Fantasy baseball dynasty prospect rankings

April 13th, 2020

If you are a fantasy manager in a dynasty league, then you already know that the baseball season is a year-round event. Dynasty leagues give fantasy GMs a unique chance to flex their prospect knowledge by targeting tomorrow’s future stars before they arrive in the Major Leagues. Compared to a fixed-term league, such as an annual re-draft league, the dynasty format is all about long-term roster building.

And since MLB Pipeline is already in the business of evaluating and ranking prospects through a variety of lenses, we figured it only made sense for us to take a crack at producing our own dynasty rankings.

While the tools we evaluate and consider when compiling our Top 100 Prospects list and team Top 30 Prospect lists do speak to a player’s overall future potential in the Major Leagues, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he will offer the same type of value from a long-term fantasy perspective. For example, a position player who has roughly average tools -- using the 20-80 scouting scale, where 50 represents Major League average -- across the board and projects as an everyday player in the big leagues might not have the same appeal in a fantasy format if he lacks carrying tools such as consistent hitting ability, power or speed, categories coveted by managers in any fantasy format.

As a result, MLB Pipeline’s dynasty rankings are skewed towards players who have the potential to become multi-category fantasy contributors -- the types of players you’d want to target early in an initial dynasty draft, or for managers already in a league, in your next draft or in trades and waiver moves.

While the following list of players is based strictly on fantasy production and upside, things such as age, proximity to the Major Leagues, positional scarcity and injury risk are all factored into the rankings.

It’s also important to remember that not all dynasty formats are the same, so be mindful of your league’s specific rules (i.e., auction format; salary cap; rosters spots; contract and keeper terms -- you get the idea).

With that said, here’s a look at MLB Pipeline’s list of the Top 50 dynasty league prospects:

  1. Wander Franco, SS, TB; ETA: 2021
  2. Luis Robert, OF, CWS; ETA: 2020
  3. Gavin Lux, SS, LAD; ETA: 2020
  4. Jo Adell, OF, LAA; ETA: 2020
  5. Jesus Luzardo, LHP, OAK; ETA: 2020
  6. MacKenzie Gore, LHP, SD; ETA: 2020
  7. Dylan Carlson, OF, STL; ETA: 2020
  8. Andrew Vaughn, 1B, CWS; ETA: 2021
  9. Julio Rodriguez, OF, SEA; ETA: 2022
  10. Jarred Kelenic, OF, SEA; ETA: 2021
  11. Adley Rutschman, C, BAL; ETA: 2021
  12. Alex Kirilloff, OF, MIN; ETA: 2021
  13. Casey Mize, RHP, DET; ETA: 2020
  14. Nate Pearson, RHP, TOR; ETA: 2020
  15. Matt Manning, RHP, DET; ETA: 2020
  16. Royce Lewis, SS, MIN; ETA: 2020
  17. Dustin May, RHP, LAD; ETA: 2020
  18. A.J. Puk, LHP, OAK; ETA: 2020
  19. CJ Abrams, SS, SD; ETA: 2022
  20. Marco Luciano, SS, SF; ETA: 2022
  21. Kristian Robinson, OF, ARI; ETA: 2022
  22. Jasson Dominguez, OF, NYY; ETA: 2024
  23. Alec Bohm, 3B, PHI; ETA: 2020
  24. Carter Kieboom, SS, WSH; ETA: 2020
  25. Forrest Whitley, RHP, HOU; ETA: 2020
  26. Michael Kopech, RHP, CWS; ETA: 2020
  27. Brendan McKay, LHP/DH, TB; ETA: 2020
  28. Drew Waters, OF, ATL; ETA: 2020
  29. Bobby Witt Jr., SS, KC; ETA: 2022
  30. Cristian Pache, OF, ATL; ETA: 2020
  31. Nick Madrigal, 2B, CWS; ETA: 2020
  32. Vidal Brujan, 2B, TB; ETA: 2020
  33. Brendan Rodgers, 2B, COL; ETA: 2020
  34. Joey Bart, C, SF; ETA: 2020
  35. Riley Greene, OF, DET; ETA: 2022
  36. Tarik Skubal, LHP, DET; ETA: 2021
  37. Grayson Rodriguez, RHP, BAL; ETA: 2022
  38. Nolan Gorman, 3B, STL; ETA: 2022
  39. Sixto Sanchez, RHP, MIA; ETA: 2020
  40. Spencer Howard, RHP, PHI; ETA: 2020
  41. Sean Murphy, C, OAK; ETA: 2020
  42. Luis Patiño, RHP, SD; ETA: 2021
  43. Mitch Keller, RHP, PIT; ETA: 2020
  44. Ian Anderson, RHP, ATL; ETA: 2020
  45. Jeter Downs, SS, BOS; ETA: 2020
  46. JJ Bleday, OF, MIA; ETA: 2021
  47. Trevor Larnach, OF, MIN; ETA: 2021
  48. Oneil Cruz, SS, PIT; ETA: 2021
  49. Ryan Mountcastle, 1B, BAL; ETA: 2020
  50. Evan White, 1B, SEA; ETA: 2020