I am genuinely kind of surprised Ortiz is this low and it’s not necessarily because I disagree with his ranking so much as he certainly felt like a prospect that would be ranked a lot higher based upon the last three top 20s I’ve run. Speaking for myself, I think what hurts him is that he seems like a bat-only prospect. From what I can tell, his bat is going to be need to be great because he’s probably a 1B – and yeah also the lack of belief from scouts and his strikeout issues, but mainly just that it seems like he’s set up to “need” a 120 wRC+ unless his defense is better than I’ve been reading about.
- JJ Wetherholt
- Liam Doyle
- Rainiel Rodriguez
- Quinn Mathews
- Jurrangelo Cjintje
- Joshua Baez
- Leonardo Bernal
- Jimmy Crooks
- Brandon Clarke
- Tink Hence
- Tekoah Roby
- Tanner Franklin
- Brycen Mautz
- Nathan Church
- Cooper Hjerpe
- Ixan Henderson
- Yairo Padilla
- Deniel Ortiz
New Add
I strongly suspect I could stop adding guys and it wouldn’t make a lick of difference. There are more players than spots left in the top 20 of players who one could argue rather easily belong in the top 15 – someone is getting left out who will elicit “wow he didn’t make the top 20?” With all that said, congratulations, your voting singlehandedly vaulted Andrew Dutkanych IV into the voting – I thought I was high on the dude, I was proven wrong – he was honestly not even on my radar to be added to the voting. But he kept winning his comparable player polls. So onto the list he goes.
And honestly, I want more names in the mix just to see how they perform, so I’m going to be removing Colton Ledbetter, dead last in the voting, for another outfielder, Chase Davis. Is this a shuffling of deck chairs? Yes. But despite Davis losing a couple votes to people on this list, he never did get blown out. And with 0.9% of the vote, I just can’t see Ledbetter being a serious contender to being voted onto the top 20 honestly.
Jesus Baez, IF – 21
Stats (High A): 416 PAs, .244/.327/.397, 10.3 BB%, 18.5 K%, .153 ISO, .270 BABIP, 116 wRC+, 121 DRC+
Scouting (FG): 30/45 Hit, 35/50 Game Power, 50/55 Raw Power, 40/40 Speed, 40/45 Fielding
Ironically, the last time I remember being so incredibly tired of writing a profile about a prospect in this feature is…. Joshua Baez. Yeah he was the #11 prospect three years ago, I added him pretty quickly and then nobody voted for him the entire time. With Joshua, I was being careful but probably agreed with you guys at the time. With Jesus, I was also being careful, but I added him too early, I did not think he would he would not make the top 20, which is a very distinct possibility.
Chase Davis, OF – 24
Stats (AA): 494 PAs, .242/.358/.353, 13.6 BB%, 29.6 K%, .111 ISO, .345 BABIP, 105 wRC+
Scouting: 30/35 Hit, 30/45 Game Power, 60/60 Raw Power, 50/50 Speed, 45/55 Field
Davis started as a power-hitting outfielder when the Cardinals drafted him in the 1st round back in 2023 draft. That advertised power has never really come and really disappeared last year, although as we saw in spring training, it might be in there somewhere. Not necessarily advertised for his defense, it seems like it’s going to be better than originally expected, which is certainly considered his bat has been worse than expected.
Andrew Dutkanych, RHP – 22
Stats (CPX): 3 G, 3.1 IP, 22.2 K%, 5.6 BB%, 38.5 GB%, .462 BABIP, 10.80 ERA/2.07 FIP/3.04 xFIP
Low A: 6 G, 14.1 IP, 35.6 K% 16.9 BB%, 46.4 GB%, .269 BABIP, 2.51 ERA/4.52 FIP/3.22 xFIP
Drafted in the 7th round of the 2024 draft, Dutkanych was drafted injured. He had undergone Tommy John surgery earlier that year and most of his appearances in 2025 were effectively rehab appearances. He did max out at 3.2 innings pitched in his last appearance, and allowed no runs for his troubles. He will presumably be on some sort of pitch innings limited, but I’m not real sure what that limit will be.
Yhoiker Fajardo, RHP – 19
Stats (CPX): 6 G, 20.2 IP, 31.6 K%, 9.2 BB%, 51.2 GB%, .205 BABIP, 0.44 ERA/2.41 FIP/3.29 xFIP
Low A: 13 GS, 51.1 IP, 27.8 K%, 9.4 BB%, 50 GB%, .326 BABIP, 2.98 ERA/2.50 FIP/3.14 xFIP
Scouting: 40/45 Fastball, 55/60 Slider, 30/50 Change, 35/50 Command
Fajardo is getting more scouting love, but he kind of reminds me of Deniel Ortiz to an extent, where stats are certainly there and the age is certainly there, but the scouting is a little behind where I would expect given how much they dominated their two levels and the age when they did it. I suspect if he at all duplicates his performance at a higher level – same with Ortiz – the scouting will probably follow.
Luis Gastelum, 24 – RHP
Stats (AA): 46 G, 62.2 IP, 35.4 K%, 6.5 BB%, 48.3 GB%, .343 BABIP, 4.02 ERA/2.19 FIP/2.31 xFIP
Scouting: 45/45 Fastball, 40/40 Slider, 65/65 Change, 50/55 Command
I was hesitant to add Luis Gastelum to the voting, but I think the voting results say I made the right decision. Now, he might not end up making the list, but that was unlikely for anybody I added. It’s always hard to know how to value a prospect like this, who has zero shot at starting, and in his specific case, arguably just one really great pitch. Now that Mexico has been eliminated, I wonder if we’ll see any more of him in spring training games.
Pete Hansen, LHP – 25
Stats (AA): 26 GS, 137.1 IP, 21.1 K%, 6.3 BB%, 46.2 GB%, .306 BABIP, 3.93 ERA/3.65 FIP/3.71 xFIP
Scouting: 35/35 Fastball, 45/50 Slider, 40/40 Curve, 50/55 Change, 55/60 Command
What I find particularly fascinating about Hansen’s scouting report is that one would think Fangraphs was low on him, but they aren’t. They definitely aren’t. They ranked him 10th in the system last season. But that 35 fastball grade kind of pops out at you. It’s the kind of grade you give to a prospect that you aren’t typically high on, so I suppose it provides an insight into what FG thinks of the importance of command. You don’t usually see 60 command prospects.
Blaze Jordan, 23 – 1B/3B
Stats (AA): 176 PAs, .320/.415/.513, 12.5 BB%, 10.8 K%, .193 ISO, .333 BABIP, 167 wRC+, 145 DRC+
AAA: 368 PAs, .248/.291/.423, 5.7 BB%, 11.1 K%, .175 ISO, .247 BABIP, 83 wRC+, 101 DRC+
Scouting: 40/50 Hit, 40/50 Game Power, 60/60 Raw Power, 30/30 Speed, 40/45 Fielding
I’m very interested in seeing what Jordan can do in AAA this year. Obviously, his spring has not gone very well, but it’s important to remember that spring training does not matter and also that nobody expected him to be MLB ready right now anyway. If they did, he would have been protected from the Rule 5 draft or drafted in the Rule 5 draft.
Chen-Wei Lin, 24 – RHP
Stats (Low A): 12 GS, 38.2 IP, 27.2 K%, 17.2 BB%, 50 GB%, .283 BABIP, 4.89 ERA/3.69 FIP/4.17 xFIP
High A: 4 GS, 9.2 IP, 41.7 K%, 18.8 BB%, 50 GB%, .412 BABIP, 9.31 ERA/4.80 FIP/2.76 xFIP
Scouting: 60/70 Fastball, 40/45 Slider, 40/60 Change, 30/40 Command
I am curious where Lin is assigned in the minor leagues. I am pretty sure he’ll still be tried as a starting pitcher, but he could plausibly be put in High A or AA. He was aggressively promoted to Springfield last season for a reason. But had some control problems to say the least, not to mention injury problems, and I could also see him beginning the year in High A with the hope and idea for a quick promotion.
Ryan Mitchell, 19 – OF
No stats
Scouting: 25/55 Hit, 25/50 Game Power, 40/55 Raw Power, 60/60 Speed, 25/50 Fielding
Speaking of curious where they assign a player, I wonder where Ryan Mitchell will be assigned. He was sent down but assigned to “St. Louis Cardinals Prospects.” He could be sent to rookie league, which would be the “conservative” option, the play it safe option. Or they could send him to Low A, which would be the #1 sign for me that we are underrating him. Especially if he doesn’t fall flat on his face. Until games are played though, we’re relying entirely on scouting.
Tai Peete, OF – 20
Stats (High A): 529 PAs, .217/.288/.404, 8.7 BB%, 30.6 K%, .187 ISO, .282 BABIP, 79 wRC+, 79 DRC+
Scouting: 20/30 Hit, 30/50 Game Power, 50/60 Raw Power, 60/60 Speed, 45/55 Fielding
I remember my consternation about not being able to add Tai Peete into the voting because I kept finding other players who to me made more sense to add, and I was 100 percent correct, but it is funny in hindsight that I put any worry at all in adding him too late given how the voting for him has gone. For understandable reasons, if a guy ain’t performing, you guys aren’t voting for him. Peete is missing that all-important hit tool, but he has shown power, has speed, and should have defense on his side. Just needs to make contact.