1 thing to know about each Top 10 Draft prospect

The 2026 MLB Draft begins on Saturday in Philadelphia, site of this year's All-Star Game, which will take place the following Tuesday. As the nation's top high school and college players go from prospects to professionals, it's a great time to learn more about the stars of tomorrow.

The MLB.com research team dug into MLB Pipeline's Top 10 Draft prospects, identifying five things to know about each. Here is one highlight from each of those lists -- be sure to check out the full stories for more.

No. 1: Grady Emerson, SS, Fort Worth Christian HS (TX)

He’s been compared to Bobby Witt Jr. -- and Witt has been a mentor
The parallels and similarities abound between Emerson and Witt. They each hail from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area, they share a position and they have similar skillsets. Both have been mentored by former MLB outfielder and current Fort Worth Christian coach Rusty Greer. And Emerson has met with Witt and considers him a mentor, as well. MORE >

No. 2: Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA

He might be the best college shortstop prospect in more than two decades
Cholowsky is something of an anomaly being such a highly ranked Draft prospect as a college shortstop. According to Baseball America, only eight college shortstops were taken with top-three picks in the first 61 years of the MLB Draft: Bill Almon (1974), Paul Molitor (’77), Hubie Brooks (’78), Augie Schmidt (’82), Jeff Kunkel (’83), Matt Williams (’86), Dansby Swanson (2015) and Alex Bregman (’15). Of those eight, Almon and Swanson were the only ones who went first overall.

That might sound surprising, given that shortstop is a premium position usually stacked with the best athletes on the diamond. But that's exactly why it tracks -- players with that kind of talent rarely make it to campus before getting drafted.

Cholowsky was a Top 50 Draft prospect (No. 44 overall) coming out of high school in 2023, but he was determined to honor his commitment to UCLA and went undrafted. He was the highest-ranked player on MLB Pipeline’s Draft board who wasn’t picked that year.

Cholowsky ended up recording a .329/.447/.624 slash line with 52 home runs over 178 career games for the Bruins and raised his stock to the point where many consider him to be the best college shortstop prospect since Troy Tulowitzki in 2005. MORE >

No. 3: Vahn Lackey, C, Georgia Tech

Wait until you hear about his best game ever
Lackey isn't your typical catcher. He can play some third base -- he did so in 13 games last season -- and is plenty athletic, as evidenced by his 33 stolen bases across the last two years. That versatility led to a one-of-a-kind performance in Georgia Tech's seven-inning victory over West Georgia in early March, a game that Lackey called "the best night of my college career."

Inspired by a feat he saw Buster Posey complete during the catcher's time at Florida State, Yellow Jackets manager James Ramsey shuffled Lackey around the diamond, with the goal of him manning as many positions as possible during a single game. By the end of it, Lackey played every position but pitcher. On top of that, he thrived at the plate, finishing a single shy of the cycle. All of it made for one of the more peculiar, and impressive, performances in college baseball last season. MORE >

No. 4: Jackson Flora, RHP, UC Santa Barbara

College Baseball’s pitcher of the year in 2026
Perhaps it’s not surprising that Flora was selected as the College Baseball Foundation’s National Pitcher of the Year. He is, after all, MLB Pipeline’s top pitching prospect after Flora posted a 1.06 ERA with 133 strikeouts -- a UCSB school record -- across 102 innings. Still, it’s a testament to Flora’s development in 2026 that he ended up as the nation’s top pitcher and is in a position to become the first pitcher drafted this year. MORE >

No. 5: Jacob Lombard, SS, Gulliver Prep HS (FL)

He may be better than his Major League father -- and top-prospect brother
Much like recent highly drafted shortstops such as Witt and Jackson Holliday, Lombard grew up in a baseball family. His father, George Sr., was a second-round pick by the Braves in the 1994 Draft and played six big league seasons. His older brother, George Jr., was a first-round Draft pick in 2023 and is now the Yankees' No. 1 prospect.

Jacob, however, could be the best ballplayer in the family. George Sr. retired with eight career homers, 23 stolen bases and a .621 OPS. George Jr. has 55-grade power and speed, but Jacob has 60-grade power and 65-grade speed. As MLB.com's Jim Callis wrote in May, Jacob has more raw power, speed and physicality than his older brother did when he was 18. Callis added that while George Jr. could be a 20-homer, 20-steal player, Jacob has 30-30 talent. MORE >

No. 6: Eric Booth Jr., OF, Oak Grove HS (MS)

He’s an elite athlete
Standing 6 feet tall and weighing 207 pounds, Booth is considered one of the best athletes in the 2026 Draft class. He’s one of the fastest runners in the class: He can go from home to first in a little over four seconds, and he ran the fastest 60-yard dash at last year’s East Coast Pro showcase (6.33 seconds). An above-average fielder, the Vanderbilt commit has worked hard to get his arm strength up to average while improving his reads and routes in center field.

Despite an unconventional setup at the plate, Booth has impressive bat speed and natural strength, resulting in good exit velocities. His stats during his senior year at Oak Grove High School in Mississippi were eye popping: Booth hit .481 (37-for-77) with five home runs, a .669 on-base percentage and a .922 slugging percentage in the state’s top public-school classification. MORE >

No. 7: Drew Burress, OF, Georgia Tech

He had a four-homer game -- on just four swings -- as a freshman
Burress became the only Georgia Tech player to homer four times in a game when he did it at age 19 in a 2024 contest against Georgia State. Not only that, but the long balls came on the only four swings he took that day.

He became only the third freshman ever to hit four homers in a game since single-game stat tracking began in the NCAA in 2012. As if all that weren't impressive enough, the homer barrage came in just Burress' eighth career game. MORE >

No. 8: Gio Rojas, LHP, Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS (FL)

He models his game after Chris Sale
Not a bad role model for a left-handed pitcher to have, right? Sale, a nine-time All-Star, weaponizes his long limbs and funky arm slot to tie hitters into knots. Rojas, who checks in at 6-foot-4, shares some of those qualities. His low three-quarters arm slot helps some of his pitches play up, like his sweeping slider and riding fastball that bursts through the zone despite the low release point.

"He's pretty darn good at the game, and I watched him growing up," Rojas said of Sale during the Draft Combine on MLB Network. MORE >

No. 9: Justin Lebron, SS, Alabama

No relation
It’s probably one of the first things that comes to mind when you hear Justin Lebron’s name, but no, Lebron is not related in any way to that LeBron. But he did confirm in 2025 that he hears it all the time.

“It’s really funny, but it has its good and its bad moments,” Lebron said. “Come on guys, let’s think about this a little bit. It just doesn’t make sense, right? It’s his first name, it’s my last name.”

Lebron never even played basketball growing up, as baseball seasons in Florida often overlapped with hoops. Thus, we don’t know how much Lebron actually has in common athletically with LeBron James. But he’s carving his own sports legacy now as an Alabama star and impressive MLB Draft prospect.

“It’s truly just a blessing to be compared to him at all,” Lebron said. MORE >

No. 10: Tyler Bell, SS, Kentucky

Switch-hitting is second nature
If you were to ask every big league switch-hitter how old they were when they picked up the skill, you'd get quite the range of answers. What would Bell's be?

Three. Bell was 3 years old and still hitting off a plastic tee when his dad first prompted him to try this famously incredibly difficult task. And although he's perfectly willing to admit he resisted the discomfort, he also describes that experience as being the one that really brought him around to baseball as a little guy.

For such a young player, Bell also has a very clear understanding of his profile from both sides of the plate. A natural righty, he's developed more power as a left-handed hitter but has a better opposite-field approach from the right side, from which he's more of a contact hitter, as he explained back in 2025. MORE >