From Spring Breakout to Major League stardom in the blink of an eye

Through the first two iterations of Spring Breakout, many young prospects have gone head-to-head before quickly establishing themselves as stars at the Major League level.

Look no further than the first game, where Paul Skenes struck out Jackson Holliday in the first inning, weeks before they'd both make their big league debuts.

These have been star-studded affairs, with 72 Top 100 prospects participating in last year's games along with nearly two-thirds of the 900 players ranked on team Top 30 lists. Those numbers could be going even higher in 2026 when rosters are announced on Wednesday.

Considering how many outstanding young Major Leaguers have already participated in Spring Breakout, you can expect the 2026 edition to feature even more of the next generation of greats.

To give a sense of what caliber of player you could see on March 19-22 this year, here's a team of young Major League stars -- including a Cy Young Award winner, three of the past four Rookie of the Year winners, three All-Stars, a Gold Glove winner and a postseason hero -- composed solely of participants from the first two editions of Spring Breakout:

C: Drake Baldwin, Braves (2025 MLB No. 63)
A 2022 third-rounder out of Missouri State, Baldwin got extra runway to start the 2025 season when incumbent starter Sean Murphy suffered a fractured left rib. He more than proved himself, with a .274/.341/.469 slash line and 19 homers in 124 games that led to National League Rookie of the Year honors. His 3.1 WAR ranked fifth among NL catchers, and his 125 wRC+ was second among NL catchers with at least 400 plate appearances.

1B: Nick Kurtz, Athletics (2025 MLB No. 38)
Kurtz didn't need long after the Athletics drafted him fourth overall in 2024. The Wake Forest product hit four homers with a 1.283 OPS in 12 games to end 2024, and his double in Spring Breakout portended more power in 2025 as he tore up the Minors for 21 more games before earning a big league promotion. With a .290/.383/.619 slash line and 36 homers in 117 games, Kurtz was a slam-dunk pick for 2025 American League Rookie of the Year.

2B: Luke Keaschall, Twins (2025 MLB No. 61)
Keaschall has long stood out for his bat, a key reason why the Twins took him in the second round of the 2023 Draft out of Arizona State. He ran a .411 OBP across three Minor League campaigns and fittingly reached base in both of his Spring Breakout starts. Although injuries have limited his big league playing time, Keaschall has continued to flat-out hit, as he has posted a .302/.382/.445 slash line and stole 14 bases in 49 games with the Twins.

3B: Junior Caminero, Rays (2024 MLB No. 4)
Coming off a terrific 2023 campaign in which he won Breakout Player of the Year honors, Caminero was one of the top prospects to compete in the inaugural Spring Breakout. He hit slightly above league average (.248/.299/.424) across 43 games in '24 before becoming a bona fide star in '25. The Dominican native ranked sixth in the Majors with 45 homers and second with a 78.5 mph average bat speed in his age-21 season while slashing .264/.311/.535.

SS: Masyn Winn, Cardinals (2024 MLB No. 43)
Winn stands out for his electric arm, swift legs and excellent defensive chops -- and check out his impressive swim move to steal a base at Spring Breakout in 2024. The 2020 second-rounder translated those tools into dynamic results the past two years as he became the best defensive shortstop in the game during that stretch (24 Outs Above Average) -- winning a Gold Glove in 2025 -- while posting at least 3.5 WAR in both campaigns.

OF: James Wood, Nationals (2024 MLB No. 14)
Wood's enormous tools -- not to mention his enormous size -- helped him earn an over-slot bonus as a 2021 second-round pick before he quickly rose up the prospect ranks. He slugged over .520 in all three of his Minor League campaigns before debuting at age 21 for the Nats. Wood is one of the most fearsome young sluggers in the game after going deep 40 times in 236 games, and his average exit velocity (94.3 mph) and hard-hit rate (56.3 percent) both ranked in the 98th percentile last year.

OF: Jackson Chourio, Brewers (2024 MLB No. 2)
To give an indication of how much they believed in their top prospect, the Brewers signed Chourio to a record eight-year, $82 million contract before he played his first big league game. He's certainly lived up to the hype, as he became the youngest Major Leaguer to record multiple 20/20 seasons. The Venezuela native has slashed .272/.317/.463 across two big league campaigns and is still younger than 45 members of the current Top 100 Prospects list.

OF: Roman Anthony, Red Sox (2025 MLB No. 2)
Anthony entered his second Spring Breakout -- after walking twice and stealing a base in his first -- as baseball's best hitting prospect. Fans still chanted “overrated” at him as he came to bat, so he gladly delivered one of the most indelible Spring Breakout moments by crushing a towering home run over their jeers. The 2022 second-rounder has continued to mash in the Majors, with a .292/.396/.463 slash line, and signed an eight-year, $130 million extension last August.

DH: Ben Rice, Yankees (2024 NYY No. 13)
Rice has proven to be quite the investment for the Yankees since signing for $125,000 in the 12th round of the 2021 Draft out of Dartmouth. The lefty slugger had a slow debut season but broke out in 2025 while splitting his time between catcher, first and DH as he hit .255/.337/.499 with 26 homers. Rice is a Statcast darling, ranking in the top decile of average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, chase rate, xwOBA, launch angle sweet-spot rate and more.

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P: Paul Skenes, Pirates (2024 MLB No. 3)
What more can we say about Skenes? The No. 1 pick in the 2023 Draft, the best pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg, the perfect pitching prospect? Skenes has more than lived up to the hype, as he held a 1.96 ERA over 23 starts in his rookie year before leading baseball with a 1.97 ERA, 2.36 FIP and 0.95 WHIP en route to a Cy Young at age 23. If you saw him strike out two batters in a perfect inning at Spring Breakout in 2024, you might have seen this coming.

P: Jacob Misiorowsksi, Brewers (2025 MLB No. 100)
These showcase events are perfect for pitchers who can air out their stuff for just a couple innings, so it's fitting that the electric Misiorowski is one of four pitchers -- along with the Angels' Caden Dana, Mariners' Logan Evans and Marlins' Thomas White -- to start multiple Spring Breakout games. The 6-foot-7 righty combined to strike out nine batters in 5 1/3 innings as he previewed his swing-and-miss stuff that would earn him an All-Star nod just five starts into his big league career. Misiorowski ended his rookie campaign with a 32.3 percent K rate, which ranked fourth among starters with at least 60 innings.

P: Trey Yesavage, Blue Jays (2025 MLB No. 88)
Before he climbed from Single-A to the Majors in his debut season -- and made six dynamic postseason outings -- Yesavage blanked Rays prospects for two frames with three K's in Spring Breakout. The 20th overall pick in the 2024 Draft uses his devastating splitter to rack up top-of-the-line chase (36.3 percent), whiff (36.4 percent) and ground ball (56.4 percent) rates. And, of course, his 11 strikeouts across 5 1/3 hitless innings in the ALDS announced his arrival as one of the top pitching prospects in the game.

P: Cade Horton, Cubs (2024 MLB No. 26)
Horton was one of the top pitching prospects in the Minors in 2023, a year after he went seventh overall in the Draft, before a right shoulder strain held him back in 2024. But after a strong showing in the 2025 Spring Breakout (three K's in two frames) he went on to finish second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. With the athleticism befitting a college quarterback, he held a 2.67 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP across 118 innings for the Cubs.

P: Nolan McLean, Mets (2024 NYM No. 19)
"Cowboy Ohtani" may seem like an impossible nickname to live up to, especially after the two-way prospect out of Oklahoma State gave up hitting in 2024, but McLean has developed into the game's best pitching prospect in short order. The right-hander has a deep arsenal of six pitches that he commanded well for a 2.06 ERA with a 30.3 percent strikeout rate across 48 innings last year. Only 24 years old, he's already the Mets' No. 2 starter and a key member of Team USA's pitching staff at the World Baseball Classic.