With top 20 voting for Cleveland Guardians prospects in 2026 in our rear view, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the players our readers selected and see what trends and other potential information stands out about them.<\/p>\n
Before we get started, here\u2019s the top 20 in its entirety: So how does the top 20 break down?<\/p>\n Outfield: Nine (DeLauter, Velazquez, Brito, Chourio, Watson, Valera, LaViolette, Rosario, Caceres).<\/p>\n Infield: Four (w\/ Bazzana, Velazquez, Genao, Brito).<\/p>\n Starting pitcher: Seven (Messick, Doughty, Stephen, Espino, Oakie, Gomez, Hartle).<\/p>\n Relievers: Two (Daniel Espino, Andrew Walters).<\/p>\n 19 and under: Two (Caceres, Oakie).<\/p>\n 20-21: Five (Velazquez, Genao, Doughty, Chourio, Rosario).<\/p>\n 22-23: Seven (Bazzana, Stephen, Ingle, Watson, LaViolette, Hartle, Gomez).<\/p>\n 24 and up: Six (DeLauter, Messick, Brito, Espino, Valera, Walters).<\/p>\n By proximity (highest level played)<\/p>\n MLB: Four (DeLauter, Messick, Valera, Walters).<\/p>\n AAA: Five (Bazzana, Ingle, Brito, Watson, Espino).<\/p>\n AA: Six (Velazquez, Genao, Stephen, Rosario, Gomez, Hartle).<\/p>\n A: Three (Doughty, Oakie, Caceres).<\/p>\n Positions players batting stance<\/p>\n LHH: Eight (DeLauter, Bazzana, Velazquez, Ingle, Watson, Valera, LaViolette, Caceres).<\/p>\n SH: Three (Genao, Brito, Chourio).<\/p>\n RHP: Six (Doughty, Stephen, Espino, Oakie, Gomez, Walters).<\/p>\n LHP: Two (Messick, Hartle).<\/p>\n To me, it\u2019s the number of outfield prospects in our top 20. After years of hearing Cleveland can\u2019t develop outfielders, the system suddenly is flush with them, having nine that can technically play there in the top 20 prospects (counting Velazquez and Brito, who have taken some reps there). That also doesn\u2019t include players outside the top 20 like Petey Halpin, who already got the call to MLB last year and held his own as a rookie in a small sample size.<\/p>\n Another standout is the lack of right-handed bats. Cleveland has one right-handed hitter in its top 20, outfielder Alfonsin Rosario. We\u2019re a long way from having right-handed sluggers Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez in the lineup. Technically, three others can hit right-handed with three switch hitters in the top 20, but the system\u2019s position players definitely lean left-centric when it comes to batting stance.<\/p>\n Starting pitching depth could be an issue as well. Parker Messick is the only pitcher in the team\u2019s top 20 prospects who played at the Triple-A or MLB level last year (technically, Daniel Espino\u2019s 0.2 innings count, but do they? And will he be able to start?). There are some solid arms in the system, but Khal Stephen, Yorman Gomez and Josh Hartle all finished last year at Double-A and still need some seasoning while youngsters like Joey Oakie and Braylon Doughty are a ways away yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With top 20 voting for Cleveland Guardians prospects in 2026 in our rear view, I thought it would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,38367,2565,538,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-596282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-cleveland-guardians-prospects-minor-leagues","12":"tag-clevelandguardians","13":"tag-guardians","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116143294309625316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
1. Chase DeLauter, LHH OF<\/a>
2. Travis Bazzana, LHH 2B<\/a>
3. Parker Messick, LHP<\/a>
4. Ralphy Velazquez, LHH 1B\/RF<\/a>
5. Angel Genao, SH SS<\/a>
6. Braylon Doughty, RHP<\/a>
7. Cooper Ingle, LHH C<\/a>
8. Khal Stephen, RHP<\/a>
9. Juan Brito, SH 2B\/1B\/RF\/3B<\/a>
10. Jaison Chourio, SH OF<\/a>
11. Kahlil Watson, LHH OF<\/a>
12. Daniel Espino, RHP<\/a>
13. George Valera, LHH OF<\/a>
14. Jace LaViolette, LHH OF<\/a>
15. Joey Oakie, RHP<\/a>
16. Alfonsin Rosario, RHH OF<\/a>
17. Juneiker Caceres, LHH OF<\/a>
18. Yorman Gomez, RHP<\/a>
19. Josh Hartle, LHP<\/a>
20. Andrew Walters, RHP<\/a><\/p>\n