NEW: Top 100 Draft prospects for '26
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It might only be December, but there’s a serious case of Draft fever ranging.
The root cause is the release of MLB Pipeline’s new 2026 Top 100 Draft Prospects list. The fans are definitely aflame, though, by the upcoming MLB Draft Lottery, which will determine the order of who gets to take the players on the Top 100 and when. The event can be watched live on MLB Network on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 5:30 p.m. ET from the Winter Meetings in Orlando.
It’s a list the scouting industry seems excited about, especially in terms of potential elite-level players heading it compared to last year, when it was unclear who belonged at the top of Draft boards.
“I think people were more excited about the 2025 depth and the top of the Draft in 2026,” one scouting director said. “I think there’s more impact at the top. It’s not (Paul) Skenes level (the 2023 Draft), but it’s more exciting than the ‘25 Draft.
“There’s more of a defined top group this year. You’re probably less likely to see a deal get cut at the very top. That usually happens when you don’t like the options in the top five.”
The top 10 of the new list is an exciting mix of college and high school hitters, one college arm and a pair of prep lefties. In total, six college players and four high schoolers make up the very top, mirroring the overall makeup of the list (55 college players, 45 high school):
- Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA
- Grady Emerson, SS, Fort Worth Christian HS, Texas
- Justin Lebron, SS, Alabama
- Jacob Lombard, SS, Gulliver Prep, Fla.
- Drew Burress, OF, Georgia Tech
- Derek Curiel, OF, Louisiana State
- Carson Bolemon, LHP, Southside Christian School, S.C.
- Gio Rojas, LHP, Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS, Fla.
- Cameron Flukey, RHP, Coastal Carolina
- Sawyer Strosnider, OF, Texas Christian
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For the first time in a few years, there’s a clear consensus on who belongs at the top of the list. After hitting .353/.480/.710 with 23 homers as a sophomore at UCLA, Cholowsky heads into the new year as the overwhelmingly clear choice to be the top target right now for whoever wins the Lottery. He might be the best all-around college shortstop prospect since Troy Tulowitzki came out of Long Beach State in 2005.
“I think most teams, if they had to pick now, they would take Cholowsky,” the scouting director said. “It’s a really good impactful toolset across the board. He plays in the middle of the diamond. His makeup is very, very good. You can take him and sleep well at night. There’s not a lot that can go wrong with a player like that.”
A second scouting director agreed with those sentiments, though he was sure to point out it’s never a coronation when it comes to the Draft.
“I think the way the Draft has been covered, the way people are [interested in] it, the players are getting more traction than they used to,” he said. “He’s a really good player. He was a prospect in high school who could have gone in the first round. He’s held serve and gotten better.
“Still, he has to earn it. You don’t know which kids will pop up and challenge him. Other college hitters might get in that race and you have to pay attention to the high school kids, they end up impactful players.”
Like Cholowsky, several of those potential challengers play up the middle. The top four on the new Top 100 are all shortstops, with Alabama’s Justin Lebron joining Cholowsky from the college ranks and Grady Emerson and Jacob Lombard the kind of prepsters the second scouting director might be referring to. There are nine shortstops in the top 25 alone, reminiscent of the strength of last year’s first round, when 15 of the top 28 picks were announced as shortstops.
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Evaluators seem to agree there’s also a pretty deep crop of high school pitching to be considered, though that always comes with the usual caveat and warning signs about how risky that demographic is. Teams tend to be less skittish if the prepsters are left-handed, and there are three of those in the top 20. Carson Bolemon and Gio Rojas are the cream of that crop, but California’s Logan Schmidt isn’t too far behind, and it’s possible to find a scout who likes each young southpaw the best. Behind that trio, there’s a host of intriguing right-handers. Any of them could take big steps forward with how they perform in the spring.
“All these pitchers need to understand what the strike zone means to all of us; it has to be integrated,” the second scouting director said. "If those left-handers are commanding and getting swing and miss, they all have a chance to make some headway [at the top of the Draft].”
The college pitching crop might be the thinnest demographic this year, with the first scouting director commenting that “we’re already putting names in the top 30-40 picks who don’t even have track records of starting games.” It should be noted, though, that last year’s Top 100 featured only three college pitchers in the top 30, with just Jamie Arnold and Tyler Bremner in the top 10. Six ended up being selected in the first round, so a lot can happen.
“You take Liam Peterson, Cameron Flukey, Jackson Flora,” the second scouting director said about the top three ranked college pitchers. “They’re the typical body type, size, stuff. One of those could take a step forward and make an impact on the Draft and when they’re selected. Who knows what improvement will come in the spring. We’ll see how that fluctuates and who takes that step forward in terms of their arsenal.”