Though he does his homer damage almost exclusively to his pull side, Berry slices breaking balls away from him to the opposite field, and most of his non-extra-base hits come that way. Hes going to get to whatever raw power he ends up growing into and has a good shot to be a middle infield regular, though probably not until 2026 or so just based on his 40-man timeline.There are mixed feelings about his defensive fit, with most of Erics sources projecting him to second base (a mix of scouts and analysts), which is where he had him coming out of high school. Whether he adjusts to more cautious and competent pitching as he moves through the minors, we just wont know until it happens, but the more granular statistical indicators here (what Bleis underlying contact and chase rates are relative to his strikeout and walk performance) suggest hes going to improve in these areas. 1. Hassell went to the Fall League, where he broke his right hamate; he had surgery and was shut down. Luis Morales, RHP, CubaThe right-hander is one of the most interesting and dynamic prospects in the class. + indicates that the club has officially announced the signing. That caveat extends to his defense, where Luciano continues to look miscast as a shortstop. Watch film back into the 2022 regular season and Rocchios issues arent as severe, but its still a mixed bag on defense. : Angels ($900,000) More . Graceffo starts his windup with a pronounced step backward, then marches toward the plate, throwing from a high arm slot to create a downhill approach. 3. Across the season as a whole, his fastball only sat 95 mph, and in his final start of the year it was mostly in the 93-96 mph range, which is a two-tick regression from 2021, when Rodriguez sat 96-98 all year. Hes also shown some ability to make mechanical adjustments, trading a high leg kick for a lower, longer stride that makes it even more evident just how powerful and balanced his lower half is than his previous swing did. The 11th overall pick in 2018 out of a Texas high school, Rodriguez saw his stuff tick up immediately after turning pro, and it steadily climbed each year until it took a step backward in 2022 amid a shoulder injury. Its possible hell find a way to play a mold-breaking style of third base defense over time, but an elbow sprain (which happened amid a throwing program to try to improve his arm strength) ended his 2022 and required a PRP injection, which is often a precursor to Tommy John for pitchers. Hes likely to develop feel for that pitch over time and have a more complete arsenal at peak. While his ball/strike recognition isnt good, Tovar is otherwise an advanced hitter. It is intended to be used as a guide if you find yourself contemplating international players in a dynasty startup or FYPD. He rounds out his four-pitch mix with a mid-70s curveball that he threw just 6% of the time at Triple-A, but which accounted for 19% of his 0-0 offerings in his seven big-league starts, outranked in usage only by his fastball. His slider has two-plane sweep, while his curveball (more commonly used as an in-zone pitch and against lefties) is north/south and sometimes also has arm-side direction. He boasted one of the lowest walk rates (5.1%) among minor leaguers who notched at least 130 innings in 2022 and looks poised for a starter role in the near future. His in-zone contact numbers improved throughout 2022, even after promotion. Turang is so defensively gifted that he is almost certain to have a significant and lengthy big league career, especially now that shifting is banned. After his velocity varied throughout his senior year at times 92-94 mph, at others parked comfortably in the 95-96 mph range and touching above Jobe mostly sat 93-95 in 2022. At times hes too bold and rushes throws that he should just holster, but Tovar is only the age of a college draft prospect, so details like this will likely tighten up as he matures. Tony Blanco Jr., OF, Dominican Republic Pirates ($900,000) More 12. We can safely put to bed any notion that Pages (pronounced p-hz) might stay in center field, and as such, his projection has narrowed as he shifts to being an average everyday corner outfield prospect by virtue of his ability to get to power, which he does via his combination of raw strength and the extreme lift in his swing. His arm angle makes it naturally tough on lefties but its utility is limited against righties, which is likely what caused Cleveland and Allen to work on a cutter that is still in the nascent stages of development. Wesneskis slider is really nasty and his entire repertoire fits nicely together. Manzardo hasnt hit a single speed bump in pro ball and moved into the Top 100 during the middle of 2022 on the strength of his statistical performance and visual feel to hit. . His propensity to chase and lunge at pitches nowhere close to the zone led to a 38% K% during his September call-up. Vaquero is expected to sign with the Nationals and would be a considered a potential top five pick if he were eligible for the amateur draft. Players have to be registered with Major League Baseball in advance in order to be eligible to sign. This is our first season so I have no idea to put a price on him. As a fourth-year junior in 2021, he was still sitting 88-92 mph, with his fastball velocity sometimes drifting as low as 86 mph in a given start. For international prospects across the globe, this is where it all begins and dreams come true. Carter looks like a high-OBP, table-setting center fielder in the Brandon Nimmo mold. Their ability as a group to rapidly move their way through the Minor Leagues was unprecedented. Its safe to assume he was playing through injury during that return appearance, which could account for the significantly depleted power (his average exit velo was in the 80 mph range). Angel Cepeda, SS, D.R. "Consensus No. Julien has perhaps the best plate discipline in the minors and can bang em when he actually swings. A career .269/.374/.485 hitter in the minors, there are still some analysts who are skeptical Casas will make enough contact to profile comfortably as an above-average regular at first base. Ramos is walking the Curtis Mead path in many ways. He does play with lots of effort, though, and Mead has enough range that the second base experiment has merit. This is largely how Im able to efficiently collect bonus information, but it also reveals an unsavory aspect of the current system that might eventually bring about an international draft. He worked in the 89-93 mph range as a high schooler, then exploded in college, hitting 100 mph as a freshman and sustaining upper-90s velocity when he finally moved to the rotation as a fourth-year junior in 2021. Here Berry projects as a DH. SS Dylan Jorge, Cuba: At 18, Jorge is one of the oldest players available this signing period, but he's an exciting prospect thanks to a good righty bat and strong defensive chops. MLB has pushed for an international draft for decades and could get one as part of the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. 6-keys: media/spln/mlb/reg/free/stories, By pressing sign up, I confirm that I have read and agree to the. Kevin Ereu, SS, Ven. All Rights Reserved. Most of his swings and misses over the last few years have been on fastballs running away from him, but in 2022, he displayed a more advanced ability to poke the barrel at balls on the outer edge of the plate, extending his short levers in an effort to slap outside pitches the other way. Players have little to no recourse when this happens, though that might change depending on the outcome of a recently-filed lawsuit in the Dominican Republic. Initially considered a contact-first prospect, the effort level in Chourios swing ratcheted up in 2022 and he now takes a monster hack, whipping the bat through the zone with all his might, often needing the dirt of the batters box behind him to stop his rotation. -- $450,000Ruben Menes, RHP, D.R. Regardless of when it is implemented, most of my sources believe an international draft is likely eventually. Despite being this size at this age, which might typically cause long-term 1B/DH projection, Colliers defensive feet, hands, actions, and arm strength are all excellent, and make him a future plus third base defender. Simon Juan, OF, Dominican Republic Mets ($1,900,000) More 17. The Dodgers surpassed the luxury tax threshold the previous season and had to forfeit $1,000,000 for Freddie Freeman. Because fate was cruel to his playing time in college, his pro data sample is already much bigger than his college one, which has helped reveal that he has premium feel for the strike zone. When Julien does swing, he does so with bad intentions, taking a high-effort rip capable of putting balls out to all fields. After he went second overall in the 2021 draft, Leiter rested for the remainder of that season, having racked up 110 innings on the mound for Vanderbilt. The lateral agility to block pitches in the dirt is obviously here, though Naylor is sometimes late getting to the ground. He ran a 6.95 ERA in Triple-A throughout 2022 but the hitting environment in Reno isnt fair to pitchers, and Jamesons stuff, control, and athleticism are all on par with a good teams fourth starter. We think there will be enough power for Barger to produce like an average regular in a multi-positional role. Hilariously, Mayos swing is perhaps well-suited for the current metagame because so many contemporary fastballs ride to the top of the strike zone, which is where Mayos barrel hunts. Sheer unpredictability and velocity allow Miller to bully the strike zone without precision and still stay off barrels, while his well-executed pitches miss bats. Also, the Braves are finally out of the penalty box. To call Naylors 2022 a return to form isnt exactly correct, however, because much of his resurgence was due to swing alterations that made his bat path a little more variable, which he outlined in an interview with our own David Laurila. This is another potential homegrown star for the Sox. He loads his hands high and cuts down at the ball, which makes him tough to beat in the upper two thirds of the strike zone because Peraza is so short to those locations. Abel will also flash a really good changeup once in a while; that pitch tends to be in the 86-89 mph range and feasts on hitters who have to cheat to catch up to his fastball. Lever length still limits Batys ability to make consistent, quality contact in certain part of the zone, but he still shows you impressive barrel control as he tries to get the bat where it needs to be. Ramirez has plus-plus bat speed and will show you big pull-side power already. William Bergolla, SS, Venezuela Phillies ($2,050,000) More 5. Ortiz rocketed through the system in 2022, skipping High-A and spending most of the season with Double-A Altoona before making his big league debut across four starts in September and October. He followed up his splashy 2021 with a 2022 tidal wave, reaching Double-A Chattanooga as a 20-year-old while tabulating over 70 extra-base hits and about 40 stolen bases. : Nationals+ ($550,000) More 40. He commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. In 2022, he established himself as one of the premiere pitching prospects in the Cardinals system, issuing 81 strikeouts and just 15 walks over his 52.1 innings at Low-A, where he spent the entire season. Both can be in the lineup every night because of Rodriguezs defensive versatility and the universal DH, and a more liberal timeshare behind the plate might help keep them both healthier and more consistently productive on offense. His powerful lower half and flexibility drive the production of this velocity, while McGarrys long arm action makes it tough for him to have a consistent release. He spent most of the rest of the year rehabbing in Arizona, often attending Diamondbacks games in his sling. Ramirez spent all of 2021 at Low-A as an 18-year-old and slashed .258/.326/.384, which was slightly below the league-average line in the pitcher-friendly Florida State League. If a draft is put in place before then, it will likely impact how much money those players receive and which team they end up working for. Casas is capable of hitting huge tanks to all parts of the ballpark; his hard-hit rate in 2022 was a whopping 50%, which would have been top 15 among qualified big league hitters. Plus athlete, "true shortstop". He is stiff and bulky and not a lock to stay at third for a myriad of reasons. Julien tweeted he was going back to school, then went to the Cape and had a great two weeks, after which the Twins offer rose to just shy of $500,000, inspiring him to sign. 2023 International Prospects. He doesnt have traditional long-term power projection, but hes already so powerful that if all the pop Domnguez ever has is what hes working with now, it will still be plenty for him to be a good everyday big leaguer for as long as hes a center fielder. He dealt with a litany of issues as an amateur, as benign as a fractured finger and as severe as back issues that had some teams drop him from their draft boards. : Guardians+ ($850,000) More 38. Hes barrel-chested and quite bulky, and hell need to maintain his conditioning to be able to block and receive adequately. 4 cards per pack. The upright nature of this adjusted swing has impacted Meads plate coverage a bit, and he swung through lots of high fastballs and sliders that finished on the outer third of the zone in 2022. Romo has a plus glove and plus-plus arm but likely wont make a huge offensive impact. Its hard to know how much of that was caused by the back issue, which may have been compromising his movement. They are older, and we have more data points to evaluate. Veteran stalwarts Omar Narvez and Toms Nido are both at least a year removed from a good offensive season, and so while lvarez will reportedly start his year at Triple-A Syracuse, he may mash his way into the primary catcher role during the season. His stolen base total itself is not an indication of speed, but Naylor is running home-to-first as fast as 4.10, which is a plus run time, and he should swipe double-digit bases in his physical prime, relevant for fantasy-playing readers. Davis plate crowding helps enable his pull-heavy approach. Frelicks style of hitting should enable doubles (and some triples) pop, but there isnt likely to be any kind of over-the-fence power here, so little that one could argue Frelick belongs south of the 50 FV tier even if he were a lock to stay in center field. Montgomery raked his way to Double-A, where he spent the last couple weeks of his first full pro season as part of Project Birmingham, a de facto instructs and evaluation period for Chicagos best mid- and upper-level prospects. He shows power from both sides of the plate, especially by the right side. Opinions on Tiedemann vary depending on how much stock is put in his early professional performance: He sat 96 mph at instructs in 2021, but skeptics questioned whether that was a short-term effect of him airing things out in short stints, or if receiving higher-quality development and instruction than he got in his amateur environment had actually unlocked something. Torres was a different case. Even if you dismiss that, the measurable power thats already here is incredible and reinforces the visual evaluation of Bleis electric talent. Its comforting that there are contemporary examples of hitters making a huge impact who share Chourios potential blemish, ones who make that impact despite all the ponchados by getting to big power. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. What if Michael Brantley played shortstop? Combine that with notes from in-person looks (there are sometimes workouts and showcases in Arizona or in close proximity to big MLB events like the Winter Meetings) and supplementary video analysis of my own, and the list is pretty much baked. Baty made some subtle swing changes that may have better actualized his plus-plus raw power. He was on pace to start 2023 at Double-A and be in the mix for a big league roster spot at some point in 2024 if he kept hitting. After sitting 94-95 mph in 2021, hes now parked in the 96-98 mph range for entire starts, and his hardest sliders (in the 85-87 mph range) are nearly 10 mph harder than his average curveball was in 2021 (77 mph). It was Merrills Arizona Fall League look, which came against more advanced arms, and his underlying hit data that really drove him up the prospect continuum. Julien has been without a true defensive home since college and didnt look great at the keystone during a prolonged look in the Arizona Fall League. His fastball has done a ton of damage at the top of the zone and is a legit plus-plus pitch.