence he can kick in where they need him when they need him. Can’t have too many talented catchers. I’m not sure Dalton Rushing would agree with that. Probably fine to pump the brakes a bit and let a young backstop learn from the bench to ease the transition anyway. I suspect the level of information they have about opposing hitters and their own pitchers can be overwhelming compared to what catchers built gameplans around in the minor leagues. Briceño hit three home runs the other night. He’s shown an aptitude for getting hot, so this might not be an isolated incident. Looks like a middle-order force.
47. Yankees SS George Lombard Jr. | 19 | AA | 2027
48. Rays 1B Xavier Isaac | 21 | AA | 2026
49. Mariners OF Lazaro Montes | 20 | A+ | 2026
50. Reds RHP Luis Mey | MLB | 2025
Lombard Jr. has struggled to hit Double-A pitching, but he’s taking his walks (18.4%) and turns 20 tomorrow (June 2), so it’d be foolish to worry about his first 20 games at a level where he’s 3.7 years younger than the average age. Isaac missed some time with injury but is slugging .565 with six home runs and a 186 wRC+ through 22 games. He’s bounced around the rankings a bit, but development isn’t linear, and he too is younger than the league he’s in. Montes is almost at 100 High-A games as I research for the list (97 as I type). He posted a 120 wRC+ in 51 games there last year and has a 146 through 46 games this year. Should join the other young sluggers in his group at Double-A before long. I wanted to make sure Mey made the list because this is a fantasy list. People say closers come and go, but that’s not really the case. If you land a Robert Suarez or Felix Bautista at the right time, you have a closer now. Maybe until they retire. I remember one year Emmanuel Clase went at the end of the fifth round of a first-year-player draft (not to me) because he wasn’t yet the closer. Everyone knew he was a monster. Just thought the job would go to someone else (Karinchak or a veteran). I suppose he’s part of the reason I remember the lesson so well. The guy who got Clase has won that league five out of six seasons.
Thanks for reading!
