There is something uniquely fun about digging through the minor leagues at this time of year. Anybody can pull up a prospect list and find the guys everyone already knows. That’s not really the challenge. The fun is trying to figure out which player will be a hidden gem for next season and should be added to all of our watchlists. The minor leagues are full of players at different levels of development, different ballpark environments, and even different baseballs. That’s where prospect evaluation gets messy, and honestly, that’s why I love doing it. A .300 hitter in one league is not necessarily the same as a .300 hitter somewhere else. Age matters. Level matters. Ballparks matter. A 23-year-old beating up on High-A pitching is a much different story than a 21-year-old doing damage in Double-A or Triple-A. The goal here is to get ahead of hitters who have a legitimate chance to matter during the 2027 season. That doesn’t mean predicting Opening Day starters. It means players whose values could look a whole lot different at this time next year. If you’re looking for a few names to stash away for dynasty trades or simply want a head start before everyone starts pretending they discovered these guys in February, here you go.
Austin Overn, OF, Rays
Overn might be my favorite player in this group because the fantasy profile doesn’t require a whole lot of imagination. The 23-year-old spent nearly all of 2026 at Double-A Montgomery and put together a ridiculous .304/.391/.553 line with 15 homers in 257 at-bats even if boosted with a little BABIP luck. At Montgomery specifically, the numbers were even .309/.395/.565. Now, 23 isn’t especially young for Double-A, so I’m not going to throw a parade because someone hit well there. The performance needs to stand out. A 151 wRC+ does that. Overn was one of the best hitters in the Southern League when healthy, and he paired that with 49 steals despite missing time. The speed has always been the carrying tool. The power is what should make us sit up a little straighter. Overn entered this season with 14 career minor league homers. He hit 15 this year. That doesn’t mean we should suddenly slap a future 30-homer ceiling on him and call ourselves prospect geniuses. It does mean the offensive profile looks different. If he’s developing enough power to keep pitchers honest while continuing to reach base, the speed can do some serious damage.
Triple-A should be next, putting a summer 2027 debut firmly on the table if he stays healthy. In the best version of that story, Overn gets enough playing time to hit 8 to 10 homers and steal 20-plus bags over a partial season. That’s the kind of speed that gets a guy added everywhere before we’ve even figured out whether he can hit a major league breaking ball. Tampa Bay could complicate the playing time, because of course they tend to do that, but Overn is a player I’d be interested in acquiring before his price catches up to the stolen-base upside.
Bryan Rincon, SS, Phillies
Rincon’s 2026 season asks a pretty simple question: how much of this breakout should we believe? Because, yeah, the numbers are becoming difficult to ignore. Rincon entered the season with 18 career homers across his first 230 professional games. This year, the 22-year-old exploded for 24 homers and 29 steals at Double-A Reading while putting up an OPS north of .900. The power is the obvious headline, but I keep coming back to the on-base ability. Rincon had a 17.8% walk rate and posted a .406 OBP. That’s a massive ballast for a player whose offensive profile had previously been pretty inconsistent. This isn’t just a free swinger finding a heater for a few months. He’s adding power while also showing a much more useful approach.
His age matters, too. Rincon is 22. He’s not a 25-year-old hanging around Double-A until the numbers finally looked good. That makes the breakout more interesting. The biggest question is whether the power is portable. Reading has never been a place where I want to blindly accept every offensive explosion as gospel, and going from 18 career homers to 24 in one season deserves some healthy skepticism. Specifically, his HR/FB rate nearly tripled this season which is unlikely to sustain.
But he doesn’t need all 24 homers to stick. If the power settles in closer to average, there is still speed, middle-infield eligibility and enough patience to keep the profile interesting. Triple-A should be the next test, and a late 2027 debut feels like the safer bet. If he carries this offensive growth into the upper minors, though, he could make that timetable look pretty conservative. Rincon probably has the widest range of outcomes in this group, which is also why I’d rather take a shot now than wait for Triple-A to tell everyone whether this breakout is real.
Caden Bodine, C, Rays
Bodine is probably the least anonymous name here, but I’m not leaving him out just because prospect people are starting to catch on. The 22-year-old hit .344 with 16 homers, 97 RBI and 10 steals across four minor league levels in 2026, and he already reached Triple-A Durham. The Rays also named him a co-Minor League Player of the Year alongside Theo Gillen. That’s a ridiculous amount of production for a catching prospect in his first full professional season, but the part that really grabs me is how quickly he got there. Triple-A at 22 is a different conversation than putting up big numbers at A-ball and waiting for the prospect world to tell us what to think. Catchers usually move slowly. Bodine apparently did not get that memo.
The carrying tool has always been the bat-to-ball ability. He has carried a nearly 90% contact rate, which is eye-popping for any hitter and even more notable behind the plate. The power is what changes the equation. Bodine already had a path as a high-contact catcher who could hit for average. If the 16-homer season represents legitimate power development, the offensive ceiling is notable. A catcher who can provide a useful batting average and 10 to 15 homers has value, especially when we toss in a little bit of speed.
Bodine has already put himself close enough to the majors that a 2027 opportunity feels very realistic, with the first half firmly in play if the bat continues to perform at Triple-A. Catcher playing time can get weird quickly, particularly with Tampa Bay involved, but that’s true of basically every young catcher. I’d rather be early on the guy who has already shown elite contact ability and is starting to add power than wait until he gets called up and suddenly becomes everyone’s favorite late-round catcher.
Devin Taylor, OF, Athletics
Taylor might be the cleanest fit for what this article is trying to do. He was drafted just last year, is still only 22 and already played his way from High-A to Triple-A. Across 133 games and three levels in 2026, Taylor hit .312/.415/.496 with 22 homers, 104 RBI and 13 steals. He reached Triple-A Las Vegas on September 1, and while seven Triple-A games don’t suddenly make him a finished product, getting there at 22 less than two years after being drafted absolutely matters. The Double-A production is what really sells me. Taylor hit .323/.409/.534 with 14 homers in 68 games at Midland before earning the promotion to Triple-A. That’s the age-to-level relationship I want to see when I’m trying to find someone who could make a leap. He didn’t spend three years at the same level waiting for everything to click. The Athletics kept moving him because he kept hitting.
The profile is pretty well-rounded, too. Taylor has hit for average, reached base at an excellent rate and shown enough power to make you wonder whether there’s another level coming. The 13 steals are a nice bonus, but I’m not building his fantasy value around his speed as he hasn’t been the most efficient base stealer. The power is the more interesting question. Twenty-two homers across three levels is a strong start, and there could be more in the tank as he gets stronger and adjusts to better pitching.
Triple-A should be his launching point in 2027, and that gives him one of the cleaner paths to a meaningful opportunity in this group. Oakland isn’t exactly known for keeping the door locked forever when a young player starts kicking it down. If Taylor opens next season the way he played in Double-A, a midseason opportunity wouldn’t surprise me at all. A useful average with 12 to 15 homers over a substantial partial season is well within the range of outcomes. The safer projection is a shorter first look, but Taylor is exactly the type of player whose price could jump after two strong months next spring.
Nolan Schubart, 1B, Guardians
Schubart is the biggest gamble in this group. He might also have the most raw power. The 22-year-old hit 34 homers with 108 RBI across High-A Lake County and Double-A Akron this season while posting a .249/.396/.546 line. The overall power production is loud enough, but the move to Double-A makes the season even more interesting. In 39 games at Akron, Schubart hit .260/.393/.589 with 14 homers and 39 RBI. That is a ridiculous power run for a player in his first full professional season, and the age-to-level placement works in his favor. He’s 22 and already producing in Double-A. The .396 overall OBP is also important because this isn’t a guy taking batting practice swings at everything and occasionally finding the seats. He walked almost 20% of the time.
Unfortunately, there is a pretty sizable elephant standing in the batter’s box with him. Schubart struck out 175 times for a 33.5% strikeout rate. That’s the part of the profile that will determine whether we’re talking about a future power source or a player who runs into a wall once the pitching gets nasty enough. At first base, there isn’t much room to hide. You don’t get bonus fantasy points because you can play defense, and Schubart isn’t going to steal 25 bags to make up for a mediocre batting average. The bat has to carry him.
Still, this is exactly the type of gamble I want to know about before everyone is checking in. The power is legitimate. The question is whether he can make enough contact for it to matter against better pitching. If he does, Schubart could get interesting in a hurry. A late 2027 call-up is plausible, and 10-plus homers over a partial season isn’t crazy if the Guardians decide the bat is ready. The more likely scenario has him opening in Triple-A while Cleveland tries to determine whether the approach can survive against advanced pitching. That uncertainty will scare some people away. It should also keep the price reasonable.
Good read Jeremy! Thanks
Thanks for stopping in David!