With days left until 2025 becomes 2026, it's natural to use this time for reflection. Looking back at the year that was and finding satisfaction in all the progress that was made, while also looking ahead with hope for even better things to come, along with new goals in the new year.
Remember, it's not always how you start, but where you finish. And on the final MLB Pipeline Podcast of the year, host Jason Ratliff and Jim Callis took some time to reflect on a few prospects who came a long way in 2025 and finished their respective campaigns strong.
More from MLB Pipeline:
• Top 100 prospects | Stats | Video | Podcast | Complete coverage
The guys identified and broke down five prospects -- Caleb Bonemer, Edward Florentino, Nate George, Carlos Lagrange and Payton Tolle -- who improved their stocks the most this year.
(One quick note: making it onto the Top 100 Prospects list was not a requirement for this exercise, although four of the five did just that.)
Caleb Bonemer
Started 2025: CWS No. 11
Finished 2025: CWS No. 4/MLB No. 73
Callis: Up and down high school career, in terms of the showcase circuit. If you saw him at his best, he looked really good. And if you saw him when he wasn’t playing well, he did not look really good. I thought he was inconsistent, I didn’t think he was a shortstop. The White Sox gave him $3 million, minus the $2,500 accounting trick, as a second-round pick in 2024. So, I was like, OK, this is interesting. And he was tremendous this year. He was MVP in the Carolina League, hit .283, had an OPS of almost .900 with 12 homers, made two Class A stops in his first full year in pro ball. And, even more so, his defense at shortstop was better than realized. Looks like he can play shortstop. Now, I don’t know if Caleb Bonemer will actually play shortstop in Chicago, but he’s capable of it, and he’s a guy who’s a better hitter and a better defender than I personally realized. So, my apologies to Caleb Bonemer for not being as bullish on him as I perhaps should have been.
Edward Florentino
Started 2025: PIT No. 23
Finished 2025: PIT No. 5/MLB No. 81
Callis: He was in the DSL last year, wasn’t a big name guy and came over here and just hit for power, tore up Rookie ball, tore up Single-A, hit 16 homers in 80 games, and was a guy who … I had never heard of Edward Florentino before the season and now he’s on the Top 100 Prospects list. The power is for real.
Nate George
Started 2025: Not ranked
Finished 2025: BAL No. 7
Callis: He was not ranked on the Orioles list entering the season, he’s not on the Top 100 right now, but he might be soon. He was interesting in the Draft. So, he’s an Illinois high school product who was on our radar, he didn’t participate in a lot of high school showcase events, and so it was one of those cases where there weren’t a lot of teams on him. But, there were two or three on him that liked him a lot. He was one of the faster players in the Draft. He wound up going in the 16th round to the Orioles because they knew they could kind of take him wherever they wanted to, so they signed him for $455,000, and he looked tremendous.
He went from Rookie ball to High-A, hit .334 with 50 steals in 82 games. Has a little bit of power, looks like your classic center field profile. He just looks really, really good. And I’ll be curious to see, we’re just starting to do our Top 100, but I personally would take Nate George over Enrique Bradfield Jr. pretty easily. They’re both kind of that speed and defense center field profile. Bradfield is faster than Nate George, but I think Nate George has got more impact, and I think he’s a better hitter, and I was alarmed in a way in how Bradfield looked in the Fall League. His stance looked terrible. So, I think Nate George is much less famous, but if I was trading with the Orioles and offered my pick of those two guys, I would take Nate George over Bradfield.
Carlos Lagrange
Started 2025: NYY No. 19
Finished 2025: NYY No. 2/MLB No. 74
Callis: Carlos Lagrange was always interesting, but he didn’t pitch much in 2024 because of back inflammation. Then he did not throw strikes in the Fall League, like, at all. So, I ranked him 17th, he was kind of your classic wild card. Then his control was better and his health was fine this year and he looked tremendous. He’s No. 2 on our Yankees list now, he’s on the Top 100. He can push the fastball up to 102 mph, he’s shown more carry and life and command with the fastball. His sweeper was more consistent; he did a better job locating it for strikes. He pounded the strike zone in High-A to start the year. The control backed up on him some in Double-A; he was still effective there. But, now instead of being a lottery ticket, he looks like a guy who might be able to help the Yankees even as soon as this year.
Payton Tolle
Started 2025: BOS No. 16
Finished 2025: BOS No. 2/MLB No. 28
Callis: He’s another guy who, I’ll admit, I was low on coming out of the Draft. When he was at TCU, he was the Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2024 when the Red Sox took him in the second round and I thought he was kind of a one-trick pony. He’s 6-foot-6, he gets down the mound really well, gets crazy extension. He averaged 7-foot-4 extension with the Horned Frogs, and we don’t have all the extension data. But that had to be as good an extension as there was in the 2024 Draft. But, he threw like 75 percent fastballs, and at TCU, he sat kind of 90-92 mph and he just bullied people with the extension on his fastball. So, I was a little skeptical, like, OK, he’s a one-trick pony, is this really going to play like this, throwing 90-92, topping out at 94-95, maybe touching 96 here or there, like, is that really going to work in pro ball? Well, the Red Sox have done a really nice job recently with pitchers. And Payton was totally the pitching version of Kristian Campbell. If I remember, he was one of the three finalists for Pitcher of the Year and [MiLB Debut of the Year] in the Minor League Awards. And this is a guy who, I think, coming into the year, again, I was skeptical. I ranked him 16th and I knew the Red Sox liked him more than I did. But I was like, ah, I still just don’t know about this guy. And I was wrong because the Red Sox also got him sitting at 95 and touching 99, so when you add that kind of velo to his fastball shape, it was pretty much unhittable.
In the first half of the season he had a 46 percent swing-and-miss rate on his fastball in the Minors. I’ve never seen that. They’ve had him dial back his fastball usage, his slider got better, he added a little power to it, his changeup has gotten a little bit better. He’s always thrown strikes. We saw him get to the big leagues and pitch in the playoffs. The Red Sox helped him get better, and that fastball is so good that if you wanted to make the case that he’s the best left-handed pitching prospect in baseball, I think you’re arguing him with Thomas White and Kade Anderson, you could make a case for Payton Tolle. Which, a year ago, I never would have thought I would have heard myself say.