The Minor League playoffs have been completed. There are only a handful of players with prospect eligibility remaining left in the Major League postseason, and there will be fewer with each passing round. Time for us in prospectdom to go into offseason mode? Not so fast, friends.
The Arizona Fall League takes over our world beginning with Opening Day this Saturday. It’s like a baseball groundhog in Peoria has allowed us six more weeks of summer. But before we get to the start of our autumn and the eventual turn to winter, let’s give more of a spruce up to the Top 100 prospects list.
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This isn’t a full revamp like we do for the preseason and in-season Top 100 updates. Rather, this is one of our occasional market corrections, a series of tweaks to get the rankings in a better shape ahead of the AFL, 40-man roster decisions and other offseason moves. As such, we revoted on the Top 15 completely, moved other prospects up or down 10 or more spots as needed, took a few names off the list and replaced them with fresh ones.
Let’s dive in:
Top 15
1. Jesús Made, SS, Brewers
2. Franklin Arias, SS, Red Sox
3. Leo De Vries, SS/3B, Athletics
4. Josue De Paula, OF, Dodgers
5. Kade Anderson, LHP, Mariners
6. Eli Willits, SS, Nationals
7. Josuar Gonzalez, SS, Giants
8. Sebastian Walcott, SS/3B, Rangers
9. Seth Hernandez, RHP, Pirates
10. Rainiel Rodriguez, C/1B, Cardinals
11. Ryan Sloan, RHP, Mariners
12. Grady Emerson, SS, Rays
13. Walker Jenkins, OF, Twins
14. Roch Cholowsky, SS, White Sox
15. Eduardo Quintero, OF, Dodgers
With Made holding onto the top spot, the headlining move here is that Arias slides above De Vries into the No. 2 spot. Boston’s top prospect completed a breakout age-20 campaign -- particularly in the power department -- and finished with a .323/.400/.557 and career-high 25 homers in 117 games between Double-A and Triple-A. Despite his age, he continued to make a ton of contact in zone in his first move to the Minors’ top level, and his slugging gains could get him to above-average pop long term, which would be hugely valuable given his defensive gifts at short give him a solid floor already anyways. He leaps over De Vries, who underwent right shoulder surgery on Sept. 14 and could need up to eight months for a full recovery.
De Paula also moves up to the Top 4 -- despite his well-known defensive limitations in the outfield -- after looking like the most talented hitting prospect in the Minors. The 21-year-old slugger got more aggressive at the plate but still managed to improve his contact rate at Double-A Tulsa and maintain his plus power. Those were big reasons why Los Angeles promoted him straight from the Texas League last month when it needed a DH replacement for Shohei Ohtani, and De Paula responded to the aggressive move by going 10-for-31 (.323) with a homer and 11 walks in 11 games with the big club.
Gonzalez and Rodriguez -- ranked 15th and 16th in our most recent list -- each jump into the Top 10 for the first time. The Giants switch-hitting shortstop continued to perform in his move stateside in the Arizona Complex League and Single-A San Jose, and he’s considered one of the most gifted defensive shortstops in the Minors, giving him true five-tool potential ahead of his 19th birthday later this month. Rodriguez had one of the greatest finishing sprints of the regular season, hitting .417/.482/.806 with 14 homers, 16 walks and only 20 strikeouts over 168 plate appearances as a 19-year-old in his final 36 games of the season with Double-A Springfield. The Cardinals will explore expanding his defensive versatility -- potentially with time at third base -- in order to find him a place in St. Louis, but Rodriguez is showing a bat that can play anywhere.
Walcott (No. 8) and Quintero (No. 15) will be the top two prospects in this year’s Fall League. The former returned from internal brace surgery in mid-July and displayed a pretty right-handed swing geared to tap into his significant raw power; next up will be proving himself defensively after making only two starts at shortstop in the regular season as he built back from the elbow injury. Quintero pushed his way into the Top 15 after displaying strong data at High-A Great Lakes that married high contact and impressive impact for an age-20 player. His approach can border on passivity with just a 33.9 percent swing rate in the Midwest League, but he otherwise deserves points for being a plus runner who could be valuable in any of the three outfield spots.
Highest risers
+19 Leo Bernal, C/1B, Cardinals (99 to 80)
+17 Joseph Dzierwa, LHP, Orioles (86 to 69)
+17 Marek Houston, SS, Twins (71 to 54)
+17 Seaver King, SS/2B, Nationals (68 to 51)
One reason the Cardinals might explore moving Rodriguez around is that Bernal looks like he seized the club’s Major League starting catching job, both for 2027 and beyond. After a solid showing at Triple-A Memphis that featured a career-high 16 homers and a 116 wRC+ over 101 games, the switch-hitting backstop hit .284/.333/.474 with five homers in 24 games for St. Louis down the stretch. He also earned solid defensive marks across the board, including an average 1.88 second-base pop time that ranked in the Majors’ 86th percentile. He whiffed a little bit more than you’d like in his first taste of the bigs, but otherwise, he heads into the offseason with a strong (if smallish) MLB résumé for a 22-year-old backstop.
Dzierwa could have been forgiven if he’d wilted down the stretch of a breakout first full season, but that didn’t happen; in fact, he had a 2.32 ERA with 33 strikeouts and six walks over his final six starts (31 innings) for Double-A Chesapeake. The 6-foot-8 southpaw made it through 131 innings in his first Minor League campaign, and even if his changeup is the closest thing to a plus pitch in his bag right now, his exceptional command and control kept him successful throughout 2026 and fueled his rise in the ranks.
Houston looked like he was fading in August but caught fire again in September, ending his first first full season on a 10-game hitting streak in which he hit .405 with eight strikeouts and seven walks over 50 plate appearances. The 2025 16th overall pick is certainly hit-tool forward offensively, but with his strong base of speed and defense at a premium position, he’s just a few power improvements from being in more solid standing for a Top 50 spot.
After some struggles with offensive consistency in 2025, King started showing signs of a turnaround in the Arizona Fall League last year and carried that momentum into his second full season. His 21 homers (16 of which came with Triple-A Rochester) marked a new career high, and he posted a 104.9 mph 90th-percentile exit velocity and 110.9 mph max EV that made the power gains look stickier, even more so if he can lift the ball more often. His ability to play short might factor into Washington’s plans to move CJ Abrams to second base.
New faces
98. Hayden Alvarez, OF, Angels
99. Enddy Azocar, OF, Orioles
Alvarez gives the Halos a third Top 100 prospect behind Arjun Nimmala (No. 34) and Tyler Bremner (No. 42). Playing in his age-19 season, Alvarez showed off a solid approach at Single-A and High-A to finish with a solid .391 on-base percentage over 118 games, and while the power still isn’t showing up in major ways yet, he did connect on a career-high 12 homers and has room in his 6-foot-3 frame to add more strength as he enters his 20s. He also has plus speed that helped him steal 53 bags in ‘26, and we considered that entire package when adding him to the T100.
Another 19-year-old, Azocar joined the Orioles system from the Red Sox in the Trade Deadline blockbuster that moved Adley Rutschman the other way. He kept on producing in his second organization, finishing with an .885 OPS, 21 homers and 20 steals across 110 games at Single-A and High-A on the year. His contact rate actually jumped almost 10 points from Greenville (69.7 percent) and Frederick (79.3) to compare two High-A assignments, and that will deserve monitoring considering he already has the potential for above-average power and speed.
Biggest droppers
-22 Billy Carlson, SS, White Sox (59 to 81)
-20 Josue Briceño, C/1B, Tigers (66 to 86)
-15 Josh Hammond, SS/3B, Royals (67 to 82)
-13 Thomas White, LHP, Marlins (34 to 47)
-13 Felnin Celesten, SS, Mariners (47 to 60)
-13 Jonny Farmelo, OF, Mariners (70 to 83)
-12 Demetrio Crisantes, 2B, D-backs (72 to 84)
-10 Xavier Neyens, 3B/SS, Astros (90 to 100)
Carlson missed almost two months with a torn left thumb ligament from May to July and then didn’t play after Aug. 9 due to a skin infection, thus finishing out the year with only 57 games with Single-A Kannapolis. While his defense remains phenomenal, he didn’t homer once in his limited first full season and the plurality of his batted balls (41.8 percent) went the other way, causing a slip in his stock. Similarly, Briceño began his year with right wrist surgery and ended it with a right ankle sprain -- two injuries that allowed him to play only 32 games at the Minors’ upper levels. The 6-foot-4 left-handed slugger has special power, but he’s played more than 56 games in a campaign only once since reaching full-season ball in 2023.
Hammond got off to an impressive start at Single-A Columbia in his first full season, and his improved chances of sticking at shortstop only increased enthusiasm. But he only slugged .312 over his final 40 games to finish as a league-average bat in the Carolina League on the year as a whole. White, who missed much of the year with a left shoulder capsular strain, slid back to put him in a more appropriate position compared to his fellow lefty pitchers.
Celesten, who was named Northwest League MVP in ‘26, really struggled after a late-season promotion to Double-A Arkansas, where he hit .171 with a 44 wRC+ and 33.6 percent K rate no thanks to an aggressive approach that led to much swing-and-miss. It was an overall positive season for Farmelo in that he was healthy and easily cleared 100 games played for the first time in his career; the larger sample size also proved how exposed he can be to swing-and-miss against softer stuff as was the case in his 46-game turn at Double-A.
Crisantes and Neyens drop for opposite reasons. The former is a hit-tool-first second baseman who lacked significant impact after a late-season callup to Triple-A Reno with a 100.8 mph 90th-percentile EV there. (He isn’t done in 2026 with the AFL next up on his docket.) Neyens has plus-plus raw power from the left side but made contact on only 60.8 percent of his swings over 35 games with High-A Asheville. That’s when he did swing because he only offered on 30.3 percent of the pitches he saw at the level, and that’s a level of passivity that can make him a difficult evaluation heading into his age-20 season of 2027.
Moving out
Karson Milbrandt, RHP, Marlins (from 75)
Steele Hall, SS, Reds (from 88)
After absolutely dominating for Double-A Pensacola to begin 2026, Milbrandt struggled to find the strike zone with any consistency at Triple-A Jacksonville, where he had an 8.39 ERA with 62 strikeouts and 52 walks in 64 1/3 innings. His three primary pitches (four-seamer, slider, sweeper) each had slugging percentages against of .460 or higher in the International League.
The Reds took Hall ninth overall in 2025 as a long-term project considering he was 17 on Draft Day, and that remains the case. However, he struggled with contact after a late July move from the Arizona Complex League to Single-A Daytona -- for example, his in-zone contact rate was in the low 70s -- and he’ll have to exhibit adjustments at the plate to get back on this list.