IBC

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/

5.
Emil Morales
Pos: SS
Born: 2006-09-22
B: Right
T: Right
H: 6′ 3″
W: 191 lbs.
History: Signed January 15, 2024 out of the Dominican Republic for $1,897,500.
Previous Rank: #6 (org)
Major League ETA: 2028

The Report: For a change of pace, here’s an infielder who hits the ball hard in the air, with strong swing decisions underpinning his approach. Morales has more or less held serve from his 2024 ranking, which is a very good thing, considering the jump from the foreign complex to Arizona isn’t small. He got a fair bit of time in the Cal League as an 18-year-old as well, showing off a leveraged swing generating plus power to all fields. Of the bevvy of teenaged IFA prospects in this system, Morales is the most fully formed power bat, looking to pull the ball in the air, and making his hardest contact in an optimal vertical spray. The approach and swing—grip it and rip it with a high back elbow—means there will be swing-and-miss in the zone, but Morales did make the jump to full-season ball with his underlying—if fringy—hit tool traits intact. That he did this all as an 18-year-old with plenty of physical projection left is quite heartening. If you want to nitpick, he does have trouble slowing down his operation and staying back against offspeed, and shows more a ‘C’ swing than ‘B’ swing against Low-A same-side spin. All that said, 2025 was a mostly unqualified success for Morales.

Like his cohorts above, Morales is in the “maybe” bucket for a premium defensive spot. He may just fill out too much to stick at shortstop—it’s not a long list of players over 6-foot-3 at the six—but he’s good on the move, rangy and with good body control for his size. Morales has enough arm for the left side, but his throwing mechanics can be inconsistent and he can misread the game speed even in the low minors. Some of that should come out with more infield reps, but he might be better suited for the hot corner in time.

OFP: 60 / First-division infielder
Variance: High. Morales has mashed at a very young age, but he’s also done it in high offensive environments and with a swing and approach that will be tested by better offspeed in the Midwest League. You can also squint and see the highest upside in the Dodgers system here.

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/

2.
Ethan Salas
Pos: C/DH
Born: 2006-06-01
B: Left
T: Right
H: 6′ 1″
W: 185 lbs.
History: Signed January 2023 out of Venezuela.
Previous Ranking(s): #2 (org), #40 (Top 101)
Major-league ETA: Still 2027, I guess

The Report: The short-form version: Salas played 10 games in the Texas League before being shut down with a back injury. He was supposed to play in the AFL, but was held back.

The longer-form version: Salas’s single full season in pro baseball was in 2024, when he posted a .599 OPS as an 18-year-old in the Midwest League. He has never seen an age-appropriate level, but he’s also never hit for any extended period or stayed healthy. Scouts have lauded his defense behind the plate, but he’s caught 109 games in three seasons, and the low-minors framing data is not nearly as bullish. It’s fair to say that holding the line too much year-over-year on Salas would be a legacy ranking—something we have been trying to move away from for a while now. But what legacy are we even protecting?

Prospect writers went a bit goo-goo eyed over a 17-year-old catching prospect who played in Double-A (it’s me, I’m one of the prospect writers), and to Salas’s credit, his underlying performance data in Lake Elsinore back then was pretty darn good for his age. You could see the outline of both above-average hit and power tools. But he’s never actually sat behind the plate for a year, and dominated at age-appropriate levels the way Alfredo Duno or Rainiel Rodriguez have. Salas is about the same age as Duno and Euardo Tait now, and it’s hard to believe he’s the better prospect. He should be back in 2026. He’ll likely return to the Texas League as a still-young-for-hit-level 20-year-old. But Salas is now a 20-year-old catching prospect with a back injury who hasn’t hit above Low-A.

OFP: 55 / Above-average catcher
Variance: Very High. Ignoring all the other background noise of the Ethan Salas prospect evaluation experience, he’s now missed an entire year with a stress fracture in his back.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/seattle-mar ... prospects/

7. Jurrangelo Cijntje, SP
Drafted: 1st Round, 2024 from Mississippi State (SEA)
Age 22.6 Height 5′ 11″ Weight 200 Bat / Thr S / S FV 50
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops
55/60 50/60 50/60 30/40 94-97 / 99
Cijntje is a switch-pitcher with a gorgeous delivery from both sides of the rubber. Naturally left-handed, the Curaçao native has been switch-pitching since he was a kid, and is now far better as a righty. He was also a solid prospect as a hitter, and was drafted by Milwaukee as a shortstop out of high school. It’s a stunning collection of abilities, and Cijntje is in the running for the best athlete, with the best body control, in all of the minor leagues.

Right-handed Cijntje is a Dude. He’s touched 99 mph and sits in the mid-to-high 90s with bat-missing carry. The slider and change both flash plus, and when he’s in a groove, he can pump strikes and move the ball around the plate. Catch him on the right day and you might put a no. 2 grade on him. But he’s inconsistent, perhaps not unexpectedly given how many reps he’s lost. His velo can dip mid-outing, and (and this is true from both sides of the rubber) he’ll lose his release point and start spraying the ball everywhere but the target. The movement on his slider and change can also vary wildly within outings. He can sometimes get frustrated to the point of exacerbating both problems. By and large, he’s outstuffing guys so far — some of the homers on his ledger were puny Everett specials, where the wall in right center is 315 feet from the plate — but there’s work ahead.

Were he a lefty only, Cijntje would be a prospect, if not an especially interesting one. He’s touched 95 from that side, but tends to work either side of 90, without bat-missing shape or sharp command. He hasn’t had nearly the same number of reps to polish his secondaries, so while there’s a slider that flashes average, it’s inconsistent. His control is also subpar presently. It’s up-down stuff now and projects a little better than that given the athleticism at play and lack of reps from that side, but there’d be a long road ahead.

The Mariners are still trying to figure out how to best develop and deploy Cijntje. They’ve had him start a game as a righty and then work out of the bullpen as a lefty a few days later. They’ve also had him start games (or innings) left-handed before switching it up for the remainder of the day (or inning). In my looks, those were scripted appearances, but he’s also switched arms to play matchups in the past.

The ideal path forward is a fascinating dilemma. How do you best develop the two arms without putting too many miles on Cijntje’s legs? Do you try to build two starters here? Do you maximize flexibility with him in a relief role? Could you feasibly use him as a starting pitcher once a week and let him eat innings with the other arm and add precious depth to the bullpen without needing a roster spot to do so? There are so many ways this can go, and this may prove to be a case where “optimal” and “most fun” are at odds. For better or (for non-Mariners fans) worse, the smart answer is probably to prioritize the dominant side, and if that slows Cijntje’s progress with the left hand to the point of it not being viable, so be it. Cijntje projects as a no. 3 starter with wiggle room on both sides, and may need more seasoning to reach it than most college pitchers in his draft orbit. It’s closer stuff if the control continues to lag and he winds up in relief.

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/

3.
Bryce Rainer
Pos: SS
Born: 2005-07-03
B: Left
T: Right
H: 6′ 3″
W: 195 lbs.
History: Drafted 11th overall in the 2024 draft, Harvard-Westlake HS (Los Angeles, CA); signed for $5,797,500.
Previous Rank: #4 (org), #56 (Top 101)
Major-league ETA: 2028

The Report: Rainer was a two-way prospect as a prep, but a strong spring with the bat—and added power gains—made him an early first-round pick as a shortstop. Moving his sole focus to hitting seemed to be paying quick dividends in his pro career, as Rainer was tearing the cover off the ball in Lakeland before his season came to an abrupt end when he dislocated his shoulder. This shouldn’t be a long-term concern, as we’ve seen plenty of top prospects come back from shoulder injuries fit as a fiddle, but it’s also not not a short term concern as it’s a pretty violent arm injury. There’s a lot more going on with Rainer’s swing than the two hitting prospects listed ahead of him. He works out of a very wide base, with a large leg kick and a bit of a hand hitch. The ball also just jumps off his bat in a way it doesn’t for McGonigle or Clark. Rainer swings hard, but in a way where it doesn’t look like he’s swinging hard at all. He’s more presently physical than either, and also more projectable, as he has exactly the kind of lean 6-foot-3 frame you’d expect in a well-known, Southern Cal prep pitching prospect.

That means he looks a bit gangly at shortstop at present. He moves fine, but the actions can be a bit tentative and robotic. I wonder if he doesn’t end up in the outfield at some point. He’s agile for his size, and might just end up at third as he fills out, but he eats up ground on the basepaths with his long strides, and his arm would be just as much of a weapon on the grass. A lot of this is still open-ended, because Rainer has very little experience as a full-time position player (we had him as the second best prep pitching prospect before his performance at the plate at NHSI meant he was never taking the mound in the pros. Everything is pretty raw at present, Rainer is coming off a fairly serious injury, and even in his time on the field, showed a bit of a propensity to swing and miss, so the risk profile has a lot more red ink than the dynamic duo at the top. But his upside is right there with them.

OFP: 60 / Plus hitter, position TBD (but should have defensive value)
Variance: Very High. Rainer has 35 pro games under his belt and is coming off a shoulder injury.
Reckless Fantasy Comp: Why not Gunnar Henderson?

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... prospects/

1.
Trey Yesavage
Pos: RHP
Born: 2003-07-28
B: Right
T: Right
H: 6′ 4″
W: 225 lbs.
History: Drafted 20th overall in the 2024 draft, East Carolina University; Signed for $4.175 million.
Previous Ranking(s): #2 (org), #88 (Top 101)
Major-league ETA: Debuted in 2025

The Report: Well, what do you do for an encore? Yesavage was the first pitcher—and I’m guessing he’ll be the only for a good long while—to start Game 1 of the World Series and make a prospect list that offseason. This is mostly an accounting trick, as we have to draw the line somewhere, and that ‘where’ does not include playoff innings. But even with his 27 playoff innings rolled in, he’d still be under the cutoff, even if Yesavage sure doesn’t feel like a prospect nowadays. His major-league time was also just a rather fabulous coda to a yearlong breakout. Honestly, he would have been up with Chase Burns and Hagen Smith as a 2024 draft prospect if not for the medical red flags and lack of a clear monster secondary like Smith and Burns’s sliders. Yesavage tossed almost 140 innings last season, and his splitter blossomed into one of the best offspeed pitches in all of baseball. Not minor-league baseball, all of baseball. His slider isn’t far behind as a swing-and-miss offering, and his mid-90s cut-ride fastball gives him a third plus-or-better pitch.

Yesavage’s arsenal is unique among major-league arms (although the incoming Tatsuya Imai has some similarities). He throws over-the-top from an over seven-foot release height, and he doesn’t have a single pitch that moves to his gloveside. His slider moves armside almost as much as his fastball. I have no idea if hitters will get used to this and be able to eliminate certain pitch locations out of the hand, leading to less chase and better contact. It’s a truly outlier release and it’s not a mere party trick, the stuff is very very good. But there isn’t much more to criticize than that, or much more to say about Yesavage. If you are reading this website, there’s a good chance you’ve seen him make multiple starts right on your own personal TV. The text is the text.

OFP: 70 / no. 2 starter
Variance: Low. Sure, Yesavage is a pitcher, he could get hurt. And yeah, eventually second time through the league they might chase a little less and he’ll have the odd blow up command/control outing. But that’s why he’s more of a present number two starter than a present ace.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cleveland-g ... prospects/

1. Chase DeLauter, RFVideo
Drafted: 1st Round, 2022 from James Madison (CLE)
Age 24.3 Height 6′ 4″ Weight 235 Bat / Thr L / L FV 55
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
50/55 60/60 50/60 40/35 40/40 60
Taken in the first round of the 2022 draft, the oft-injured DeLauter has only played 140 professional games. He’s been awesome in that time, though, and after a strong showing in 34 Triple-A appearances, Cleveland called upon him to make his debut in the Wild Card round of last year’s playoffs. It was a huge vote of confidence in his bat and just the latest sign that injuries were the only thing preventing the advanced lefty thumper from debuting much earlier.

DeLauter projects as a middle-of-the-order hitter. He’s a big guy who generates plus power with a short, controlled swing. Massive humans like this sometimes have trouble getting going quickly, but the 24-year-old’s short and direct path keeps him on time, and he’s able to guide the barrel all over the zone. This isn’t one of those pretty left-handed swings you’ll tell the grandkids about: He has a big scissor kick and oftentimes a short, almost truncated follow through that is more bluntly effective than poetic. No matter. DeLauter makes a ton of contact, hits the ball hard, doesn’t chase much, and turns it loose when balls are out over the plate. Nobody’s a guarantee, and the short track record is a bit of a risk, but on paper and visually this is what a bat-first prospect ought to look like.

We wish he had a cleaner bill of health. DeLauter broke his left foot in college, the start of a prolonged injury odyssey that has defined his career. He missed a big chunk of the 2023 season after undergoing surgery on that same foot, then fractured it again in 2024. That, along with a sprained toe and a hamstring strain, limited him to 39 games that season. A sports hernia cost him the early part of the 2025 campaign and just when he was back and raking, he got hit in the hand and broke his hamate bone. It’s a big bummer, and as subscribers to the maxim that healthy guys tend to stay healthy and injured guys tend to keep getting injured, it’s a huge concern for us, one that pushed him down the Top 100.

All of that raises questions about the best path forward defensively. The Guardians ran DeLauter out in center field for his debut in the playoffs and we were surprised. He hadn’t played there all year and he’s not particularly good in right, much less center. They just about got away with it — he dropped a routine fly ball in his first action, though Detroit couldn’t capitalize, and he did have an assist later in the game — but going forward, we see his lack of mobility as an impediment to being anything more than a fringy corner outfielder. More to the point: When your offense isn’t very good and you have a big but brittle bat like this, it seems bonkers to stretch him physically in a demanding and relatively unfamiliar position. You do what you have to do in a do-or-die situation, we guess, but going forward, we hope Cleveland takes the bat in the hand here. The Guardians should do everything they can to keep DeLauter in the lineup, and if that means he’s a DH, so be it.

9. Robert Arias, CF
Signed: International Signing Period, 2024 from Dominican Republic (CLE)
Age 19.3 Height 6′ 2″ Weight 180 Bat / Thr L / L FV 45+
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
25/60 40/50 20/40 60/60 40/50 50
Arias signed for $1.9 million prior to the 2024 season, receiving the largest bonus in Cleveland’s international class that year. Per their custom, Arias has a promising hit tool, with strong bat-to-ball skills and a keen sense of the strike zone. Befitting his bonus, Arias is a projectable version of the prototype. He’s a plus athlete, lean and twitchy with burst and a frame that has plenty of room for additional mass. For an 18-year-old, his 90th-percentile exit velocity was a healthy 101.7 mph, and he has a chance to grow into average raw. If he can do so while maintaining his speed and defensive projection in center, we’ll be talking about a first-division regular.

Arias has a twitchy, energetic presence in the box. His movements are quick and almost jittery, and there’s a little noise to his actions in the box. But he’s able to get his bat all over the zone, and the way he can flatten his path to meet pitches at the top rail is a sign of a promising hit tool. You’d like to see him square it up more often — his 25% hard-hit rate was nothing special — but for now, his volume of contact, top-end exit velos, and discerning eye are encouraging.

Arias’s feel for the outfield is raw but developing. He doesn’t always get great jumps — the Arizona sky can be an impediment — or take the cleanest routes, but he has a ton of range when he does, and our gut here is that he just needs time and reps before he turns into a pretty good center fielder. You can dream on all of this coming together in a leadoff hitter sort of way, and he has a shot to blossom into a five-tool player at maturity. Were we projecting for a club, we’d put an everyday grade on him, with all of the obvious caveats his age and lack of proximity imply. For us, he slots in here as a promising player we’re eager to monitor in full-season ball.