With so many graduations, significant injuries and other changes among the top prospects in baseball since I ranked 100 of them back in January, I’m offering an earlier-than-usual update to those rankings with the top 50 prospects currently in the minors.
To be eligible for this list, a player must be currently playing in the minor leagues (including the injured list) and retain his eligibility for Rookie of the Year; thus Jordan Lawlar, Dalton Rushing, and Marcelo Mayer, among others, are ineligible because they’re in the majors.
I don’t use a model or any precise formula for these rankings, but because we are still in small sample-size territory, what you see here only reflects 2025 performance a little bit. New information, like someone adding a pitch or changing a swing, carries more weight than performance, as does significant injury that might affect a player’s short- or long-term outlook.
I’ve talked to pro scouts who’ve been out seeing players, as well as some execs, and reviewed data and video, in addition to the handful of prospects I’ve seen between spring training and regular-season games. When in doubt, I have deferred to the pre-2025 evaluation and outlook, because we’re only about a third of the way through the season.
In going through the exercise, though, I was surprised at how few “votes” I got for players who hadn’t been on the top 100 this winter. I’m sure there will be further breakouts as the year goes along, especially among younger players who might be in the complex leagues (there are none on this list except guys on rehab) or who are otherwise just ramping up, but right now, all 50 of these prospects were at least pretty good prospects coming into the year.
The next update will come after the draft, in late July, and will include the just-selected players.
(Note: Player tools are rated on the traditional 20-80 scouting scale. Ages are as of July 1, 2025. The shadow of the strike zone refers to pitches just off the edges of the strike zone.)
Team Arizona Diamondbacks Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Cincinnati Reds Cleveland Guardians Colorado Rockies Detroit Tigers Kansas City Royals Los Angeles Dodgers Milwaukee Brewers Minnesota Twins New York Mets New York Yankees Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants Seattle Mariners St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays Texas Rangers Toronto Blue Jays Washington Nationals
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Preseason 2025 Rank: 1
Anthony was hitting .321/453/.518 through Sunday’s games, making a ton of hard contact — his average exit velocity is just over 95 mph, and his 90th percentile EV is 109.4 mph. He has swung and missed more than you’d like to see, and he’s had trouble with changeups down and away, so I’m not rushing him to the majors right now, but he has performed exceptionally well overall for a 21-year-old in Triple A, and nobody has done enough to topple him from the throne.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 6
Clark’s approach may just be too good for High A, as he was hitting .282/.425/.408 with way more walks than strikeouts through Sunday, although nearly all of his damage with the stick has come against righties. He’s chased pitches beyond the shadow of the strike zone just 6 percent of the time, and his overall whiff rate is only 15 percent. I might consider challenging him with Double A sooner rather than later, even though his power hasn’t shown up yet and he may struggle at the outset, because his strike zone judgement is too advanced for his current level.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 2
Walcott is 19 in Double A, the same age as some high school players in this draft class, and was hitting a respectable .242/.335/.422 with a 23.2 percent strikeout rate through Sunday. He continues to show good strike zone judgment, drawing walks with a low chase rate on pitches beyond the shadow of the zone. I had a scout tell me earlier this year that his at-bats were significantly better than they were last year. His weak spots so far are what you’d expect — difficulty with the better off-speed stuff he’s seeing in Double A, which is the sort of thing that should improve with more reps given his history of making adjustments.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 3
Basallo has only played 30 games this year (through Sunday) but is in the top 10 in the International League with nine homers, and boasts a .245/.350/.559 line as the youngest player in his league (20). Unfortunately, he’s only caught a handful of games between a hamstring injury and now some elbow inflammation, getting more time at first base and DH. His bat could help the Orioles this year at some point, while his long-term upside is as a power-hitting catcher with strong OBP skills.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 12
I just saw Painter pitch in Triple A on a miserable weather night, and he was bumping 98 with a grade-70 curveball, and messing around with a slider that I’m not sure he needs. He’s got all the ingredients to be a front-line starter still, with the big fastball, at least one out-pitch, and a great delivery. He just needs to keep stretching out, and I guess we’ll see if the slider turns into a real weapon for him.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 5
Emerson has continued to make a ton of hard contact, but so far this year it’s been a lot more groundballs than ever before, with a 56.8 percent rate through this past weekend. He is hitting the ball harder this year though, and that’s produced some new challenges with his timing and ensuring that he’s meeting the ball in a way that’s going to put it in the air.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 19
Chandler might have the best overall fastball in the minors; it’s got incredible life up top and hitters just can’t connect with it, whiffing 39 percent of the time they swing at his four-seamer. He’s got a plus changeup as well that might end up a 70. He still hasn’t really figured out a consistent breaking pitch, throwing a curve and slider, neither of which has emerged as a 55 or better, but he just may not need it. He could be an ace with his athleticism and the two pitches he has now.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 42
Through Sunday, Arias was hitting .360/.406/.517 since his promotion to High A, and he’s still just 19 until November. He’s a true shortstop, he doesn’t punch out (8.3 percent at the higher level), and he has power. It’s electric on both sides of the ball and if there’s a flaw in his game, pitchers through the High-A level haven’t exposed it yet. He’s been groundball-heavy at 48 percent, but he’s also driving enough balls to get to some in-game power. Leave it to the Red Sox to graduate a top-10 prospect (Kristian Campbell) and immediately have someone else replace him.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 13
Miller got off to a cold start for Double-A Reading, even though their home park is very homer-friendly, but he’s been more like his 2024 self for the last month. He’s struck out about a third of the time in May, but it’s because he’s taken a lot of strikes, rather than swinging and missing, and I’d rather see the former than the latter because I think it’s easier to tell a guy to swing more than to teach a guy to recognize spin or distinguish balls and strikes.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 31
Do we have a good nickname for this kid yet? How about the Flying Dutchman? Taken? Oh. Well, he needs one, because he’s a phenom — I think that one’s taken, too — who’s been a well above league-average hitter as the youngest position player in the High-A Midwest League. He’s a switch hitter but in a small sample he’s been much better from the left side.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 4
Jenkins played two games this year before hitting the injured list with ankle soreness that began with a sprain in March and has lingered for nearly two months now. He’s so talented a hitter, but he’s also starting to resemble his namesake and frequent comp, Larry Walker, in an unfortunate way — a tendency to get hurt.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 32
Wetherholt has played about as many games this year in Double A as he did all last spring for the West Virginia Mountaineers, a good sign that maybe the hamstring issues that troubled him for the better part of a year are behind him. Oh, and he’s walked more than he’s struck out (by one, through Sunday), while hitting .288/.388/.440, and every scout I’ve talked to who’s seen him has raved about the bat. He’s played about 75 percent of his starts in the field at shortstop, the rest at second base, but I would bet on the latter being his ultimate position.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 60
Caglianone has been incredible in his first full pro season, hitting .322/.394/.553 in Double A with a strikeout rate of just 21.1 percent, more than earning a promotion to Triple A. He’s made clear adjustments at the plate and he is destroying pitches in the zone, although he will still expand the zone too easily and I think if he came to the majors right now, pitchers would exploit that enough to make him struggle. I’m quite sanguine about his ability to make further adjustments and cut down enough on the chase to get to the big leagues this year. Between Caglianone and right-hander David Shields, who’s looked very good in three starts so far in the lowest levels, scouting director Brian Bridges’ first draft looks like a great one.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 34
A rare bit of good news for Rockies fans this year, as Condon returned from a broken wrist and, after a tough first few games in the complex, has returned to High A. The early returns are positive, as he’s striking out far less often, including cutting his whiff rate on sliders from 44 percent last year to about 36 percent so far this year (although pitch data from the Northwest League is not that complete). He’s split time between left field and first base, with no games in right field yet, although that seemed like his most likely position before the draft last year.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 15
Quero missed all of 2024 with a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder that required surgery. He was back hitting in spring training, but then injured a hamstring before camp broke and has just gotten back into rehab games in the ACL this past week. He looked very rusty to me in March, so I’m kind of hoping they give him a long runway in the complex league before promoting him.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 23
McGonigle went 2-for-5 with two doubles on Opening Day, sprained his ankle running the bases, and didn’t return to High A until May 21. It’s been all of five games there, through Sunday, but I can’t exactly argue against a .526 OBP. He’s really good, but we already knew that, didn’t we?
Preseason 2025 Rank: 17
Salas is on the injured list with a stress reaction in his lower back, definitely not an injury you want your top catching prospect to have, and he won’t return to games until at least late June. He wasn’t off to a great start, either, and while, yes, he’s still 19 for a few more days and is the youngest player in Double A, he does have to produce at the plate at some point.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 18
I don’t think Mayo has forgotten how to hit, but I also don’t have any good explanations for why he’s been so bad in Triple A this year, including a .167/.262/.333 line with a 40 percent strikeout rate (through Sunday’s games) since the Orioles sent him back down on May 9. He hit .287/.364/.562 there last year, so either he’s injured or he’s trying too hard to hit his way back to the majors. I doubt they’re keen to call him up again until he rights the ship, but I don’t think it’s time to change the long-term outlook, either.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 21
Rodriguez is another example in the long, long list of reasons why I don’t look at stats until we at least get well into May. After a slow start and an IL stint, he’s taken off in the last month, hitting .250/.451/.577 through Sunday’s games, with all four of his homers on the season to date. He’s still exceptionally patient, often to a fault, with plus power that might mean 30 homers a year if he stays healthy enough to play a full season.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 38
There’s been a lot of good news on the hitting side for the White Sox’s farm system this year, and Montgomery’s pro debut might head the list. Acquired in the Garrett Crochet trade, Montgomery didn’t play after the draft last year due to a broken ankle, so the White Sox started him in Low A, where he did what an SEC product should do at that level by hitting .304/.393/.493. They moved him up to High A and he has continued to hit (.295/.388/.534 through Sunday), with a strikeout rate under 20 percent. He’s played more center than right, although I think in the long run he’ll end up in the corner spot. He was No. 4 on my draft rankings last year, and so far he’s living up to that potential.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 24
By the time this column runs, Celesten will have set a career high in plate appearances, as he had just 144 last year before getting hurt, so that alone is progress. He’s also making contact at a high rate and showing some incipient power while playing solid defense at short, all as a relatively inexperienced 19-year-old in Low A.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 29
I’d say this is about what I expected from Eldridge in his first real go-round in Double A: He’s hitting for average and power but is striking out at a higher rate than you’d like from a prospect of his caliber. He’s 6-7, so his strike zone is huge, and we haven’t seen many hitters that size succeed in MLB history because of the inherent contact issues. Eldridge was hitting .294/.363/.510 in 28 games with a 27.4 percent strikeout rate through Sunday, although there’s good news within there, as he’s continued to improve in all aspects of his performance as the season has progressed, and that could be meaningful because he missed much of spring training and part of April with a wrist injury.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 26
De Paula has seven homers already (through Sunday), so he’s probably going to blow past his total from last year of 10, and he continues to show exceptional plate discipline, walking more than he’s struck out as a 20-year-old in High A. He should be in Tulsa by the All-Star break.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 37
Teel’s season to date has been impeccable — not only does he continue to hit for average (.293) and get on base (14.7 percent walk rate, .397 OBP), but he’s hitting for more power (.490 SLG, seven homers through Sunday vs. 13 in all of 2024) and the batted-ball data backs it up. He’s even mashing against lefties in a tiny sample. I don’t think he’s much longer for Triple A or for this list.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 25
I’m worried about this one, not because Bazzana’s hurt and out for a while with an oblique strain, but because he has started to have trouble with contact due to his very steep swing, striking out 28 percent of the time in Double A before the injury. I’ve also had less than glowing reports on his defense at second base. If he’s a left fielder, and the contact skill isn’t what it appeared to be, his most likely outcome isn’t close to what it seemed last spring.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 40
Burns was the top college pitching prospect in the 2024 draft class and he’s held serve so far, dominating High A and Double A, with a 42.4 percent strikeout rate at the higher level. Hitters are whiffing on the slider over half the time they swing at it on the year, and the upper-90s fastball is missing enough bats even though it can be a little true. If I’m nitpicking, he has a decent changeup and needs to throw it more; he’s not going to be a big-league starter just as a four-seamer/slider guy, as lefties are slugging .370 off him this year. Get the changeup working, maybe mix in a sinker or cutter just to keep hitters from cheating on the four-seamer, and he’s a No. 2 starter.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 98
Lombard struggled in High A to finish 2024, then destroyed the same level in 24 games to start this year, so the Yankees moved their 2023 first-rounder up to Double A after just a month. He’s been fine there, getting on base (.397, more walks than strikeouts) but with some timing issues at the plate that have meant he hasn’t squared the ball up much. He’s going to make that adjustment given some time, and he looks fantastic at shortstop beyond a drop-down arm stroke that has his throws tailing down and away from the first baseman. He’s some sort of star, but with a pretty wide variance in that category.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 78
Milwaukee’s entire Low-A roster had a bananas month of April, with a team OBP over .400, but it was fluky, a function of some luck and some weak competition. Made was a big part of that, hitting .320/.420/.429 in April, then .243/.380/.311 through 20 games of May — which isn’t bad at all for a kid who was still 17 when the month started. He has excellent ball-strike recognition, but his overall approach is, well, young, as he gets much more aggressive the moment he falls behind in the count. He’s extremely talented, though, and the fact that he’s doing what he’s doing in full-season ball when he’s younger than just about every high school player who’ll be selected in July is a great sign.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 8
Williams’ season to date has been a disappointment, but not entirely a surprise: he’s had high strikeout rates at every level, probably the highest for anyone I’ve ever put on a top 100 list, and that issue has caught up to him in Triple A. He’s punched out 37.6 percent of the time this year, and it’s an across-the-board issue, with too much chase and also too much whiff in zone, especially on sliders. He still has the foundation of defense, speed, and some pop, which would allow him to succeed in the majors even at a strikeout rate of, say, 25-27 percent. He turns 22 in June, so he’s got time … but his time, like all of ours, is finite.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 20
I am a wee bit concerned about some of these White Sox pitching prospects’ walk rates this year, with Schultz seeing his walk rate in Double A nearly double from 2024 to this year; maybe MLB secretly replaced the regular baseball with Folger’s crystals like they did in the first part of 2023. Schultz still destroys left-handed batters, but righties have a .337/.457/.471 line against him this year, and the White Sox have had him throw a cutter more to try to find an effective weapon when he doesn’t have the platoon advantage.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 33
It’s been a mediocre start for the “Jaguar” in Triple A, as pitchers there are attacking him with sliders and sweepers, and he hasn’t made enough of an adjustment yet, whether they’re in or out of the zone. The enormous upside is still here, as he’s a center fielder with a hard-hit rate of 52.6 percent and 90th percentile EV of 109.3 mph this year. He should stay in Triple A until he sees real improvement in his contact rates and shows he can lay off sliders out of the zone.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 39
Hence got hurt again, unfortunately, only making his 2025 debut with a single inning in Low A on May 21. This time the injury was a right rib cage strain, at least, not an arm injury, and he had decent velocity in his return, topping out at 95.1 mph with a low of 91.6. Assuming his elite changeup is still there, I’m going to stick with him as a potential mid-rotation or better starter, but the guy’s inability to stay healthy is a real concern.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 61
Williams is fully healthy again and he’s playing a lot more like he did in 2023, drawing walks and stinging the ball with surprising pop for a fun-sized player. Injuries limited him to 33 regular-season games last year, but he’s already surpassed that, with a .284/.373/.485 line in Double A through Sunday, and the Mets have started playing him a little in center field since shortstop is rather occupied in Flushing for the foreseeable future. His plate discipline is truly elite; he has swung at pitches well out of the zone just 8 percent of the time this year, so those high OBPs are very likely to carry him to everyday status and beyond.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 65
Waldschmidt was a steal for the Diamondbacks at the 31st pick last year, and he’s been one of the best hitters from the 2024 draft class in the last 10 months. He’s hit .290/.459/.469 through Sunday in High A with more walks than strikeouts, and that strikeout rate is under 20 percent. Normally I’d be banging the table arguing for a promotion, but Arizona’s Double-A affiliate plays in Amarillo and that is one of the best home-run parks anywhere in the minors, so there’s some argument that it’s better to develop guys a little longer in the more neutral Northwest League environment before sending them to Amarillo and then onward to the surface of the moon (Reno). He’s the sort of impact, middle-of-the-order bat most teams will tell you is really hard to find.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 46
He can hit. I still do not see how he can catch between his body and his arm; he’s never thrown out more than 20 percent of runners in any full season, and he’s at just 12 percent this year in Triple A. His contact skills are some of the best in the minors, and he’s got enough juice in the bat to be an everyday player even if he’s a DH, with a 90th percentile EV of 106.5 mph and hard-hit rate of 40 percent. He’d be a star if he could stick behind the plate; I just don’t believe that’s in the cards. Or the Cubs.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 45
Young should see the majors sooner rather than later, with the Mariners getting so little OBP from five lineup spots. He’s had a power surge this month, mostly from playing road games in some of the PCL’s higher-altitude parks, but his OBP of .372 and high contact rate are consistent with his track record from the lower levels, and that alone would help Seattle’s lineup. He’s only played shortstop and second, the latter his better position, so they’d have to shift some guys around to fit him in. Regardless of where he plays, though, I think he’s ready or very close to it.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 71
I said Blue Jays fans should keep the faith with Nimmala, and he is rewarding the ones who remained devoted, as through Sunday he was hitting .286/.368/.540 as a 19-year-old in High A, with just an 18.4 percent strikeout rate. He’s second in the Northwest League in homers, one behind the massive Lazaro Montes, and he’s still at shortstop and at least an average defender there. Sometimes it just takes a minute for guys to adjust, especially without the intermediate step of short-season ball available to them.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 44
Pratt’s 2025 to date hasn’t been that impressive, but he basically skipped High A entirely, playing just 23 games there at the end of last year and moving up to Double A to start this season, so the .245/.331/.374 line through Sunday looks better in context. He remains an elite defender at short and he is making a lot of contact, with power still the primary thing lacking from his game.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 58
Hope just keeps improving, hitting .292/.380/.497 so far in High A, even though he only played 55 games in Low A last year around some injuries. He’s hitting for a little more power this year, and striking out less, although he’s chased pitches well out of the zone more than he did the prior year. He’s improved so much so quickly, from his conditioning to his pitch recognition, that he seems likely to continue doing so as he moves up the ladder.
Preseason 2025 Rank: Unranked
Escobar was excellent last year in a small sample around time missed due to shin splints that limited him to 104 PA. This year the 20-year-old moved up to Low A for the first time and he’s hitting .327/.432/.528, already doubling his career home run total with eight on the season. He makes a ton of contact, with just a 23 percent whiff rate this year, and boasts a hard-hit rate of 47.6 percent; there’s probably even more power in there but his swing tends to flatten out for more groundballs and low line drives. He’s a 45 runner out of the box and should be fine at second base, where he’s played exclusively this year for Clearwater. I’d like to see a little more consistent loft in his swing, but he’s also hit eight homers in the Florida State League so maybe never mind. He really looks like he’s going to hit a lot, and that buys him time to figure out everything else. I’m being selfish here since I’d have an easier time seeing him play, but I hope he’s in High A soon.
Philadelphia Phillies
2B
3B
Preseason 2025 Rank: Unranked
Sloan was the Mariners’ 2024 second-round pick (No. 55 pick), but has quickly emerged as the best teenaged pitching prospect in the class. He’s been up to 100 with a plus changeup, and he’s added a kick-change — it’s the latest fashion, like a spreading disease — that has some filthy late tumble to it. He’s only walked 6.9 percent of batters so far, a huge positive for any teenaged pitcher jumping into full-season ball. The Mariners have taken it easy with him, as they should given how hard he’s throwing already, and he does need to throw the changeup more to get lefties out since he’s had a modest platoon split this year.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 41
It’s time for Crawford to rework that swing; he’s doing everything else right, showing elite speed, putting the ball in play a ton, playing plus defense in center, but he continues to put the ball on the ground way too often. It’s entirely mechanical, and a player this athletic with this kind of hand speed should be able to make the needed changes. He’s still productive, hitting .328/.395/.437, but I have seen the above-average to plus raw power in there in BP and if he gets that into games he’s a star.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 54
Genao just started his 2025 season with a few rehab games in the ACL, returning from a right shoulder sprain he suffered at the end of spring training, so he’s here on the basis of his 2024 showing and a glimpse of him in March before the injury. He’s a switch hitter who’s come into power, probably moving off shortstop but with good actions and instincts to maybe stay at short in the … uh, short term. He looked fantastic when I saw him in March, so aside from the rust of not facing live pitching for about eight weeks, he should be in for a big year.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 70
Rainer can really play defense, with at least a 70 arm, and he’s got power, with five homers already in 29 games through Sunday and a 55 percent hard-hit rate to back it up. His hit tool lags behind the other parts of his game; he’s whiffed 31 percent of the time he’s swung, although it’s not what I expected — he’s had way more trouble with off-speed stuff than he has with good velocity the few times he’s seen it. At worst, he seems like a low-OBP regular at short who has 20-homer power and plus defense.
Preseason 2025 Rank: Unranked
The No. 21 pick in 2024, Culpepper didn’t hit in a brief stint in High A last year, but this year he’s been much more like the hitter he was at Kansas State, hitting .315/.420/.504 with a 17.3 percent strikeout rate through Sunday. The Twins have also helped him cut down on some of the tendency to chase that kept him from going somewhere in the top half of the first round, whether it’s including all pitches outside the zone (24 percent this year, versus 31 percent in college) or those well outside the zone (19 percent, down from 24 percent). He’s an above-average shortstop who might get a little better with more consistency, and I might have undersold his bat a little on draft day.
Preseason 2025 Rank: Unranked
The Password, as he is known, has taken a pretty significant step forward this year off a breakout year in 2024. He’s swinging less often, which has also meant that he’s whiffing less and he’s chasing less, and he’s still hitting the ball hard — although the surface results haven’t been there yet. The Red Sox bumped him up to Triple A last week and in his first six games there he homered twice, at 106 and 109 mph. It’s plus power, a significantly improved approach, and, well, he should move to right field.
Preseason 2025 Rank: 96
Toronto’s first two picks from last year’s draft both started out in Low A as college products, dominating the lower level, before recent promotions to High A. Yesavage, their first-rounder, has been 92-96 with a wipeout splitter, the same as he had in college, a pitch with such unusual movement for its type that Statcast calls it a cutter. After a weird first start, where he walked six in a game that featured 32 walks between the two teams, he went on a tear, with 51 strikeouts and two walks in his next 29 innings before his promotion. He has been wilder in his two starts for Vancouver, in just eight innings. Right-hander Khal Stephen, their second-round pick from last year, has been almost as good, with a much-improved changeup, although he’s not missing as many bats as Yesavage has.
Preseason 2025 Rank: Unranked
Dickerson started the year in the complex league, a rare but laudable choice for a player who earned first-round money in the draft, and hit so well there in a week that the Nats bumped him up to Low A anyway. He’s been mashing, with excellent swing decisions, and a .295/.373/.523 line in a tiny sample (51 PA) through this past weekend’s games for Fredericksburg. He’s only played shortstop this year but the early take is that he’s not going to stick there. If this very brief performance with the bat is any indication at all, it won’t matter.
Preseason 2025 Rank: Just missed
Farmelo was racing towards my July top 60 last year when he tore his ACL making a play in center field, ending his season and at least creating some possibility that his plus speed and defense wouldn’t be there when he returned. The Mariners bumped him up to High A to start this season even with the 10-month layoff, so he had to both shake off the rust and face a higher caliber of pitching, but there are some recent indicators he’s getting back to his pre-injury self at the plate. I don’t love the setup and the big hand move backwards, but as long as he hits I wouldn’t touch it.
Preseason 2025 Rank: Unranked
Tong works heavily off his fastball, throwing it almost 60 percent of the time, and gets a ton of misses on the pitch, especially when he works in the upper third. He comes from a high slot that hitters can’t pick up and works off the fastball with a 12/6 curveball and solid changeup. He’s also picked up some velocity this year, sitting more 92-95 and touching 98. The only real caveat here is that it’s a very uncommon arm slot for a starter; over-the-top guys do not pitch well east-west, and that includes Tong, and it’s not very easy on the shoulder to throw from up there. It’s so effective, and Tong does it so well already without a ton of experience (he has 172 pro innings as I write this), that I think you just have to go with it and consider that he might be an exception. Hitters seem to think so.
Prospects not in the big leagues who have dropped out of the top 50
Rhett Lowder, RHP, Cincinnati Reds (injured all year)
Nick Yorke, IF, Pittsburgh Pirates (swing change, for the worse)
Demetrio Crisantes, IF, Arizona Diamondbacks (shoulder surgery, out for the year, losing critical at-bats)
Hagen Smith, LHP, Chicago White Sox (real concerns about his control, 18.7 percent walk rate this year)
Thayron Liranzo, C/1B, Detroit Tigers (really struggling to hit off-speed stuff in Double A)
Brandon Sproat, RHP, New York Mets (struggling with walks and hard contact)
Other players I considered, in alphabetical order
Caleb Bonemer, IF, Chicago White Sox
Enrique Bradfield Jr., OF, Baltimore Orioles
Theo Gillen, IF, Tampa Bay Rays
Joe Mack, C, Miami Marlins
Cooper Ingle, C, Cleveland Guardians
Seaver King, IF, Washington Nationals
Tyson Lewis, IF, Cincinnati Reds
Luis Peña, IF, Milwaukee Brewers
Connor Prielipp, LHP, Minnesota Twins
Eduardo Quintero, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers
Mike Sirota, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers
Khal Stephen, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays
James Tibbs III, OF, San Francisco Giants
(Photo illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos (left to right): Sebastian Walcott, Roman Anthony, Samuel Basallo / Emilee Chinn and Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)