Back around this time two years ago, we made bold predictions about who would be the No. 1 prospect for each organization today. Now it’s time to review our prognosticating skills.
A couple of disclaimers: A baker’s dozen of our current No. 1 prospects had yet to enter pro ball, 12 coming via the 2024 or 2025 Drafts and one from the 2025 international signing period (and one of those draftees from 2024 got traded and is No. 1 in his new organization to boot). One top prospect who we predicted would be at the top is indeed a No. 1, but with another team because of a trade. One more graduated from prospect status last year, reaching the big leagues ahead of our timeline.
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So if you take those 15 teams out, we went 6-for-15 in our predictions. That’s hitting .400, and no one has done that since Ted Williams in 1941.
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AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST
Blue Jays
Who we picked: Arjun Nimmala, SS (MLB No. 77)
Who it is: Trey Yesavage, RHP (MLB No. 12)
Toronto’s three most recent first-round picks all feature in our Top 100, and while Nimmala (the 2023 20th overall pick) ranks third of the trio, that isn’t a knock against him. Still only 20 years old, the shortstop made nice improvements in terms of his chase rate at High-A Vancouver last year, and he has the potential to hit 25-plus homers at full maturity as he continues to add strength to his 6-foot-1 frame. He and top 2025 selection JoJo Parker could duke it out for the future of the shortstop position north of the border.
Orioles
Who we picked: Enrique Bradfield Jr., OF
Who it is: Samuel Basallo, C/1B (MLB No. 8)
Bradfield swiped 74 bases in his first full season of pro ball after the Orioles took him in the first round of the 2023 Draft out of Vanderbilt. Hamstring issues limited him to 76 games and 36 steals during the 2025 regular season (then swiped 17 more in 20 Arizona Fall League games). He’s an elite defender who will always be a threat on the basepaths and could help the big league club out this year, but concerns about impact have knocked him from top prospect contention.
Rays
Who we picked: Xavier Isaac, 1B
Who it is: Carson Williams, SS (MLB No. 63)
Isaac has some of the best raw power in the Minors, and that’s what we were banking on with his selection two years ago. That pop remains, but so much has changed since then – the most primary bit being that Isaac underwent brain surgery last July. He’s back in Major League camp on a non-roster invitation this spring and hoping to break camp with a Minor League club, all positive signs for his recovery. When he does return, expect his overall contact to be a key focus after he’s struck out in 34.4 percent of his plate appearances at Double-A since 2024.
Red Sox
Who we picked: Miguel Bleis, OF
Who it is: Payton Tolle, LHP (MLB No. 19)
Bleis still shows four plus tools (raw power, speed, arm, center-field defense) that earned him the largest bonus ($1.5 million) in Boston's 2021 international class, but the Dominican is too aggressive at the plate and hasn't been able to add strength as easily as hoped. He batted just .222/.300/.385 with 14 homers and 27 steals in 107 games between High-A and Double-A last year, though he did make an impact on the bases and in the field.
Yankees
Who we picked: Roderick Arias, SS
Who it is: George Lombard Jr., INF (MLB No. 32)
New York blew up its international program this offseason, in large part because big-money signings like Arias haven't panned out. MLB Pipeline's top-rated prospect in the 2022 international class, he landed a $4 million bonus out of the Dominican Republic but has hit just .221/.331/.358 in two seasons in Single-A while playing an erratic shortstop. He won't make our Yankees Top 30 this year.
AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL
Guardians
Who we picked: Ralphy Velazquez, C/1B
Who it is: Travis Bazzana, 2B (MLB No. 20)
Velazquez has developed into one of baseball's best first-base prospects, but Bazzana was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 Draft and is the game's top second-base prospect. The Oregon State product posted a .246/.383/.430 line between Double-A and Triple-A in his first full pro season despite a nagging oblique strain. He has an extremely disciplined approach and his advanced hitting ability overshadows his solid power and plus speed.
Royals
Who we picked: Blake Mitchell, C (MLB No. 75)
Who it is: Carter Jensen, C (MLB No. 18)
Fellow catcher Jensen has taken over the top spot in this system after his rise to the Majors. That takes a little pressure off Mitchell, the 2023 eighth overall pick, who could use it after a broken right hamate bone delayed his 2025 season and might have affected much of his output. The 21-year-old backstop still earns strong reviews for his defensive work, and he showed late in last year’s Arizona Fall League that his power potential is high with a 116.5 mph homer. But after significant swing-and-miss issues at High-A, Mitchell could use a healthier and more productive 2026 to rival Jensen as Salvador Perez’s long-term successor in KC.
Tigers
Who we picked: Max Clark, OF (MLB No. 10)
Who it is: Kevin McGonigle, SS (MLB No. 2)
McGonigle may have squeaked past Clark because of his Minors-best hit tool, but in truth, there is a ton to like about the 21-year-old outfielder. With two full seasons under his belt, Clark demonstrates good swing decisions and has improved his mechanics enough to project for average power. With plus-plus speed, he’s also a potential 60-grade defender in center field. Clark would be the top prospect in 21 other systems and could be a key second-half contributor for Detroit if his progression continues.
Twins
Who we picked: Walker Jenkins, OF
Who it is: Jenkins (MLB No. 14)
We might have gotten a little lucky here because if Jenkins had been able to avoid the injury list, he might have graduated from prospect status by now. Even with hamstring and quad issues in 2024 and an ankle sprain last year limiting him to 166 combined games the last two years, he still reached Triple-A last year and has a career .863 OPS. He’ll play all of 2026 at age 21, with plenty of time for him to reach his enormous ceiling.
White Sox
Who we picked: Noah Schultz, LHP (MLB No. 49)
Who it is: Braden Montgomery, OF (MLB No. 36)
Montgomery was still at Texas A&M and yet to be drafted by the Red Sox or included in the Garrett Crochet trade, so this feels like a win. Schultz lurks close behind him on the Top 100 at No. 49, even coming off a season when his stuff and strikes slipped while he battled tendinitis in his right knee and posted a 4.68 ERA with 76 strikeouts in 73 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. The 2022 first-rounder from a suburban Chicago high school still has one of the game's most wicked sliders, can touch 99 mph with his fastball and reached the highest level of the Minors at age 21.
AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST
Angels
Who we picked: Nelson Rada, OF
Who it is: Tyler Bremner, RHP (MLB No. 81)
In our defense, the Angels get their top prospects to the big leagues in a hurry, so this is a tough one to nail. Bremner was their top pick in last year’s Draft and likely won’t be on lists for long. Rada still needs to find some more impact, but took a nice step forward last year, particularly in Triple-A (.849 OPS in 42 games), and he didn’t turn 20 until late August. He won’t be too far off from the top spot when their new Top 30 comes out.
Astros
Who we picked: Luis Baez, OF
Who it is: Kevin Alvarez, OF
The Astros are the only team not represented on our 2026 Top 100, but Alvarez has a lot of similarities to a young Kyle Tucker and should make the list in the near future. Baez received the largest bonus ($1.3 million) in Houston's 2022 international class and still has some of the best bat speed and raw power in the system, but his approach and conditioning must improve. He won't crack our Astros Top 30 after hitting .246/.309/.335 with just two homers in 66 Double-A games and looking helpless against non-fastballs.
A’s
Who we picked: Myles Naylor, 3B
Who it is: Leo De Vries, SS (MLB No. 4)
We get a half-credit here because we did predict De Vries at the top prospect… for the Padres, who sent the talented shortstop to the A’s in the blockbuster Mason Miller deal last year. Things haven’t gone so well for Naylor, taken No. 39 overall in the 2023 Draft. The younger brother of Bo and Josh, he’s spent two seasons with Single-A Stockton and carries a career .193/.316/.326 line into the 2026 season. He’ll turn just 21 in April, so maybe he can right the ship, but he’s fallen off of the A’s Top 30 completely.
Mariners
Who we picked: Colt Emerson, SS
Who it is: Emerson (MLB No. 9)
The Mariners’ top pick, taken No. 22 overall, in the 2023 Draft, Emerson is one of the best pure hitters in the Minor Leagues. His advanced approach at the plate has led to a career .287/.398/.442 line and he reached Triple-A last year, all while turning himself into a terrific shortstop. He’s getting the chance to break camp with the Mariners while showing he has no problem moving around to third or second to increase options for the big league staff.
Rangers
Who we picked: Sebastian Walcott, SS
Who it is: Walcott (MLB No. 7)
Signed for $3.2 million out of the Bahamas in 2023, Walcott crashed our 2024 Top 100 before he turned 18 and has continued to rank among the game's most precocious prospects since. He was the youngest batting qualifier in Double-A at age 19 last season, holding his own with a .255/.355/.386 line and 110 wRC+ while continuing to display plus-plus raw power and arm strength. He just got diagnosed with a torn right elbow ligament that will require Tommy John surgery and sideline him for most if not all of 2025, though he's still on course to reach the Majors at age 21 next year.
NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST
Braves
Who we picked: Jose Perdomo, SS
Who it is: Cam Caminiti, LHP (MLB No. 68)
Caminiti didn’t join the organization until the 2024 Draft, when the Braves took him No. 24 overall. Perdomo, the Braves’ big international sign ($5 million bonus) in January of 2024, has had trouble staying healthy in order to develop and show what he can do. He played just eight games in the Dominican Summer League after signing because of a hamstring injury and while he played 54 games in the Florida Complex League last summer, he’s yet to really be completely at full strength. The Braves know he can play short, but don’t have a feel for what kind of offensive player he might be, with a .547 career OPS to date.
Marlins
Who we picked: Noble Meyer, RHP
Who it is: Thomas White, LHP (No. 17)
The Marlins spent a combined $8.6 million to land the best prep right-hander (Meyer) and left-hander (White) in the 2023 Draft, but only the latter has lived up to expectations. The 10th overall pick out of an Oregon high school, Meyer still has a plus slider but has seen his fastball and control regress significantly, leading to a 4.70 ERA and 114/70 K/BB ratio in 105 1/3 innings in High-A during the last two seasons.
Mets
Who we picked: Ryan Clifford, OF/1B
Who it is: Nolan McLean, RHP (MLB No. 6)
The Mets enter 2026 with four Top 100 prospects in McLean, Carson Benge, Jonah Tong and A.J. Ewing, and Clifford, along with Jacob Reimer, is in that next New York tier that just missed. Now 22 years old, the left-handed slugger looked like a possible three-true-outcomes-heavy type in his two years since this selection, and concerns about the hit tool have pushed him out of the Top 100. However, he displayed quality contact rates in a 34-game sample at Triple-A last year, while still hitting the ball hard (107.4 mph 90th-percentile exit velocity). He could be an option in either corner outfield spot or at first base in Queens before long.
Nationals
Who we picked: Cristhian Vaquero, OF
Who it is: Eli Willits, SS (MLB No. 13)
Vaquero signed with the Nationals for $4.925 million in January 2022 and put up decent numbers at the Dominican and Florida complexes, even sneaking to Single-A for 16 games in his age-18 season of 2023. With his plus-plus speed and 6-foot-3 frame that portended power to come, we thought the switch-hitting outfielder could have been on the verge of a breakout. But, he still hasn’t pushed past Single-A. There have been some positive indicators, more specifically he cut down nicely on swing-and-miss with Fredericksburg in 2025. But with the Nationals going into prospect acquisition mode this offseason, he’ll have to fight his way back into Minor League prominence in the organization.
Phillies
Who we picked: Starlyn Caba, SS
Who it is: Aidan Miller, SS (MLB No. 23)
Miller was the Phillies’ top Draft pick in 2023 and coming off a senior season distrupted by a broken hamate, we weren’t exactly sure what to expect. Caba was the Phillies’ top international signee in 2023, getting $3 million to join the organization, and was coming off a solid start in the DSL. He’s since been traded to the Marlins (in the December 2024 deal for Jesús Luzardo) and he remains one of the best defensive shortstops in the Minors, but the bat hasn’t come around as hoped.
NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL
Brewers
Who we picked: Yophery Rodriguez, OF
Who it is: Jesús Made, SS/2B (MLB No. 3)
At the time, the Brewers had been aggressive with Jackson Chourio and Luis Lara coming out of the Dominican Summer League with spectacular and solid results, respectively. We predicted that Milwaukee would do something similar with Rodriguez in 2024, and it did, sending him to Single-A Carolina, where he produced a .726 OPS with seven homers in 110 games as an 18-year-old. However, Rodriguez didn’t prove as toolsy as the others in full-season ball and was sent to the Red Sox in last April’s Quinn Priester trade. Made, instead, has been the one to most closely resemble Chourio’s incredible rise.
Cardinals
Who we picked: Leonardo Bernal, C (MLB No. 98)
Who it is: JJ Wetherholt, INF (MLB No. 5)
In hindsight, we knew Bernal’s defense would give him a decent floor, and that remains true; he was a Minor League Gold Glove winner last season and threw out 39 percent of attempted basestealers with Double-A Springfield in 2025. But his inconsistent offense – he had just a 68 wRC+ after July last year – keeps him from reaching the heights we set out for him in 2024. He still has the under-the-hood markers of a switch-hitter that could show average pop and get on base, but eclipsing Wetherholt at the top is too tall a task.
Cubs
Who we picked: Moisés Ballesteros, C/1B
Who it is: Ballesteros (MLB No. 55)
Ballesteros is exactly what he looked like two years ago: a gifted hitter with 20-homer upside but questions about his ability to remain behind the plate. Signed for $1.2 million out of Venezuela in 2021, he has nothing left to prove offensively in the Minors after finishing fourth in the Triple-A International League batting race (.316/.385/.473) at age 21 and projects as the Cubs' primary DH and occasional catcher in 2026.
Pirates
Who we picked: Lonnie White, OF
Who it is: Konnor Griffin, SS/OF (MLB No. 1)
We rolled the dice on a longshot here, and lost. Of the three high school players the Pirates went over-slot to sign in the 2021 Draft, only Bubba Chandler has started to reach his potential. White was a two-sport star in high school who has yet to stay healthy for a full season. He had shown some signs of life in 2023, leading to this prediction, but has a career .216/.329/.403 line as he approaches his age 23 season.
Reds
Who we picked: Ricardo Cabrera, SS
Who it is: Sal Stewart, INF (MLB No. 22)
We were encouraged by Cabrera’s United States debut in 2023 (1.006 OPS in the Arizona Complex League and a late bump to full-season Daytona). His full year in the Florida State League was fine, but not spectacular and his 2025 was a lost season with a knee injury ending it after just 21 games. He’s 21 for this season, and he’s still a prospect, but he had already been moved off of shortstop, the position he played when the Reds signed him for $2.7 million in 2022, and the hope is he can move well enough post-injury to stick at third.
NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST
D-backs
Who we picked: Druw Jones, OF
Who it is: Ryan Waldschmidt, OF (MLB No. 59)
When we wrote this piece in 2024, we gave the 2022 second overall pick some grace for early injuries in his career, including a left shoulder problem before his official debut and quad and hamstring issues in his first full season. Two years later, Jones still hasn’t broken through offensively with swing mechanics that too often put the ball on the ground, dulling his power output. He started to show some improvements in the second half with High-A Hillsboro last season, and his exceptional center-field defense will keep him in the middle of the D-backs’ Top 30 list to begin 2026.
Dodgers
Who we picked: Josue De Paula, OF
Who it is: De Paula (MLB No. 15)
Though he was just 18 and had only reached Single-A entering the 2024 season, De Paula already was drawing raves as the Dodgers' most advanced young hitter since Corey Seager. Signed for $397,500 out of the Dominican Republic in 2022, he's now drawing comparisons to a slightly smaller Yordan Alvarez thanks to his combination of swing decisions and exit velocities. At age 20 last year, he ranked second in the pitcher-friendly Midwest League in on-base percentage (.406), OPS (.827) and walks (82).
Giants
Who we picked: Bryce Eldridge, OF/RHP
Who it is: Eldridge (MLB No. 25)
The best two-way talent and the 16th overall pick in the 2023 Draft, Eldridge entertained the idea of trying to both hit and pitch as a pro but the Giants ultimately decided to make him a full-time first baseman. Now the best power prospect in the game, he slashed .260/.333/.510 with 25 homers in 100 games between Double-A and Triple-A last year before becoming the youngest position player in the Majors (age 20) when he reached San Francisco in mid-September.
Padres
Who we picked: Leo De Vries, SS (MLB No. 4)
Who it is: Kruz Schoolcraft, LHP (MLB No. 88)
Predicting the future of the Padres’ farm can be a fool’s errand given the front office’s free-wheeling willingness to deal prospects for Major League help. Never was that clearer than at last year’s Trade Deadline when San Diego moved De Vries to the A’s as part of the package for reliever Mason Miller. To our credit, De Vries would be the Padres’ top prospect if he were still around. He’s a switch-hitter with the potential to produce for average and power, giving him enough offensive value for anywhere he lands on the dirt.
Rockies
Who we picked: Chase Dollander, RHP
Who it is: Ethan Holliday, SS (MLB No. 24)
We did mention that there was a chance that Dollander, the Rockies’ first-rounder in 2023 out of the University of Tennessee, might graduate by this time, and we got that part right. It was rough sledding, with the right-hander finishing with a 6.52 ERA over 21 starts and 98 innings. He struggled with command (4.5 BB/9) and injuries (forearm inflammation earlier in the year; knee late) didn’t help him in his efforts to find any kind of groove.