Kiley McDaniel at ESPN was the latest national evaluator to unveil an updated prospect ranking, releasing an updated top 50 prospect list on Wednesday.
The Dodgers are well represented, with three of the top 21 prospects.
Dalton Rushing, who made his major league debut last Thursday, is ranked 14th, a modest jump from No. 16 overall in January. Josue De Paula similarly rose from 20th in January to No. 17 now. Both Rushing and De Paula were in McDaniel’s tier of prospects with 60 future value on the 20-80 scouting scale.
Zyhir Hope made the largest jump on the ESPN list, now ranked 21st, up from 70th in January. He’s in the 55 future value tier on McDaniel’s list
The 20-year-old Hope, who is hitting .293/.393/.500 with a 146 wRC+ for High-A Great Lakes, also made leaps in recent updated rankings at both MLB Pipeline (from 75th to 45th) and Baseball America (from 45th to No. 39).
Patrick Copen had a strong two starts last week for High-A Great Lakes, with 18 strikeouts and only two runs allowed in 13⅔ innings. It wasn’t enough to win Midwest League pitcher of the week, but Copen did get recognized this week on the Baseball America prospect hot sheet.
“The righthander showed off his command and ability to pound the zone against the Guardians’ High-A team this week, but really, he’s been one of the most reliable arms in the rotation all season,” Jesús Cano at BA wrote. “He’s given up just one home run across 39.1 innings.”