Walcott has been one of the toolsiest and most projectable players in the game from practically the moment he signed as part of the 2023 international class. Slim, high-waisted, and with huge bat speed, he has developed above-average raw power even as he’s still a teenager with tons of development in front of him yet. He was an above-average hitter as a 19-year-old in the Texas League last year, where he hit 13 dingers and posted solid walk and strikeout rates. He’ll miss most or all of the 2026 season recovering from surgery to repair a torn UCL — the Rangers are hoping for an August return — but even factoring that in, his blend of present production and tantalizing physicality gives him one of the highest ceilings in the minors.

At the plate, it doesn’t take long to identify both Walcott’s upside and the work ahead to reach it. He’s the kind of player who even casual fans can watch and go, “Whoa, that guy takes a mean cut!” He swings hard, with loft, and has the bat speed to hit pitches wherever they wind up. But that doesn’t mean he always does. The effort in his swing has him behind fastballs sometimes, the way he pulls off the plate limits his ability to drive pitches on the outer half, and he doesn’t track the ball real well, which led to a big whiff rate on spin last year. The approach is also immature; in particular, he has a frustrating tendency to let too many good pitches pass him by. He has the physical talent to hit, and has shown an ability to lace pitches from his letters to his shoestops, but the range of outcomes on his hit tool is pretty large.

The other big question is where he ultimately fits on defense. So far, Walcott has retained enough mobility to at least continue developing at shortstop. But, partially due to his lever length, he isn’t the cleanest operator out there. He can do freaky things, like uncork plus throws from all manner of angles and stretch for balls in the hole in a way few fielders can. But he can also get tangled, some of his throws are pretty far off line, and it’s fair to wonder if the future strength gains we’re all anticipating make him a better fit at third anyway. Texas must be thinking along that line, because he started working at third base in Frisco last season.

Even as Walcott has moved quickly through the minors and produced along the way, there are some evaluators who have pushed back on him as an elite talent. There are fair reasons: He swings through a lot of fastballs, he isn’t an especially instinctual player, and we’re still waiting on a lot of that immense physical projection. All of this was true before the UCL injury, too. Here, we still love him and see huge upside, but between that feedback and the injury, we’re cooling our forecast a degree or two.

Castillo is the latest in a long line of young, athletic, ultra-projectable middle-of-the-diamond players who the Rangers have signed out of Latin America. Like so many other such signees down through the years, Castillo is loose and fast with a tapered frame, the kind that effortlessly generates notable power and speed while teasing the possibility he could develop more of both. And as has been the case so many times before, things look good under the lights too, as both his actions in the field and mechanics at the plate check most of the boxes you want to see in a toolsy ballplayer.

Castillo has the bat speed and looseness in his swing to project an above-average hit tool. He’s not there yet, in part because there’s a big gap between his hardest hit balls and how often he squares one up, and also because the way he pulls off the plate now leaves him a little vulnerable on the outer half. But his 81% contact rate last year was quite good and the aforementioned max exits indicate the kind of bat speed that lets us project 55s on both the future bat and power. The way he rips his wrists through the ball to reach pitches upstairs is special, and the sort of trait that makes us comfortable projecting big on a guy whose production has been just so-so up to this point.

Castillo also projects as a shortstop and could be a pretty good one. He’s an above-average runner with good hands and clean actions. He isn’t a flawless defender, as like many players his age, the internal clock and reliability components are still a work in progress. But he looks like he’ll stay where he is, as he’s likely to remain spry enough for the job even if he grows into a good bit more strength.

There is a clash between the scouting and the narrative here. For as good as Texas is at unearthing this type of player, the club’s track record of molding all that talent into productive big leaguers hasn’t been particularly robust. We’re ignoring that in this projection. We’re here to evaluate Castillo, not Texas’ history of scouting and developing Latin American talent, and it’s not really fair for the shadows of Leody Taveras and Anthony Gutierrez to cloud the picture. But while the Rangers themselves should be excited about their man, it’s fair for Rangers fans to want to see a little less projection and a little more proof in the pudding before fully sharing that enthusiasm. For us, though, Castillo projects as an everyday player with star potential, and that’s enough to crack our Top 100.

Scarborough was one of the more projectable high school pitchers in the 2023 draft at a gangly 6-foot-5, and was signed away from a Dallas Baptist for $515,000. He struggled badly with walks during his very limited 2024 pro debut, but then flipped the script in 2025 as he worked 88 innings (mostly at Low-A, with a late promotion tucked in) and walked just 21 guys. He carried a 2.45 ERA on the season and didn’t allow a single earned run in three starts at High-A Hub City after he was promoted.

Scarborough’s command of his fastball is particularly impressive, and is a necessary component of his success as a starter. He’s bringing nearly six-and-a-half feet of arms and legs down the mound, with enough extension to add a tick of perceived velo to his 93-96 mph fare, and his low arm slot creates upshot angle that facilitates elevated swing and miss. When he’s locating to the upper arm-side quadrant, his fastball has pretty nasty rise/run life; in the rest of the zone, Scarborough’s heater is pretty hittable, but he successfully peppered that optimal area of the zone throughout the 2025 season.

His breaking ball is an 80-84 mph sweeper with plus horizontal action. His command of the pitch isn’t as crisp, though it’s a very nasty in-zone weapon against righties, who Scarborough’s sweeper often makes flinch and freeze. His slider generated plus-plus miss in 2025 and spins at around 2,800 rpm on average. Though Scarborough only threw a few dozen changeups throughout last season, he has feel for killing spin, and his loose, whippy arm action allows for projection on the pitch. He isn’t higher on the Top 100 because we want to see how his command and velo play when his workload isn’t as manicured as it was in 2025, when he was working roughly four innings per start. His delivery does have a bit of violence, and at times he looks flat-footed and his arm stroke is late. None of that mattered from a strike-throwing standpoint in 2025, though we don’t consider Scarborough to be totally out of the relief risk woods yet. He’s still a great prospect who was an emphatic arrow up dev success within two years of being drafted. He’s building up in extended after undergoing surgery in February to remove a melanoma.

Davalillo wasn’t all that highly regarded in the international market and didn’t sign until he was 19. He had a $30,000 deal in place with the Mets that was voided late and pushed him to Texas for an even lower bonus. The Rangers appear to have found a bargain, as Davalillo’s blend of control and quality secondaries have propelled him through the system quickly. He had success at Double-A last season — 2.73 ERA, 3.43 FIP, and gorgeous peripherals in 56 innings spread across 12 appearances — and is in position to contend for starts this summer.

Davalillo is a good athlete. He’s loose and able to repeat a somewhat busy delivery, a rock-and-fire with a high leg kick and powerful stride down the mound, but without the big head whack and heel grind that often accompanies this level of effort. His arm stroke is loose and he’s able to maintain arm speed on everything, which helps an already great split play like a plus-plus out pitch.

Davalillo has a deep mix and needs to, because his fastballs play best in a complementary role. He’ll touch 96 with both but sits in the low 90s, and the shape isn’t anything special. He’s reliably in the zone with them, which helps set up all the secondaries that do miss bats. In addition to the aforementioned split, he’ll flash an above-average slider, steal strikes with a sharp curve, and he’ll also mix in an occasional cutter. Unpredictability is his friend. Cutter aside, his usage of the rest of the mix was balanced, between 14-26% per Trackman. Perhaps there’s room to use the split a little more — his whiff and chase rates were top of the scale — at the expense of the sinker, but by and large, the varied attack seems to suit him.

There are a couple of elements in Davalillo’s game that keep us from really going nuts. He’s a control-over-command guy, and his slightly open stride limits his deception. Between that and about average arm strength, there’s a ceiling here. The floor is pretty high, though. Davalillo is relatively stretched out, has been mostly healthy as a pro, and has a deep mix that should let him turn over lineups a couple times. He has the look of a good no. 4 starter.

Despite good size and plus athleticism, Santos was just a $10,000 signee in the 2019 international class. Even with plus arm strength, he’s risen unevenly through Texas’ system, amidst the pandemic and an extended search for a viable breaking ball. He’d found one by the spring of 2024, and with a much-improved slider in tow, he dominated High-A that summer. He then looked like a potential mid-rotation guy at times in the spring of 2025, but missed most of last year with a stress reaction in his back. He returned in time for the Fall League, where his velo was intact and he struck out more than a batter per inning.

Santos has an enviable blend of velocity, changeup quality, and athleticism. He comfortably sits in the mid-90s with a little tail and can bump the heater up to 99 without much obvious exertion. It doesn’t have great shape, and perhaps he should throw it a little less. He has alternatives, as his slider has taken big strides since his days as a raw-but-projectable righty, and it now projects as an above-average offering, as does his change.

Last year, hitters whiffed a bunch but tended to hit Santos hard when they did make contact. He can be loose within the zone — his delivery is smooth, easy, and clean with the exception of a moderate head whack — and he doesn’t consistently execute his secondaries. I’m optimistic those things will get better. After all, Santos is a good athlete, and he’s shown an aptitude for improvement throughout his minor league career. And even if he does prove a little too hittable in the rotation, the arm strength and power arsenal should play toward the back of a big league bullpen. He was a late addition to our Top 100 — I liked him a bit more than Eric if y’all want to make fun of one of us later on — and he projects as a no. 4 with upside for more if his execution takes a big step forward with continued reps.

Corniell was once a Mariners pitching prospect, an expensive pre-pandemic J2 signee who was shipped to Texas in a deal for Rafael Montero. With the Rangers, Corniell progressed slowly and didn’t break out until 2023, when he posted a sub-3.00 ERA across both A-ball levels and won the organization’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year award. Elbow trouble the following spring led to Tommy John surgery, which kept him out until last summer.

Upon his return, Corniell was throwing gas. He mostly sat in the low 90s and touched higher back in 2023, but he lived at 94-97 and bumped 99 in 2025. He did so with a corresponding uptick in the sharpness of his breaking ball, an 11-5 offering that looks like a curve or a slider depending on how hard he throws it, anywhere from the upper 70s to the mid-80s. He’s also got an average sinking change and a fringy cutter, the latter of which has too much velo separation off the fastball for him to lean on it. As has long been part of his profile, Corniell threw strikes last year as well, which is no sure thing for a guy throwing harder or returning from TJ, much less both. All of that earned him his first big league call-up last September.

If you could bottle Corniell’s stuff from last summer and spread it across 160 innings, you could justify a 50 FV here. I was tempted to do it anyway, and were I scouting for a club, with the liberty to get aggressive and to think more about talent and less about value, I probably would have. There are reasons to stay cautious for now, though. First, Corniell did most of his work in short stints: He reached the fifth just twice and never fired more than 68 pitches. It’s possible, likely even, that he’ll need to sit lower over the course of longer outings and a longer season. For that reason, the topline grades may look a little conservative for someone who can hit 99. He’s also primarily working to one side of the plate. His delivery is fairly clean, but he opens a little early and there’s a pronounced glove-side lean to his locations. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pepper the other side more as he matures, but as is, it’s a backend starter’s mix of locations and stuff.

Kling started his college career at LSU and was a regular presence on the club’s championship team in 2023. After a more muted sophomore year, he transferred to Penn State for his junior campaign, and his big year there propelled him to a seventh-round selection and a $375,000 bonus, on the high end for a player in his draft orbit.

Kling is a plus athlete and runner with a strong lower half and projectable power. At the plate, his swing is simple but effective. He has a small stride, really more of a tap, and a short, late load up. His swing is steep but malleable, and he has above-average bat speed. It’s a connected swing, and the way he fires his hips and is able to incorporate his lower half is a sign of how he’s able to generate decent pop even though he’s not a huge guy. Kling has a little vulnerability to spin low and away, as the way his swing works makes it hard for him to adjust to that particular spot. His pitch recognition looks fine, though, and he’s able to manipulate the bat head and direct the barrel just about everywhere else.

Defensively, Kling looks like an average center fielder on tape. His reads and routes aren’t perfect, but they’re pretty good. He’s able to leave his feet, and he can make plays by the wall. His arm isn’t great, but it’s not going to turn into a track meet out there, either. Were I scouting for a team, I’d put an everyday regular grade on him. For us, with a scant pro track record, all at the lower levels, he belongs here. He’s a candidate to move up quickly if he hits this spring, and is a dark horse Top 100 candidate for next year.

The Rangers paid Owens $1.10 million to forgo his commitment to Georgia Southern. He’s a sinewy and athletic two-way player with a long way to go but real upside on both sides of the ball.

Owens oozes projectability, perhaps especially at the plate, where he has a pretty and lofted swing. It’s a manipulable bat path too, and there’s exciting power projection here given his looseness and athleticism. He’s rawer on some of the finer points of hitting: His pitch recognition and tracking skills in particular aren’t great and he had a rough ride during his Low-A cameo last season. Defensively, he’s speedy enough to cover short, but is again clearly not a finished product. His throwing stroke is odd, elongated, and for a guy with experience on the bump, not particularly natural looking. The speed of the game also caught up to him during the Rangers’ Spring Breakout Game, where his internal clock lagged behind much older competitors.

On the mound, Owens is similarly raw but enticing. He worked almost exclusively with his sinker and slider last year. Out of a low, nearly sidearm slot, he generates above-average tail and touches 97. His slider is a little underbaked and doesn’t get quite the sweep you’d expect from his slot, but his raw feel for spin is decent, and this is a pitch to project on. While his delivery has a gangly look, he’s under control and the hesitation in his motion, the one that makes his throws from short look odd and unnatural, might have a deceptive effect off the mound. Were he solely a pitching prospect, he’d be pretty interesting.

Generally, two-way prospects are quite a bit better on one side of the ball than the other in a way that lets evaluators feel comfortable projecting the guy as either a pitcher or a hitter. Somehow, the Rangers have stumbled into two teenagers where that’s not the case just yet. With Owens, you have a pitcher who already has viable arm strength and some deception, with plenty of paths forward on the secondaries, though not so much arm talent to think he’s a budding ace. He’s not “safe” exactly, but there are a lot of ways this could work. At the plate, there’s big upside if pro instruction and reps sharpen up his approach and skills at the plate as he grows into his considerable tools, but there’s also a non-zero chance that he’s not much of a hitter. For now, it makes sense to keep plugging away on both sides. Ultimately, Owens has a case as the highest-variance prospect in all the minors, and he’s a player of considerable interest to catch on the complex this season.

Anyone tempted to write players off after a rough pro debut should at least keep Cauley’s career trajectory in mind. He didn’t hit a lick on the complex after he was drafted in 2021, followed that up with a 79 wRC+ at Low-A in 2022, and posted a 32.4% strikeout rate in his second spin through the level in 2023. Across those three years, he homered just 14 times. The production has caught up to the tools since, and he hit 15 bombs at Double-A last year with a 112 wRC+ and a career-low 24.7% strikeout rate. Now 23, he’s at Round Rock and on the cusp of the big leagues.

Cauley is calm in the box, with a small hand load and barely more than a toe tap. He has average bat speed and a slightly lofted bat path. It’s a much shorter swing than back when he was younger, and while he still isn’t a great contact hitter (70% contact last year), it’s miles better these days, and he’s actually able to pull the ball, which wasn’t always the case.

The contact/power blend is probably a little light for everyday duty, but Cauley’s defensive chops give him a high floor as a utility player. He compensates for a fair arm with a very quick release and online, if at times dirty, throws at short. He’s not going to make too many plays in the six-hole, but his instincts are solid and his hands reliable, and he should take care of everything else. For a guy who hasn’t spent a ton of time in center, he also looks comfortable there, with advanced reads and routes for his experience level and the wheels to handle the job. Contenders generally have a guy like this who can flex in and out of the lineup and around the diamond, and Cauley projects to have a long career doing just that.

After their unsuccessful pursuit of Roki Sasaki, the Rangers redirected some of their leftover IFA money to Kim. The two-way talent from South Korea signed last May and played a few games toward the end of the DSL season. He was in Arizona this spring and should make his stateside debut in the ACL.

While not especially physical, Kim is a smooth athlete with excellent body control. On the mound, he has no trouble repeating his textbook delivery, and displays advanced touch and feel for a teenager. There’s a downside to that: He isn’t deceptive at all, and the lack of oomph in his motion is part of why he only sits 91-93 (he touched 96 twice over the course of two in-person looks this past spring), and why both of his breaking balls are on the softer side. In short, the underlying foundation for a starting pitching prospect is present, but the stuff is underbaked.

At the plate, Kim’s inside-out swing path, front leg torque, and leveraged finish will look familiar to KBO watchers (yes, there’s also a bat flip). He tracks pitches well but doesn’t yet have the strength or bat speed to project much power, and likely doesn’t have the frame to grow into more than average pop; it’s a middle infielder’s offensive profile. Defensively, his reputation is good, but he understandably didn’t get much time on the infield this spring. We’ll learn more soon.

There’s more uncertainty here than with most two-way players. Double duty is a pipe dream for just about all of these guys, as they usually are far better on one side of the ball than the other, and lack the physicality to burn the candle at both ends all year long. The latter bit looks like a real issue for Kim, but the former piece is cloudy, as there are clear ups and downs both at the plate and on the mound. While my gut says he fits better on the mound, I don’t have a ton of conviction in it. Even if it’s hard to imagine him doing it forever, at this point it makes sense to keep plugging away with the two-way experiment and let the game pick his lane sooner or later.

The Rangers are as good as anyone at identifying and signing good athletes in Latin America, and Santana fits the mold. He’s high waisted, with an enviable blend of speed, present strength, and physical projection. And for anyone lamenting that only the lefties get the “pretty swing” label, I’ll submit Santana’s, a lofted and connected cut built to do damage.

As is often the case with the physical and toolsy Latin American teens Texas always has running around their complex, Santana’s skills lag behind his athleticism. He struck out more than a quarter of the time in the ACL last year, where he posted a sub-league-average line and got eaten up by offspeed pitches in particular. He doesn’t identify breaking balls well out of the hand, and he’s not going to reach this projection if he keeps whiffing half the time against spin.

If you’re looking for optimism, it’s notable that Santana recently made subtle bat path adjustments and shortened his swing a tick in an effort to pull the ball more. It has worked, at least to my eye, and it demonstrates that he’s got the aptitude to make positive changes. If he can find a way to fight sliders and curves to a draw, everything else may just fall into place. He has a fast bat and is already producing exit velocities at the big league average. Defensively, he’s not quite quick enough for center, but he projects above average in a corner and has a path to everyday duty if he just hits enough. That’s a huge “just,” of course, but it’s worth staying patient here, because Santana has some of the highest upside at the plate in the entire system.

Lopez was known as Leandro Calderon when he signed, which made digging up his video on Synergy more of a task than I’d have imagined. Anyways, he signed for $10,000 in the 2021 international class, a figure that looks like a real bargain after he finished 2025 with a 2.40 ERA and 28.9% strikeout rate across 101.1 innings split between High- and Double-A.

Lopez works with a fairly low-effort delivery. He pitches out of the stretch, strides short and straight, falls off slightly, and even though there’s a heel grind, he’s under control and tends to throw strikes. He’ll touch 98, but sits 93-96 with unremarkable shape; he gets an average of 17 inches of vertical break on the fastball, though out of a nearly over-the-top slot and the carry plays about as hitters are expecting. Lopez throws a ton of breaking balls, and uses his slider about as often as his fastball. It’s a tight, above-average north-south breaker in the upper-80s, and he’s also got a 12-6 curve with great snap to it and longer, though otherwise similar, shape. He can run both of them on and off the plate, and his ability to get the ball to the back foot against lefties has helped him run reverse platoon splits even with a fringy changeup. His best changes have decent fade, but he lacks the same kind of feel for it that he has with his breakers.

Lopez has paths to the big league rotation. His arsenal is light on east-west movement, and developing the change would be useful, even if it’s fringy, just to give him another look for lefties. You’d also like to see him maintain his stuff over longer outings — like many in this system, he averaged a little more than four innings per outing last year — and have his command reach the projection above. All of that seems possible. His stuff isn’t loud but it is functional, and it ultimately feeds a back-of-the-rotation profile, with late-inning upside in relief if he doesn’t prove to have the arsenal depth to turn lineups over multiple times.

Church made the Opening Day roster last year, but a series of injuries — he battled an oblique strain, elbow inflammation, and then a torn teres major muscle in his shoulder — turned 2025 into an otherwise forgettable campaign. He was optioned early this year as well, as a lat strain put him behind schedule and didn’t give him time to ramp up in time for the season opener.

Church’s stuff is late-inning quality. He sits in the mid-to-upper 90s, and while the plane and shape of the heater isn’t the sort that misses bats, it tunnels perfectly with his north-south slider. That pitch breaks sharply in the upper 80s, and he can both hit the box with it or bury it in the dirt. He also occasionally throws an inconsistent change. It flashes above average with a tick of late sink and tail; at other times, it’s a hamburger in the low 90s. Church intermittently throws quality strikes, and the way he’s able to run his slider on and off the plate in particular makes it all the more frustrating when he overthrows and loses feel for the zone entirely. At his best, he has a closer’s blend of stuff and command. More realistically, the thin arsenal and history of scattered control portend a setup ceiling.

Agreda is an undersized righty with a lightning-quick arm. His motion starts slow and finishes fast, with big hip torque and a head whack at finish. The acceleration in his delivery, as well as the arm speed and short path, are deceptive, which feels a tad unfair for a guy who can hit 100. Neither the extension nor the shape stands out, but let’s not overthink this: When you throw this hard and can also spin it, you’re in a pretty good place. Agreda has been developed as a starter thus far, and it’s worth continuing to do so as he sharpens his secondaries, even if the lack of a change and below-average control suggest a future in relief.

Agreda is another guy in this system with decent raw ability to spin the ball but underdeveloped breaking balls. The shapes on both the curve and slider are fine in a vacuum, but there’s so much velo separation off the fastball that opponents have plenty of time to adjust. He doesn’t quite finish his slider the way he does his fastball, which makes me think he’s got a good power breaker in him, he’s just taking something off to get his current one to land it in the right spot. It’s worth projecting on the slider, and having done so, I’m also forecasting him as a seventh-inning reliever, with variance up or down depending on how much or little that offering develops.

Texas’ second-rounder in the 2025 draft, Russell signed for late-first-round money. He’s a traits bet with a big ceiling but a ton of question marks, starting with his health. Russell’s UCL barked during his sophomore season and in lieu of Tommy John surgery, he opted for the internal brace procedure. He returned ahead of schedule last February, but then got shut down in March and moved to the bullpen upon his return.

On stuff, Russell leans on his fastball, a mid-90s offering with tail, carry, and extension, thrown out of a low slot despite his massive frame. When he locates at the top rail, hitters can miss pretty badly. They don’t tend to miss much on the secondaries, however, which are all below average presently. Both the slider and change flash, but his feel for location and execution are both a work in progress and obvious developmental priorities in 2026. It’s a complicated path forward, because Russell is more of a powerful athlete than a fluid one — he looked more limber as a freshman — and he’s already close to maxed out on deception. There are certainly things to like here, but given his draft position and fairly high relief risk, he’s more of a project than you might expect.

Dreiling was one of the big heroes on Tennessee’s CWS championship squad in 2024, when he homered in all three games of the Finals and took home the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award. As a pro, he hasn’t hit for the same kind of power he did in school, and likely won’t, as he’s of average size and build, and his swing doesn’t generate the kind of bat speed or lift that tends to produce big home run totals. He made a ton of contact when he turned it loose at High-A last year (83% overall, 88% in zone) but hit just .226/.319/.381. Part of that stems from a passive approach, but his swing also produces a bunch of airborne contact to the opposite field. His spray chart is odd: When he’s able to turn on something and lift it in the air, it tends to leave the yard, but because he didn’t do it all that often, there’s a lot of empty contact everywhere else. In this way and others, velo looms as a problem. His swing is geared for pitches low in the zone and a good chunk of his whiffs came on fastballs up.

Defensively, Dreiling has seen time at all three outfield spots. He can handle center in a pinch, but both his speed and his still-developing reads and tracking skills fit better in a corner. There’s enough utility on that side, and enough contact and impact to think he can help in a reserve role. He projects as a Jack-of-all-trades type of fourth outfielder.

Texas picked last for the best possible reason in the 2024 draft, and signed Moore at the back of the first round for $3 million. At the time, he projected as a quick-moving bat with a mature approach and a few things to clean up defensively. He had a rough transition to pro ball, as a broken finger last April undercut his season before it really began. He was off to a fast start in his first nine games, and then hit .183 with just eight extra base hits in 53 contests after returning.

Moore had plenty of questions to answer at the plate even before the injury. His swing has a big, looping load, and then a steep swing plane. That can work, but his timing and instincts are going to have to be good because there’s some length to the path and it isn’t a fast bat. We’re left guessing on a couple things. Was the 40-grade raw power he generated last year dampened entirely by the finger, or is he one of those guys who lost a lot of juice in the shift from metal to wood? Is he a 74% contact guy going forward, or is it just really hard to hit when you’re simultaneously catching everyday and trying to nurse an injured digit?

These questions loom large in 2026, particularly because Moore was drafted as a bat-over-glove backstop. Defensively, he isn’t especially mobile, which shows up in all three phases. He’s a fair framer but isn’t a great blocker presently. He threw out 17% of basestealers last year, and this part of his game will likely remain below average as well, as he’s somewhat slow out of the crouch and doesn’t have a rocket arm to compensate; he can post a 1.95 pop time when everything lines up and if he can do so consistently, he can battle the running game to a draw.

I have less conviction in this report than most I’ve written at the site; I just don’t have much information, statistical or visual, on Moore as a healthy player swinging a wood bat. Based on all I have at my disposal, he looks like a backup catcher who can help on both sides but without a carrying tool to play every day. More so than with most guys, though, if he ends up profiling quite differently, I’m not going to feel too bad if I have to tip my cap to Moore and start over.

There have been times in recent seasons when Teodo has looked like a closer, or even an effectively wild five-and-dive type. But while he was never great at landing his high-90s sinkers and sharp sliders over the plate, his ability to hit the box collapsed last year, and his first outings at Rock Round in 2026 haven’t gone any better.

Teodo is a max-effort thrower with a tense, full circle arm stroke and a big head whack at finish. It looks like he’s putting a bit more effort into it now than he did at his peak (and is also throwing a tick slower), but regardless, he’s thrown more pitches six inches wide of the plate than over the dish thus far. It’s a big problem for a guy whose high-90s fastball has been surprisingly hittable at the upper levels. The slider remained as venomous as ever last year, but it’s only going to matter so much if Teodo can’t reliably throw strikes. At his best, he has late-inning stuff, but you can also imagine a future in which his lack of feel doesn’t allow him to profile at all. This forecast splits the difference, baking in a viable level of strikes with a more pessimistic assessment of the fastball and command than in previous years.

Eric and I had a chance to sit next to each other at Texas’ Spring Breakout Game in 2024, where we kept giving each other “Who is this guy?” glances throughout Tiger’s dominant outing. Out of the bullpen, he sat 96-98 with explosive life and the day’s best breaking ball, a buck nasty 88-90 mph cutter/slider. That afternoon remains resonant because Tiger had barely been seen before — he was a relatively small signing out of a Kansas junior college and had thrown all of four innings in pro ball — and has only tossed 46 frames since. Tommy John cost him the back half of the 2024 season and all of 2025; he had a setback early this spring as well. Normally I’d be inclined to shuffle a profile like this off to the Honorable Mentions, but Baseball Sasquatch’s stuff is simply too good for that. I saw it. I swear. At least… I think I did…

Lopez was an older 2025 international signing. The Rangers had him skip the Dominican complex and plugged him into the ACL rotation, where he was wild but touched 96 while flashing two plus breaking balls. While still very lean, sources within the org say that Lopez has gotten significantly stronger — the word “emaciated” was used to describe his physical condition when he signed — and that seems to have facilitated a velo uptick. He sat 92-94 while touching 96 last summer, and was up to 96-98 in my backfield looks this spring. It also appears that his arm slot is lower. The delivery is still a little messy and the effort level suggests a relief future. He’s got time to develop a little more touch and feel, though, and if he’s able to reach triple digits with a correspondingly sharper slider in short stints, he’s going to have a lot of wiggle room on his control. The road ahead is long, but the ceiling in relief is pretty high here and starting isn’t yet entirely out of the question.

Stephan has worked through the minors at a steady pace, throwing strikes and doing just enough to miss barrels to keep progressing. The 24-year-old reached Triple-A at the end of last year and is back in Round Rock again after notching a 4.67 ERA with an 18.7% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate across a season spent mostly at Double-A. As you might infer from the previous sentence, he has some of the best command in the system and he needs it, as his fastballs have both fringy velocity and round-down shape. He leans heavily on his slider, a mid-80s breaker with late break down and to the glove side. It flashes plus and plays ahead of its visual “nastiness” due to the righty’s ability to work it around the plate and add/subtract velocity and movement; he also has a cutter that emulates the shape at a couple ticks higher. This is not a player dynasty leaguers need to have on their radar, but Stephan should have real-world value as a guy who can wear a couple of hats: He can spot start, long relieve, and also has a path to a more traditional middle relief role if he gains a few ticks in short stints. The perfect-world outcome is a no. 5, and the big outfield in Arlington presents as good of a place as any to reach it.

Pittsburgh selected Baumler in this year’s Rule 5 draft and then shipped him to Texas in exchange for Jaiker Garcia. He pitched well this spring and had his moment in the sun when Rangers manager Skip Schumaker informed him that he’d made the Opening Day roster during a mound visit. He mostly kept runs off the board in four pretty wild appearances to begin the season before an intercostal strain put him on the shelf.

It’s the latest setback in a career full of them. Tommy John and shoulder surgeries limited Baumler to 20 or fewer innings in each of his pro seasons until 2025, when he reached Double-A and threw nearly 40 frames while dealing with shoulder and back problems. If he can stay healthy, he has big league stuff. His fastball velo stepped forward in 2025, up to 93-97 with exploding life, and he maintained those gains this spring. He generated fastball miss and chase rates of about 33% last year, both plus-plus markers. Off of that he bends in a 12-to-6 curveball that pairs nicely with the pure vertical ride of his heater, a pitch best deployed in the strike zone before Baumler elevates his fastball to put hitters away. He’ll also occasionally toss a mid-80s slider that looks average. Baumler projects as a quality mid-to-high-leverage reliever, and provided that the intercostal strain is just a speed bump, he’s in line to reach that just about now.

Collyer’s been a slow burn as a prospect. Drafted all the way back in 2019, the Rangers paid him $600,000 to forget about Clemson. While he missed plenty of bats across both A-ball levels, he didn’t reach Double-A until the very end of 2024, as a reliever. In that role, he’s sitting in the upper 90s with tail and carry out of a low slot and also has two projectable breaking balls. Between that and his great feel for spin, he has a lot of the traits you look for in a late-inning reliever, and he pitched well in extensive big league work this spring. But Collyer has always struggled to throw strikes, due to some blend of a long stroke, the big movement on all his pitches, and unsolved mysteries that make this game fun and humbling to analyze.

In addition to control, Collyer has had a bit of trouble harnessing his ability to spin the ball into useful offspeed offerings. In theory, his low-three-quarters slot would be ideal for a sweeper, but his hand tends to stay on top of the ball and so even though he can spin it well, the break isn’t all that sharp and minor league hitters hit it pretty hard. His cutter is better, 93-95 and pretty tight, though without the kind of depth you generally need to miss big league bats consistently. Something in the middle of those two pitches seems ideal, and if he can find it, he has a path to middle relief work even if he’s still a little wild, with upside beyond that if he can hit the box just a little more often. Even though Collyer has been in the minors for a while now, there’s still development ahead, and with his ingredients, the juice should be worth the squeeze.

This one is from Eric’s overview of the 2026 international class: Rosario was one of the first athletes in the 2026 class to start growing into meaningful strength and power, and so his verbal deal with Texas came pretty early during the scouting process. He’s a typical big-framed corner outfield power bat looking to pull the ball with authority. He signed for $2.5 million in January.

Curry was an undrafted high school signee in 2020. He’s still growing into his long levers, but he’s slowly ticked up in all facets over the last several years. He’s gone from touching 95 to touching 97, he’s added and subsequently sharpened his cutter, and he generated much better results in 2025, his second spin through the Sally League. Curry’s been working in a multi-inning role throughout his career, and he has a lot of functional weapons, but he’s almost certainly going to be a reliever. He doesn’t repeat his moderately high-effort motion all that well and has a pronounced head whack on top of that, and amidst an otherwise positive campaign, he walked more than 4.50 per nine last year. It’s worth continuing to develop him as a starter for the reps, which he’s doing in a repeat High-A assignment, as he’s the type of player who needs to throw as much as possible. He projects to have an unusually deep arsenal of 55s and 60s in short stints, and has late-inning upside if he’s a late-blooming strike-thrower, which is in play given his frame.

Pence was a priority 11th-rounder — his $350,000 bonus is closer to fifth- or sixth-round money — and he dominated the lower levels in his first pro season. In 82.1 innings split between the A-ball levels, Pence racked up 103 strikeouts and notched a 2.73 ERA with strong peripherals. The fastball has been key for him. It mostly sits 91-93 and touches 95, missing bats due to big carry, good extension, and his ability to pepper the top rail of the zone. His secondaries aren’t great right now. The slider and change flash average, and the former in particular doesn’t suit his arm slot in its current form; the curve is an occasional parachute to steal a strike. Long-term, he’s likely a reliever, as the moving parts in his delivery make it difficult for him to get the ball anywhere else, and shorter stints could help his power breaking ball play up.

Gutierrez is one of the proverbial “guys who stand out when they walk off the bus.” He’s a loose and projectable 6-foot-3, with the athleticism, speed, and actions of an impact center fielder. But for as graceful as he moves, for how pretty his best swings look, for as much as it looks like he’s going to grow into serious power, and for however capably he’s hung in there as a young-for-the-level player, Gutierrez remains mostly projection. Now 21, his measurable power is still 40 grade, he hasn’t posted an above-average line anywhere outside the complex, and he’s not even as fast as his gaudy steal totals or strong defensive reputation in center would suggest. He’s back for a third season in High-A and it’s tempting to write him off as a tease.

I can’t do it quite yet. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that he’ll stay lean and continue beating balls into the ground, getting front-footed by spin, and chasing too many pitches off the plate in a way that limits him to an up-down role in the end. If it clicks, though, and he’s able to get to even average power, this profile jumps in a hurry. Arizona prospect Jose Fernandez is in a similar bucket, and as with the D-backs shortstop, it’s worth staying patient in the slow lane here because there is latent athleticism-based upside if he’s a late maturer. The most likely outcome is a fourth or fifth outfielder, but of all the players this far down on the list, Gutierrez is the guy you want if you want to dream on a regular.

Rodriguez was one of Texas’ top signees in the 2025 international class and got a $1.1 million bonus. He’s an undersized lefty stick with barrel feel and a nice swing, but limited power and physical projection. He had a bright debut season in the DSL, batting .337/.473/.506 with six homers and more walks than strikeouts. Defensively, he played a mix of center and second. He attacked the latter position like an outfielder, with great directional reads off the bat and a glove that needs reps. Some kind of multi-positional fit already seems like the best and safest path for him because it’s hard to see enough pop coming for an everyday role. He projects as a rich man’s Tony Kemp.

Johnson is an exciting developmental arm. After missing his senior year of high school recovering from TJ, he went to a Mississippi JUCO and threw well enough there to get selected in the 11th round and sign for $300,000. He’s a loose righty with good body control and a low-slot fastball-slider mix that flashes above average. He’s been sitting 93-95 on the backfields and during extended spring training, with plus tail and sink that is dominating the low-level hitters he’s facing. His slider is long with bite in the mid-80s, and he’s able to locate it to both sides of the plate. Johnson arguably has better command of that pitch, as his fastball tends to either wind up glove side or tail wildly to the arm side. He has a change, but he isn’t throwing it much. If he can find a third pitch, he has the other attributes of a groundball-generating starting pitcher prospect, and he otherwise looks advanced enough to see time at A-ball this season.

Lobus is a low-slot fastball-slider reliever who went undrafted out of Mercer. He posted a 6.96 ERA in his final year in college but has kept that mark in the low-to-mid-3.00s as a professional. The bender is his bread and butter, and he uses it about 55% of the time. It’s long with good spin, and he throws it fairly hard (anywhere from 82-86) given the first two clauses in this sentence. His fastball touches 94 but doesn’t miss many bats even with a favorable release height. Lobus isn’t especially twitchy, and between that and the gumby-ish nature of his delivery, he doesn’t look like he’d be a great strike thrower. But he’s hit the box throughout his career and pretty reliably gets the slider to useful locations. Ideally he’d find a way to generate more groundballs with his sinker, but even as a pure slider monster, he projects to have utility as an optionable reliever. After striking out nearly 11 per nine and surviving the hitter-friendly Texas League with strong numbers across the board, Lobus has a shot to debut in 2026.

Segura came to Texas in exchange for reliever Daniel Robert. He’s another in a long line of tall and lean international arms, in the physical mold of Triston McKenzie or Miguel Castro. He’s worked as a starter for most of his career, where his stuff has played on the fringy to average spectrum. He projects to throw a little harder as he fills out and may also get a few more ticks if or when he winds up in relief.

Segura works with a low slot, which should theoretically help him miss bats up top or bend a bat-missing slider away from righties. Thus far he’s been platoon neutral without big whiff rates, perhaps in part because he’s not all that deceptive and is fairly easy to time. Arguably, the change is his most projectable offering, as it comes out of the hand well with late fade and sink. He throws enough strikes that you can dream on a starter, particularly if he grows into more velocity, and he should be developed that way for as long as possible. More likely, the stuff isn’t quite sharp enough for repeated runs through the order, particularly since he tends to spray the ball around a little. He projects as a middle reliever.

Lafalaise is a sleeper with a strong arm and a projectable slider. He’s a powerful athlete with a moderately high-effort delivery and a long stroke. He stays in control, though, and can hit the target on the arm side pretty reliably. It’s also big stuff: He touches 100 and sits in the mid-to-upper 90s, if without great shape. His two-plane slider flashes above-average and could have another half-gear in it. The level of effort, lack of a refined third pitch (he’s thrown a few changeups), and history of control problems suggest a relief future. To the eye though, he’s at least close to the zone often enough to keep giving him a shot in a length role, even if he’s 90/10 to wind up in the bullpen. He’s opened the year in Hickory’s rotation and if nothing else, the reps should help him work on getting his fastball to the glove side more often. He projects as a middle reliever with a little upside.

Bormie is a good case study in what successful growth and development looks like in a small-dollar prospect. An older, small-dollar signee, Bormie was a projection flier with a loose arm and a fastball that reached the low 90s when he debuted in 2022. Two springs later, he was touching 95 and had dumped his slow, mostly useless curve for a much sharper slider. Last year, he started hitting 98 and had further refined his breaking ball into a bat-missing snapper with very tight break. He’s added strength year over year and is now touching triple digits, and while his slider didn’t look quite as good at this year’s Spring Breakout Game — it’s a little more north-south and a couple ticks lower — we’re now talking about an upper-levels reliever who projects to have two plus pitches. Bormie’s still wild, and as a guy with just fair body control and a lot of moving parts in his delivery, he likely always will be to an extent. But like with everything else, this too should continue improving as he gets stronger. Bormie projects as an optionable reliever, a fantastic outcome for org and player, and a triumph for Texas’ developmental apparatus.

Trentadue was a small-school draftee, and he’s gotten significantly stronger and better since signing. Once a projectable lefty with soft stuff and a low-90s fastball, he was sitting 95-97 in the Spring Breakout Game, and flashes an above-average sweeping slider and change to go with it. His control fell apart following a late-season promotion to Frisco last year, but for the most part he’s thrown strikes as a pro, and has the body control and arm action to think he’ll be a viable strike-thrower.

Trentadue drops his slot from high three-quarters on the fastballs to low three-quarters on the secondaries. It’s not unusual for guys to go a little lower on some offerings and higher on others, but the magnitude and consistency of how he does it looks very predictable in its current form. Perhaps there’s a path to dropping down on everything? The extra carry would surely help the heater play at the top of the zone and it may even help bring Trentadue into the zone more, as he was off target with the four-seamer more than the slider last season. Adding an element of unpredictability would also help, as the offspeed is more good than great. He can add and subtract with the slider, but it doesn’t have elite bite, and the change almost always winds up arm side; he could use the extra deception.

Trentadue worked primarily as a starter last year, though without a ton of length. He projects as a reliever, one who could flex between one-inning and hybrid work. He has the ceiling of a solid middle reliever if he gets his control, well, under control. It will be a real missed opportunity if he doesn’t wear the number 32.

Jones was a small-dollar senior sign out of New Mexico State who played his way to Double-A in his first full season. It’s not often that we get to call a 6-foot-1, thickly built corner outfielder with below-average wheels “scrappy,” but Jones fits the bill, as he’s a grinder who gets himself on base more often than he should simply by running out the lost causes. He’s also got legitimate pop, above average now, and even though he’s not especially projectable, he’s young enough to get the extra tick or two on his max EVs (112.5 mph last year) to round up to plus.

Jones swings hard, but his path is long and his bat speed is just average. Still, there’s some hit skill here, as he can flatten the bat on pitches up and he sees spin well. He actually swings and misses at fastballs more than spin, which is unusual and may explain why he didn’t post much of a platoon split last year. That fastball miss is a bit concerning, though, given the bat speed and how much more velo is coming at the highest level. In some ways, it’d be easier to see a clean roster fit if he had a clear use case as a masher against righties. But while there’s a risk that Jones is just a Quad-A bat, his power, quick ascension, and motor has me rounding up a tick. There’s no defensive value here — his lack of speed shows up much more on defense — but Jones still projects as a last man type, a danger bat off the bench and a guy who could compete for a roster spot in 2027.

Ahlstrom was drafted by the Yankees and then traded to Texas for Jose Trevino, who immediately went on to earn All-Star accolades; no pressure, kid. Ahlstrom has climbed about a rung of the ladder per year since and is now on the cusp of the big leagues. He has a somewhat generic mix with no clear out pitch. His fastball sits 93-95 with ride out of a high slot, while his slider and curve are both average with two-plane break; he also has a get-me-over change. His control is on the average/fringy line. If he were a righty, he’d be in the HM section and hoping for a cup of coffee. As Ahlstrom is a lefty, he’s going to get a lot of looks. He projects as an optionable reliever, and chances are good that he’ll need to change his home address frequently over the next few years.

Wheeler is a tall, physically projectable infield prospect who signed for an over-slot $525,000 out of last year’s sixth round. He’s going to be a project. His swing is uphill and comes with a huge leak that pulls him far off the dish. His battle with the outer half of the plate will be further stress-tested by breaking balls, which he isn’t picking up well right now. It’s too early to write him off for those things. This is a long-levered high school draftee who wasn’t on the showcase circuit much, and that tends to be a raw, slow-moving demographic. Check back in as the ACL gets going, when we’ll have a better idea of Wheeler’s progress. I can’t help but think that this is a case where short-season ball would have been helpful, either this summer or next.

A 12th-rounder in 2023, Bonzagni was an arrow-up arm heading into 2025 but missed most of the season with elbow inflammation. That’s scary for anyone, particularly a guy who missed significant time in college recovering from Tommy John surgery. When he’s on the bump, Bonzagni is primarily a sinker-slider guy. He touches 98 and has generated a ton of grounders at the lower levels. He’s a slow-twitch guy and not especially deceptive, and between that and the injuries, I’m skeptical he’ll be able to start. He projects as a groundball specialist reliever, and has the ceiling of the 22nd or 23rd guy on the roster.

De Vries was unanimously viewed as the best prospect in the 2024 international class, a potential do-everything, switch-hitting infielder with power from both sides of the plate. He signed for just over $4 million, which is about what you’d expect from a top-of-the-market player. Same as they have with other of their recent high-profile prospects, the Padres wasted no time in pushing De Vries’ promotion pace; most players his age are in the DSL and domestic complex leagues during their first two seasons, while De Vries broke camp in 2025 at High-A Fort Wayne. He was dealt to the Athletics at last year’s deadline as part of the Mason Miller trade and instantly became the A’s top prospect.

After more than holding his own as an 18-year-old in High-A, De Vries was incredible down the stretch at Double-A Midland, where he hit .281/.359/.551 with five homers in 103 plate appearances. He followed that with a .426/.460/.723 2026 Cactus League line in 50 plate appearances, and broke camp back in Midland. The pace at which De Vries has conquered the minor leagues gives him a very real shot to debut before he turns 20 in October of this year, and add another young, franchise-changing player to the A’s everyday lineup as they transition from Sacramento to Las Vegas.

De Vries is a switch-hitting shortstop with weaponized power from both sides of the plate. He is a plus athlete, twitchy with good body control. He has a quick bat and a lofted stroke from both sides of the plate, with perhaps a little more verve and bat control from the left side. His exit velocities are more fringy or average than above at this point, which isn’t unexpected because — it is worth periodically reiterating — he was 18 years old last season and has plenty of physical development ahead. At peak, De Vries is going to be dangerous on every swing he takes. His hands are quick enough to make contact in all parts of the zone, and he has home run power from line to line. Though his lift-heavy style of hitting will likely cap his contact rate to some extent, it won’t be to a degree that hinders his power output.

There are still pretty big error bars when projecting De Vries’ defensive future. Though he’s a tall, bigger-framed athlete, the skinny-ankled De Vries has so far stayed lithe and agile enough to play a viable shortstop. He will contort himself to make some cool, acrobatic plays that take advantage of his plus raw arm strength, but his hands and range are merely sufficient for a shortstop, and he has had bouts of inaccuracy on deeper throws. We’re cautiously optimistic about him staying at shortstop in a vacuum, with the primary threat to that being a slippage in range caused by him trending bulky in his mid-20s. De Vries’ hands should improve with reps, and his solution to throwing inaccuracy has been to play hot potato with the baseball and quickly flick two-hoppers to first base. It isn’t ideal, but it works. He looks much more comfortable airing it out as he moves from right to left across the bag. This comfort perhaps makes third base Plan B, as most plays there are made moving in that direction. Jacob Wilson is a better shortstop defender than De Vries, and that alone might be what precipitates a change, rather than De Vries’ ability. Regardless, we think De Vries will contribute on both sides of the ball as a 30-homer, heart-of-the order hitter who is either a tenable shortstop or a plus third baseman.

Jump was a notable high school prospect in California because of his invisiball heater, which had above-average velocity to go with plus riding life and a flat angle. Concerns that he couldn’t throw strikes pushed him to UCLA, where he struggled with walks as a freshman and missed his sophomore year recovering from TJ. After he transferred to LSU for his draft year, Jump’s command improved, and for the last two seasons, he’s thrown a starter’s rate of strikes while increasing his workload to 112.2 innings. Jump paved over High-A hitters throughout the first six weeks of the 2025 season and was promoted to Double-A Midland in mid-May. After that, the A’s started to dial down his per-outing workload, and he failed to work into the sixth inning in any start from June on. He struggled at the very end of the year and surrendered more than half the runs (27) he gave up all season (50) during its final month, but he still finished 2025 with a 3.28 ERA. He was nails during 2026 spring training, broke camp with Triple-A Las Vegas, and has tee’d himself up to make his big league debut at some point this year, especially if he avoids the late-season swoon of his prior campaign.

Jump’s fastball sits 93-96 mph and gets on top of hitters quickly because they don’t seem to pick up the baseball out of his hand. He’ll reach back for 97-98 when he wants it, even late in outings, but the key to its success is its uphill angle. Though he lacks expert feel for location, Jump’s super short arm action keeps his release consistent enough for him to throw a starter’s rate of strikes. He mixes in a couple of different breaking balls — gyro sliders in the 84-88 mph range and two-planed slurves in the 78-83 mph range — and a splitter that has had about 300 rpm less spin on average than the 2025 version and is the pitch Jump struggles most to control. Each of these pitches will flash plus throughout a typical start, but the slider is the one that is most consistently good and located where Jump wants. Though he might always produce elevated walk rates due to his style of attack, Jump has a plus fastball/slider combination that will miss big league bats for five innings at a time. His ceiling could look like that of Robbie Ray, with whom Jump shares some mechanical effort and violence.

A NorCal high schooler who matriculated to Nevada, Morris posted a 5.42 ERA pitching on the surface of the moon during his draft year in Reno, but was a young-for-college spinmeister with starter-caliber repertoire depth and athleticism, and became a shrewd third-round pick by the Mets. He’d pitched his way to High-A when he was acquired by the A’s in the 2024 trade deadline deal that sent Paul Blackburn to New York, then the A’s accelerated his promotion pace in 2025 and he spent the majority of the year at Triple-A Las Vegas. Morris pitched 150 innings across 28 starts, and enters 2026 as one of the A’s more polished pitching prospects.

Morris executes a lateral sinker/slider attack with lots of tailing uphill heaters in on the hands of righties. He can locate fastballs to his glove side to set up harder sliders and true sweepers away from righties, which he routinely dots just off the corner. He’s competitive, confident, loose-armed, and athletic, and he repeats his delivery well, giving him the look of a big league starter in every way but his frame, which is slight and skinny but not without career-long starter precedent (Chris Bassitt is a fair body comp).

Morris can manipulate his breaking stuff to include a slower curveball, which he uses to get looking strikes. He’s crafty and will mix speeds and shapes across a range of about 14 mph. This, plus his fastball’s natural sink, helps him generate a lot of groundballs. He needs to develop a changeup to guard against platoon vulnerability, as none of his breaking balls are truly geared for getting lefties out. He has some feel for creating downward sink on his current changeup, which still needs refinement. If he develops a good cambio over time, then we’re talking about a starter who you would feel comfortable giving the ball to in a playoff series. For now, Morris looks more like the sort who plays a valuable, innings-eating no. 4/5 starter role during the regular season and then shifts into relief come playoff time. He’s a good bet to debut at some point in 2026 and play a role in the A’s rotation for the next several years.

Arnold entered his draft spring as a potential top-three pick, but his 2025 wasn’t as dominant as his sophomore year. His strike-throwing (especially with the fastball) backed up. College hitters were still flummoxed by his delivery and stuff, and chased at a rate that helped him keep his walk rate down at a solid 7.7%. But visually, Arnold wasn’t locating his fastball, and that was supported by the data under the hood: He posted a 45% zone rate, and a 59% strike rate with his fastball, both way below the big league average. Arnold ranked 17th on the FanGraphs Draft Board and was picked 11th overall.

Before the start of the 2026 regular season, Arnold was again having control issues on the backfields, but he was still given a very aggressive assignment and sent to Double-A Midland. He ends up behind in counts and has to lean on his slider to claw his way back in. That was okay against college hitters (Arnold had a 2.98 ERA as both a sophomore and junior) but might not fly against upper-level minor leaguers. Arnold’s delivery would win a Madison Bumgarner look-alike contest, as he has a swooping, lower-slot delivery that creates awkward uphill angle and tail on his 94-ish mph fastball (his velo slipped more into the 91-92 range late during spring training). He began incorporating more cutters as Opening Day approached, perhaps just because he was working deeper into minor league spring outings and getting to use it as he faced hitters multiple times, or perhaps because the A’s are searching for something he can throw for a strike. Arnold’s slider has more two-planed finish, while his cutter, which was often about 87 mph in my look, stays uphill, and his changeup often moves like a glorified two-seamer.

There are mid-rotation ingredients here. Arnold’s mechanical fluidity is appealing, his delivery’s unique elements should help his fastball play up if he ever learns to command it, his slider is really nasty, and he has the makings of a four-pitch mix. But we’re now entering a second consecutive year in which his fastball control looks a bit sketchy. Though it was reasonable to hope that Arnold would return to peak form and be set up to race through the minors this year, that’s not how he looked during 2026 camp. A pre-season Pick to Click, he is pretty clearly behind several of Pre-Vegas’ other well-regarded arms on the big league depth chart right now and is treading water with his pre-draft FV grade. That said, this is still a really good pitching prospect who may just need more time than the prospect zeitgeist seems to think he will in order to reach his ceiling.

Lin signed in mid-2024 but wasn’t widely seen until he pitched for Taiwan in a February 2025 WBC qualifier, where he worked out of the bullpen. He then had a dominant first half at Low-A Stockton as a starter thanks to the riding angle of his low-90s fastball and the quality of his parachuting mid-70s changeup, which garnered plus-plus miss. He was promoted to High-A Lansing, where he worked as a long reliever — about three innings per outing for 11 outings — before a two-start shot of espresso at Double-A to end the year. Altogether, Lin worked 87 innings and had one of the best strikeout-to-walk ratios in the minors, with 33.4% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate.

After three 2026 Cactus League outings with the big league team, Lin left camp to pitch for Taiwan in the World Baseball Classic. There we saw what his arm strength looks like when the adrenaline is really flowing, as he worked in the 93-95 mph range against Korea. His fastball was back in its usual 90-94 band during Lin’s final backfield start of the spring before he broke camp at Double-A Midland.

Lin’s body and mechanics look like a Jose Quintana starter kit. He’s spindly and thin, and moves with great mechanical efficiency, though without quite the same grace and precision as Quintana. His walk rates slipped as he was promoted last year, and his full-season walk rate was likely better than his true command talent, but he has four distinct pitches and controls them enough to project as a big league starter. Lin’s fastball punches above its weight thanks to its ride and angle. It generated an elite miss rate last year, above 30%, and unlike Lin’s walk rate, that mark did not dip as he was promoted last season. Off of that pitch, he’ll bend a mid-80s slider into the zone, and this pitch tunnels well with his elevated fastballs. Lin still needs to improve his ability to locate it off the plate, but it has the movement of a big league finishing pitch if he can get there.

Lin’s changeup dominated A-ball hitters last year but fell by the wayside once he started facing more advanced guys. It often flutters in south of 80 mph, which might be too slow to trick big leaguers. Still, his arm action is lovely, and he should have a traditionally effective changeup in time. For a pitcher the age of a college sophomore, this is a great foundation. Lin probably doesn’t have the command profile of a Quintana or a Joe Ryan such that he’ll truly be able to weaponize his fastball’s movement to an elite degree, but that’s going to be an impact pitch for him even if he’s only ever sitting 93, and he might yet add more velocity. He’s tracking to debut ahead of his chalk 40-man timeline and should be up by late 2028.

Colome, who signed for $4 million in January, might have the best pure bat speed in the entire 2026 international signing class. The hip/hand separation he’s able to create at his swing’s apex is incredibly explosive, though it sometimes requires a very deep load and big effort to generate. Colome’s swing can look out of control at times, or ineffectual in the same way that Miguel Andujar’s sometimes can, but the talent to hit for that kind of power is absolutely here. Colome has worked out at both shortstop and third base on the A’s complex and has the arm to play either spot, but his hands and actions at short are more on the fringe of what’s typical at the position, and some scouts have him projected to third. Volcanic bat speed gives him a big power-hitting ceiling, while his swing mechanics and potential corner fit make Colome volatile.

Nett is one of the best undrafted free agent signings of the post-COVID era. He entered pro ball as a wild, arm strength developmental project with an ideal pitcher’s frame and a great looking arm action, and during the last two seasons, his strike-throwing improved. He walked 20.1% of opponents in his first full season, then 14% in 2024, and hovered around 10% at Double-A on either side of the 2025 Mason Miller trade. He was added to the 40-man roster after the 2025 season, but made just one appearance in the 2026 Cactus League and began the regular season on the IL with his second rotator cuff injury of the last few years.

When Nett has been healthy, he has worked in the 94-98 mph range and bumped 100, and he sat 96-97 in our lone 2026 data point before the injury. Buttressing his heater are three different breaking balls, all with plus or better raw spin but roughly average on-field performance. Nett’s cutter was his most-used secondary with San Diego, but it was de-emphasized and usurped by his slider after the A’s acquired him. The nastiest pitches he throws are his best curveballs, but his feel for locating his slider is much more consistent than that of his curve. His terrific arm speed allows us to project that his changeup will continue to improve with reps. Even if his walk rate regresses toward his career norm (based on how Nett’s feel and release consistency have looked in person, we think it will), it’s worth developing him as a starter for at least another couple of years to give that changeup reps. There’s a right tail outcome here where Nett’s command clicks and he becomes a mid-rotation starter, which might not happen until his late 20s. Until then, we expect him to be an inefficient five-and-dive type at the back of the A’s rotation. If injuries continue to limit his innings, the A’s might pull the reliever parachute at some point, but probably not until late in 2027.

Perez broke out as a complex-level Padre back in 2019, then was traded to the A’s as the PTBNL for Jorge Mateo after the 2020 season. He crawled through A-ball during the next couple of years, striking out 30% of the time or more from 2021 through 2024, though he managed to hit a bunch of homers and steal a bunch of bases in each of those seasons. He cut his strikeout rate (28.6%) in a repeat season at Double-A Midland in 2025, and kept it there (26.9%) during the final two months of the season after he had been promoted to Las Vegas. It was enough of an improvement (ditto for Perez as a center field defender) for the A’s to add him to their 40-man roster, putting him in position to debut in 2026 and compete for a sustained role starting in 2027.

Perez has plus bat speed and good enough timing to damage pitches in the zip code of the zone’s center, which he sprays to all fields. He lacks great bat control, and swings underneath a ton of in-zone fastballs and breaking balls that find the top and bottom edges of the box, respectively. Perez’s 74% in-zone contact rate would be one of the three lowest among qualified big leaguers since 2024, and he posted that mark mostly at Double-A. This makes his hit tool feel flimsy and gives him strikeout-driven bust risk. The good news is that his selectivity at the dish means he tends to target pitches he can handle, and he does a good amount of damage when he makes contact.

The piece of Perez’s profile that will actually give him room to strike out at an elevated clip is his defense, which has improved across the last few seasons to the point where he can now play a passable center field. Perez is a plus runner and takes fairly efficient routes to balls hit into the gaps and over his head, and he also has a good arm. He is not nearly as good out there as Denzel Clarke, but he’s a more consistent power threat on offense. What the A’s want out of their center fielder of the near future might depend on how the rest of the offense is performing. Perez could be a plus corner defender and occasionally spell Tyler Soderstrom or Lawrence Butler against lefties, who he posted a .375 xwOBA against in 2025. He’s a pretty good roster fit for them and should play a meaningful role soon, perhaps by the second half of 2026 if he continues to strikeout less than 30% of the time in Vegas.

One of the most consistently productive college hitters in the 2025 draft class, Taylor finished his Indiana career with a .350/.459/.672 line and raked with wood in two years of summer ball. He has gorgeous feel for all-fields contact, and he can drive pitches on the outer third to the opposite field with power and turn on pitches on the inner half. He makes it look easy with the way he reads and reacts to pitch location and speed, as he can adjust his hands and upper body posture to put the barrel on the ball. Taylor is a lower launch guy who might not quite hit for his raw power in games, and he’s a terrible outfield defender who might just be a DH. The defensive piece is a body blow to his overall value and gives him basically zero margin for error as a hitter, but this projection is enthusiastic enough about Taylor to consider him a corner outfield platoon bat.

I have been skeptical of Bolte’s baseball card stats over the last couple of years. He is a .268/.370/.434 career hitter in the minors and has enticing physical prowess and twitch, but the length of his swing undermines his impressive tools in a couple of key ways, which is why he continues to project as a souped-up fifth outfielder. Bolte is long levered and ends up underneath a ton of elevated fastballs, and the contact he does make (he posted a 67% rate last year, toward the bottom of the big league scale) tends to be on the ground and/or to the opposite field.

Make no mistake, Bolte will sizzle hard liners and grounders at the first and second basemen, because once his wrists get going, he strikes the baseball with impressive force. But hitters with this contact profile — both in how little contact there is and the nature of the spray when it’s made — tend to underperform from a game power standpoint. If we’re looking for recent examples of players like this who still find a way to be productive, we can look to Garrett Mitchell, who has been successful in a fairly small sample amid injury.

Bolte presents a similar dichotomy on defense, where his speed and athleticism give him impact range, but a lack of ball skills and feel cause his defense to play down. He struggles with errant reads and discomfort at the catch point, and will be a right field-only fit in the big leagues if things continue this way. Bolte’s speed gives him utility as a pinch-runner, his power makes him a threat to crush a mistake in the middle of the zone, and his speed and athleticism make it feasible that he can improve as an outfield defender over a long period of time. This is the type of athlete who teams give chance after chance to improve, and it’s plausible that Bolte will have a meaningfully good peak offensive season or two in his late 20s. That’s essentially baked into his grade here.

If the A’s had a breakout prospect during 2026 camp, it was Guedez, a medium-framed outfielder with an exciting contact/power blend who is sneaky toolsy. Guedez signed for $1.5 million in 2025, then slashed .359/.395/.490 during his DSL debut, with a 6.7% walk rate and 9.5% strikeout rate. He raked in a half-dozen big league spring training games in 2026, homered in the A’s Breakout game, and looked more physical and toolsy than his amateur scouting reports suggested, though still a good bit more compact than the Leo De Vries and Edgar Montero types (Wilyer Abreu is a fair body comp).

Guedez has plus bat speed and impressive strength for his age. He’s muscular throughout his lower body and upper extremities, including in his hands and wrists. His swing has some natural uppercut to it, though that didn’t manifest in a ton of airborne contact during his pro debut, as he was more of a doubles machine, with 15 of them in 53 games. Even though Guedez is very likely to end up as a left field-only fit on defense and lacks big body projection, he is a rather exciting young hitting prospect with one ruby red flag in his data: his chase. Guedez chased at a 39% overall last year (the big league average is 30%) and a whopping 60% with two strikes (the big league average is 38%). Those are scary numbers for someone likely to wind up on the low end of the defensive spectrum. Guedez was given a fairly aggressive assignment to Low-A Stockton at age 18, and the way his plate discipline trends throughout the season will be the most influential variable for his overall grade during the next year. Here he’s graded like a high school prospect who’d go in the early second round.

Even though aspects of his fastball’s plane and shape were suboptimal, Echavarria’s breaking ball quality and projectability made him one of the more exciting high school pitchers in the 2023 draft, and he signed for $3 million rather than go to Florida. He’s now pitched in two full seasons, with the second (2025) being a bit rocky, as Echavarria struggled when he was stretched out to work five or more innings at a time and had his per-outing innings cut mid-year. He still managed to throw 104 frames, nearly twice as many as he had the year before, but his ERA and various FIPs were all above four, and Echavarria K’d just seven per nine despite plus fastball velocity.

Though Echavarria’s lack of fastball movement and spotty command make that pitch more hittable than most heaters this hard, all three of his secondary pitches flash plus, albeit rarely. He has added a second, harder breaking ball since turning pro (his slider) that now serves as his primary weapon against righties, while his curveball and changeup (which he has been leaned on a bit more often early in outings so far in 2026) have the kind of movement that will be effective against lefties. Location consistency is going to be the biggest variable impacting Echavarria’s outcomes, and it’s possible a stronger lower body will help him get there. Though his stuff looks good, he has consistently under-performed as a bat-misser since signing because he so often lives in the heart of the zone when he’s throwing strikes. He’ll turn 21 this year, and it would be unreasonable to expect Echavarria to be a fully-formed pitcher at this point, but his 40-man timeline is creeping up, and during the next two years it’s going to be important for him to polish his command to avoid relief projection. This is still a high-upside FV grade for Echavarria, but one south of what is typical for someone who got a bonus as big as he did.

Fien was successfully signed away from a UCLA commitment for $550,000 and slashed .241/.326/.322 in his first pro season, which isn’t a great Cal League line. Still, he’s a projectable switch-hitter who posted a 75% contact rate while learning how to catch during a fairly aggressive full season assignment. Fien has above-average left-handed bat speed and can move the barrel around the zone enough to do extra-base damage to all fields. His righty swing is not as explosive, but he’s still often on time and has pull-side doubles pop. There is an above-average hit/power combination lurking here if Fien’s 6-foot-3 frame fills out. He needs a ton of work on defense and might ultimately end up at first base, where he’s playing more often than he is catching at the start of 2026. Fien’s promotion pace has been surprisingly aggressive so far (he broke camp with Lansing), but he is going to be a slow burn as a prospect if he continues to catch even part of the time. He’s got a puncher’s chance to be an everyday player and obviously has a much better shot to do so if he can improve behind the dish.

Kuroda-Grauer grew up in Somerset, New Jersey and stayed in state for college, going to Rutgers, where one of his mothers got her MSW and was later an advisory council member at their Graduate School of Education. JKG raked in college and had more walks than strikeouts as both a sophomore and junior en route to a third-round selection and a $1 million bonus. He slashed .296/.359/.372 in his first full pro season and reached Double-A Midland in the second half (where he hit his first two professional home runs, a mark he’s matched already in 2026) and then hit .345 in the Arizona Fall League.

The bedrock of Kuroda-Grauer’s profile is his exceptional hand-eye coordination and contact ability. He has been damn near impossible to strike out since high school and has posted a K% at or below 10% at basically every level since his freshman season in Piscataway. A majority of his contact is sprayed to the opposite field, with his extra-base damage typically limited to fastballs sliced straight down the right field line and the occasional hanging breaking ball yanked to left. This batted ball profile and below-average bat speed combine to ensure that JKG will slug well under .400 across a large big league sample. His chase rate splits (which explode with two strikes) indicate he may not have especially good strike zone discipline, and this is why his hit tool is projected below his pure bat control; for as much contact as he’s making, a lot of it is of suboptimal quality.

After the Athletics acquired Leo De Vries, Kuroda-Grauer was forced to move off of shortstop (where he took over 80% of his reps in 2025) and play more second and third base (then some outfield in the Fall League) late in the year. He had prior experience at second base and in the outfield (he got reps during college summer ball), but not at third base, and it has been a pleasant surprise how quickly he’s taken to the hot corner. He already has great chemistry with De Vries when the two are operating around second base, and while JKG is merely passable at shortstop, he projects to be a plus defender both in quality and versatility at the other positions he can play. Even though he came to 2026 camp noticeably stronger (he’s added about 25 pounds since his draft year) and it’s plausible he’ll impact the baseball a bit more now, Kuroda-Grauer is likely to be a nice role player rather than a first- or second-division regular at any one position.

Miller signed an over-slot $1 million deal as the A’s 2023 fourth-rounder rather than go to UCLA. He blew out and had Tommy John sometime during 2024 spring training, then returned in 2025, pitching on the complex until late June, when he was promoted to Stockton. Miller posted a 1.90 ERA across 52 combined innings and broke 2026 camp back with Stockton.

Miller still has starter projection because of his size and build (he’s a broad-shouldered 6-foot-6), and also the way he moves, which is loose and fluid if not always under control. He has a lower arm slot that generates a tailing low-90s fastball, but his best pitch is his changeup, which has as much tail and a good bit of sinking action. He can run both his fastball and changeup off the hips of lefty batters and back over the plate, and he can manipulate the shape of an 81-85 mph breaking ball from a curveball to a slider, depending on where he is trying to locate it. Though he lacks great arm strength right now, Miller’s age, size and flexibility make it possible that he might yet throw harder, although he was usually in the low 90s before he blew out and has basically thrown this hard for his entire time as a prospect. Even though his lower-slot delivery is atypical for a starter, there are otherwise lots of starter ingredients here. Miller will track as a backend option for as long as his fastball velocity remains in this pedestrian area.

Barnett moved into Auburn’s rotation in the middle of his junior season, and his stuff peaked late in the year as the draft approached. The violence and inconsistency of his delivery caused him to project as a reliever on our draft rankings, but he’s been developed as a starter (by two orgs — he was part of the Lucas Erceg trade) and made his big league debut across five starts to end the 2025 season. Barnett struggled with command in those outings, as well as in his first Cactus League start of 2026, and he was quickly optioned to Las Vegas during the first half of spring training.

The barrel chested right-hander has a due north arm slot that imparts vertical ride on his fastball and depth on his breaking stuff. A long, plunging arm action and the trunk tilt required of Barnett to get to this arm slot are tough for him to repeat, and this impacts his command. He has four distinct pitches that he throws for strikes at a roughly 60% clip. It’s the bones of a starter’s mix and pitchability, but only just so. Barnett’s fastball has average velo and uphill angle when it’s located at the top of the zone, but it has a hittable line when it’s middle-down. He attacks righties with his fastball and a 83-87 mph slider (his best pitch), and goes at lefties with his fastball and a tailing changeup. He’ll try to dump in a 12-to-6 curveball early in counts to steal a strike, but he doesn’t land it consistently. Barnett should be deployed as a spot starter and swingman while he has options left, but as his roster flexibility drips away, it’s more likely that he settles into the bullpen side of the equation due to his below-average command.

A barrel-chested college baseball cult hero, White was among the highest-profile transfers of the college athlete empowerment era, heading from NC State to LSU after an incredible freshman season. He slashed .355/.419/.704 throughout his college career, with 75 homers in three seasons, and signed for $3 million as the A’s second-rounder in 2024. In his first full pro season, he slashed .275/.334/.439 split between High-A Lansing and Double-A Midland, then thrived in the Fall League.

This projection assumes a performance dip is coming for White, who has a pretty extreme inside-out contact profile (he can’t pull fastballs in the air) and a penchant for chase. His operation in the box can get noisy, and he ends up tardy to the contact point. His hands aren’t especially quick, but his ability to rotate explosively through his hips provides glimpses of viable big league corner defender pop. It’s tough for hitters who are routinely late against fastballs to reliably hit for power, and White falls into this category even though his best shots are impressive. A tendency to expand the zone in any count adds further offensive volatility to a profile that was driven by his contact percentage (80% overall) in 2025.

A surprisingly mobile, low-to-the-ground defender for his size, White’s ability to control his body well on the run puts him in a good fielding position, which allows him to cover up for below-average hands. He’ll have to stay as lithe and quick as possible, which can be challenging for athletes built like he is (Maikel Franco is a fair all-around comp for White), but he has a better shot to stay at the hot corner than you’d guess when he gets off the bus. White will likely play a mix of third and first base (where he looks like a future plus defender) in the big leagues as part of a lefty matchup role.

Morii comes out of Toho High School in Tokyo and elected to skip the NPB Draft to come stateside as an amateur prospect. This is similar (but meaningfully different) than Rintaro Sasaki skipping the NPB Draft to go to Stanford and eventually be subject to the MLB Draft. Morii came directly to the U.S. for his debut season and slashed .258/.399/.384 in the Arizona Complex League. He creates fairly exciting hip/hand separation and can punish the baseball pretty well for a hitter his age, but Morii is already rather physical and probably doesn’t have much more raw power in the tank. It will likely take improvement in his contact ability (he posted a 71% overall rate in 2025) for him to have the offensive profile of an everyday second baseman, the position at which he fits best and which he played most during my spring 2026 looks.

Morii did not play in a regular season game as a pitcher last year, and instead got reps during instructional league (and again this spring), where he sat in the low 90s with a blunt slider and a splitter in its nascent stages of development. Morii is balanced and controlled over his landing leg and has a short, repeatable arm action. Again, his lack of physical projection makes it tough to forecast improved velocity as he ages. He’s a fun developmental prospect without an obvious plus tool for his profile to truly hang its hat on. His best chance at being an everyday player (or the pitching equivalent) is probably to outperform this power projection and slug his way to an everyday second base role. He’s back in Arizona, where he’ll attempt to hit and pitch during extended spring training, potentially finishing the summer in Stockton if double duty goes well.

Montero put up video game numbers in his second DSL season. He is listed at 185 pounds and as a shortstop, but he’s at least 30 pounds heavier than that already and is very likely to move to a corner. While he wields very impressive power for a hitter his age, the cement on his frame is drier than most at this stage, and there might only be another half grade or so in the tank. His swing takes a while to get on plane, and Montero slices a lot of contact the other way, which are warning signs about his future contract ability against good velo. There are outcomes for Montero that look like Nolan Gorman if he indeed ends up with 70 power. His surface stats led us to consider him for the Top 100, but we moved off him pretty quickly because of these yellow flags.

Núñez has been a frustrating pitcher to monitor during the last half decade because he has long had superlative stuff, but very poor control. Sort your TrackMan spreadsheet and Núñez is at or near the top in a number of categories. Nobody in the world who throws as hard as he does can spin the baseball like he does (he averaged 2,700 rpm on his four-seamer last year). But often to see Núñez actually pitch is to watch him traffic cop a rally with walks and bean balls, and he’s had long stretches in the minors where he’s either walked a batter per inning or experienced wild fluctuations in velocity.

Núñez was a minor league free agent in 2024, signed with the Padres, and put things together enough in 2025 that he became part of the Mason Miller trade and made his big league debut with the A’s. And so here we are nine years after Núñez signed, with him touching 101 in Triple-A games and bending in some ungodly 90 mph sliders. On some nights, it looks like he should be closing big league games, while on others he is dangerously wild, a threat to the hands and faces of every righty batter. Núñez still has two option years left, and his service clock has only just started. He’s going to be in our universe for a while. He also has a track athlete’s build and incredible arm speed, and he hasn’t yet been in an org that we know to be great at maxing out pitchers. If his control problems persist to this degree (2026 Núñez doesn’t looked like he’s suddenly found 40-grade control), he’ll remain on the Triple-A/big league fringe forever, but this is the category of player out of which pops a Félix Bautista or a Jeff Hoffman or an Evan Phillips, the guy with freaky stuff who takes forever to put it together, and then has the athletic longevity to sustain a meaningful peak after he does. That’s in play for Núñez, and so I’m valuing him more here than is typical for an older prospect whose control grade would tend to always put him in the 35+ FV bucket.

“Cool Breeze” Corey was a reliever at Division-II Wingate who the A’s began to stretch out as a long reliever and spot starter in 2024, before more solidly committing to developing him as a starter in 2025, when he worked 123 innings (including his Fall League frames). Avant still has some reliever risk because of his below-average control — he only walked 10.5% of opponents in 2025, but his underlying strike-throwing was worse than that, and he’s tended to be in the 13% or above area dating back to college — but he is built like a starter at a broad-shouldered 6-foot-4, and he deserves a longer developmental runway since we’re talking about a small school guy who barely pitched in college because he was deployed as a reliever.

Avant throws hard; he was parked in the 93-97 mph range last year, though his fastball’s downhill plane sucks some of the effectiveness out of that pitch. Conversely, the higher slot helps add depth to Avant’s slider, which has great velocity for a standard gyro-style offering. Whether Avant can continue to start will depend on the development of his splitter/sinker, an 87-91 mph offering that he actually has decent feel for locating, but that lacks big movement. Automatic pitch tagging thinks a lot of his splits are two-seamers, so it’s tough to tell exactly how many of them he threw last year, but the number is something like twice what he did in 2024, though still only 200 of them across the entire season. He looks like he takes great care of himself, and he’s an engaged teammate who was often watching his fellow A’s arms with intense focus as everyone got underway this spring. It’s probably more likely that Avant is a reliever in the end, but even if that’s the case, he’ll be a draft-and-develop feather in the cap of the A’s. They should continue with the starter track for another two seasons at least, and decide more about his path when his 40-man roster deadline arrives after the 2027 season.

Huggins has a giant frame and showed upper-90s heat at the 2022 Draft Combine, where he sat 96-98 mph and absolutely dwarfed many of the pitchers from the Power Five schools. The Reds used a little more than $400,000 to sign him away from a commitment to Louisiana Tech. He blew out in late June of 2023 (his first full season), had TJ, came back late in 2024, and in 2025 broke camp back at Low-A Daytona, where he made 15 healthy starts prior to the Miguel Andujar trade. Across all of 2025, Huggins worked 78 innings of 3.81 ERA ball with a 22.7% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate. He was assigned to Double-A Midland at the start of 2026.

Huggins pitches heavily off a downhill, mid-90s fastball that averaged 94-95 mph even as he set a personal single-season best for innings. We’re talking 75% fastball usage after he joined the A’s org, though he was working more with his secondary stuff — an upper-80s cutter/slider and changeup — during 2026 spring training. Huggins’ high arm slot creates downhill angle on all of his pitches, which is why what is more like a cutter in terms of movement often plays like a slider thanks to the extra depth created by its angle. Huggins’ changeup performed well from a bat-missing standpoint in 2025, but it lacks exciting movement to the eye and was used too little to take its per-pitch performance at face value. Huggins’ strike-throwing track record is pretty short, but his physical conditioning has improved since he turned pro, and he fills the zone with his fastball and slider. There isn’t a true plus pitch here and so Huggins is pretty likely to end up toward the back of a rotation or in the bullpen, but with a good 2026 season, he should contribute in this fashion starting in 2027.

Tur, who entered affiliated ball at age 23, has an NBA wing player’s frame at a broad-shouldered 6-foot-6 and has mostly been developed as a starter. In 2025, he worked 125.2 innings across 30 appearances (26 starts) mostly at High- and Double-A. This spring, he has thrown in relief on the backfields and to start the Triple-A regular season.

Though it’s possible the need for depth will force him back into the Vegas rotation at some point, Tur’s best fit on a big league staff would indeed be as a fastball-heavy reliever. He sat 94-97 as a starter last year, often with 17-20 inches of induced vertical break. Though it’s reasonable to hope Tur will rip upper-90s gas out of the bullpen, that hasn’t happened yet, and he has been in his usual range during single-inning bursts this spring. His secondary stuff — a mid-80s short action slider and a mid-80s splitter — is only fair, and it looks like he may have scrapped his cutter this year. He should still be able to pitch off his fastball in an up/down role while the big league coaching staff tries to find a plus pitch somewhere else, which would facilitate a more consistent role.

Johnston moved from Texas A&M’s bullpen into their rotation in the middle of his junior season, and the A’s stretched him out as a starter in pro ball until May of last year, when he returned to relief. For a minute, it looked like his strike-throwing had improved, but it regressed in 2025, as he walked five per nine across 70 innings spent at mostly Double-A Midland, where he’s back to start 2026 (and on the IL with a disc issue in his back).

Lefties with a breaking ball as good as Johnston’s death ball slider tend to play at least a lefty specialist role. It spins around 1,900 rpm on average, several hundred rpm slower than the average big league slider, but there’s something about his high release and his ability to hide the ball that helps this pitch play like a plus-plus offering against both left- and right-handed hitters. Johnston also has a splitter, giving him a second effective way to attack righties. Because he’s light on velo, he often tries to elevate his fastball way above the zone where it can stay out of trouble, which is part of why he doesn’t work efficiently enough to start. Johnston has had back stuff in the past, so this early-season injury is somewhat concerning, but when healthy, he looks like a pretty solid middle reliever thanks to his platoon neutralizing capabilities.

“Z-man” signed in November of 2021 after he was scouted during the WBSC U-23 World Cup, debuted at Stockton as a 21-year-old the following year, then missed 2023 recovering from shoulder surgery. Over the last two years, his innings count has grown (145.2 innings last season) and he’s pitched well (1.16 career WHIP, 5% career walk rate) with only a little bit of slippage as he’s climbed to Double-A, even though Zhuang has pedestrian stuff. He touched 97 last year, but tends to sit 90-93, and sometimes his velo will slip below that. His changeup has heavy sink and is easily his best pitch, but it isn’t a dominant offering. He’ll be able to change speeds and throw strikes enough to act as a spot starter, and he’ll likely help the A’s this year, but it’s tough to project Zhuang in a long-term rotation role with stuff this light.

Baez is a skinny, 6-foot-3 righty who the Padres added to their 40-man roster after the 2024 season and then traded to the A’s in the Mason Miller deal the following deadline. He has spent the bulk of the past 18 months at Double-A, where he’s posted a 1.08 WHIP and 2.60 ERA despite a generic 7.4 per nine across both orgs. He entered 2026, his second option year, as a likely part of the A’s spot starter contingent, but he was put on the IL with what my sources indicate is a shoulder issue when camp broke. Baez was sitting 93-95 during his pre-injury outings this spring and looked like his usual self. He has a mono-rotational delivery in which his entire torso seems to rotate at once as he completes his motion, and as unorthodox as this looks, Baez has been able to throw strikes at a high clip for his entire career. His breaking ball command helps his pedestrian stuff play up a bit, as both his slider and curveball missed bats at an above-average rate in 2025. His changeup isn’t nearly as effective. Without a plus pitch, Baez’s role will likely remain in the fifth through seventh starter area.

Hoglund was a famous high schooler who ended up at Ole Miss and was drafted in the first round by the Blue Jays before coming to Oakland in the 2022 Matt Chapman trade. Injuries have prevented him from throwing more than 100 innings in all but one pro season, and he opened 2026 on the IL with knee and lumbar spine issues. Hoglund got shelled during his six-start big league debut in 2025, and his stuff (which has been better at some points than others) was average or below across the board. His sinking mid-80s changeup is now his best offering. He works with five pitches — a four-seamer, sinker, cutter, changeup and slider — that all generated below-average miss in 2025. Hoglund’s delivery appears less athletic than when he was at his prospect peak, and he hasn’t really been able to demonstrate starter’s durability as a pro. He now looks like a spot starter.

Causey began his college career at Jacksonville State before transferring to Tennessee for his junior season, and he went in the fifth round as a quick-moving, low-slot righty reliever. He split 2025 as a multi-inning weapon at High- and Double-A in the Royals system (48 appearances, 73.1 innings, 1.72 ERA), then was traded to the A’s at the start of 2026 spring training in exchange for former Rule 5 pick Mitch Spence.

Both Causey’s changeup and slider played like plus pitches last year, though only his changeup, which has huge tailing action and sink in the low-80s, is truly nasty. His slider lives off of deception and command rather than pure stuff, though its uphill angle is difficult for hitters to parse. There are two viable secondary pitches here, including one that can neutralize lefties, which is rare for a sidearmer. Causey’s feel for location helps keep his fastball out of trouble, and his slider command gives him a second way to get ahead of hitters. He projects as a stable middle-inning “look” reliever who is on pace to debut late in 2027.

Taylor was a priority senior sign as a four-year starter at UNC Wilmington who sat 92-93 during the course of 2025 before his velo climbed not long before the draft, sometimes 95-97, albeit with hittable movement. His build and delivery are more evocative of a reliever, but he has never done anything but throw strikes. Taylor’s slider/cutter has inconsistent velo and shape, but it’s consistently located and generated huge miss and chase in 2025. His changeup is the opposite. It has sink/tail action, but it’s rarely used and is scattered in zone and out. There are lots of starter ingredients here, enough to merit development in that role even if Taylor doesn’t look the part from a size and mechanics perspective.

Parra had a much improved second pro season in the DSL, as he K’d 10 per nine and posted a 2.64 ERA across 44.1 innings. The stout lefty was bringing big velo during the DSL A’s postseason run (frequently touching 96), and flashed a plus two-planed breaking ball in the upper 70s. Parra has a realistic lefty relief outcome but is still roughly a half decade away from the big leagues.

Emanuels experienced a three-tick velo bump in 2023 and has mostly sustained it since then, averaging anywhere from 93-96 mph on his fastball for much of the last three seasons. He also incorporated a cutter into his repertoire, which now gives him three different breaking ball shapes to show hitters. He deploys cutters, sliders, and curveballs across a 76-90 mph range, so even though hitters can reliably look for movement to one half of the plate, they can’t anticipate speed and shape. Emanuels commands those pitches much better than he does his fastball, which had a sub-60% strike rate last year. His cutter has late, quick action that allows it to stay off barrels, but it’s his slider that misses bats at a comfortably plus rate. He walked six batters per nine at Midland in 2025 but still managed a 2.70 ERA because, collectively, his breaking pitches missed bats at a 45% clip. A lack of fastball command will likely cap Emanuels’ role to up/down relief.

Johnson is a very physical, high-effort relief prospect who utilizes a slider-heavy approach to pitching. He was acquired from the Braves in exchange for Nick Allen after the 2024 season, but he didn’t pitch at all in 2025 due to forearm issues. He is healthy and was assigned to Double-A Midland at the start of 2026.

Johnson’s slider will bend in as hard as 94 mph. He hides the ball well and throws with such violence that it often takes hitters a second to adjust to his delivery. His fastball will touch 99 but was more in the 93-96 mph range during the spring of 2026, and his very high release point creates a downhill angle that hurts the pitch’s ability to miss bats. Johnson’s stuff is pretty nasty, and while his bull-in-a-china-shop control will probably limit him to up/down duty when he debuts, he could pitch his way into a more regular middle relief role if he gains better control of his body in his mid-20s.

If you’re a Colby Thomas fan, this is your guy. Turley packs a huge punch for a hitter his size, hitting 20 bombs with a 61% hard-hit rate at Oregon State in 2025. He slashed .243/.336/.430 at Stockton after the draft. Turley swings incredibly hard, but he pulls off a ton of secondary pitches. He posted a sub-60% contact rate against both sliders and changeups in college, and is a left field fit on defense. That’s a tough bar to clear with big strikeout totals looming. Taylor is a power-hitting dev project who began 2026 on the IL with a fractured thumb.

Duran is a fairly typical $1 million international signee with exciting physicality and bat speed, but he likely isn’t a shortstop. His swing length creates some hit tool risk. He’ll debut in the DSL this year.

Johnson was the best Bahamian prospect in the 2025 international class, a powerfully built youngster with the look of a D-I running back prospect who signed for $1.5 million. He worked out for teams at shortstop, but at his size he was a pretty good bet to move to third base, and indeed Johnson spent most of his DSL debut at the hot corner. He slashed .257/.414/.321 last year and K’d at a 27.1% clip, too much for the A’s to bring him to the States in 2026. Johnson’s bat speed and power projection are still exciting, but he needs to cut his strikeouts this season to retain prospect status for next cycle.

Ozuna signed for $850,000 in 2025 as one of the more projectable righty-hitting power bats in the international class. He struggled in his DSL debut, slashing .211/.301/.311 and posting a sub-70% contact rate. But Ozuna’s size — he’s 6-foot-3 and has room for big strength on his frame — and explosive swing are too exciting to move off of him entirely after a bad debut. He will repeat the DSL in 2026 and needs to improve as a contact bat to remain on the list.