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The Itch

Author: The Itch

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The Itch

Colorado Rockies Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

November 2, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 3 Comments

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1. SS Ethan Holliday | 19 | A | 2029

Holliday signed for the biggest contract of any high school draftee in history ($9 million) and then struck out 39.3 percent of the time through 18 games in Low-A. It’s not a big deal. He’s a huge lefty bat at 6’4” 210 pounds, and most of his contemporaries were in the bridge leagues or on the complex. Besides, he still posted an above average 108 wRC+.

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The Itch

Los Angeles Dodgers Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 29, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 7 Comments

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1. OF Josue De Paula | 20 | AA | 2027

Listed at 6’3” 185 pounds, De Paula appears to be bigger than that to the naked eye–not that I’m walking around with inappropriate eyewear looking at teenage athletes. A left-handed hitter with great plate skills and impressive contact skills for a guy with his raw power, De Paula has yet to really lift the ball in regular season play, topping out at 12 home runs in 98 High-A games in 2025, slashing .263/.406/.421 with 86 strikeouts, 81 walks, and 32 steals in 40 attempts. He was 2.2 years younger than the average age in the Midwest League, so we have a lot of reasons to believe the power will come sooner than later. He closed out the season with a week in Double-A, where he will likely open 2026 as one the youngest players at that level.

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The Itch

Arizona Diamondbacks Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 26, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 5 Comments

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1. 3B Jordan Lawlar | 23 | MLB | 2023

The sixth overall pick in the 2021 draft, Lawlar has graduated prospect status on days served, but he’s still sitting at just 108 plate appearances, so he sort of snuck onto this list. He’s spent parts of three seasons in Triple-A, most recently slashing .313/.403/.564 with 11 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 63 games this season. He has nothing left to prove in Reno, but shortstop belongs to Geraldo Perdomo in Arizona, so Lawlar is set to open 2026 as the everyday third baseman. The defense might be shaky as he adapts to the big league hot corner, but this is a bright, flashing buy-low opportunity for a premium prospect even if his ETA cracks me up a bit here. 

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The Itch

Pittsburgh Pirates Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 22, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 3 Comments

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1. SS Konnor Griffin | 19 | AA | 2026

Straight from the Department of This Is What They Look Like, Griffin checks in 6’4” 225 pounds with double-plus speed and power. In his senior year of high school, he was the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year after winning his third straight title for Jackson Prep in Mississippi. It’s no exaggeration to say he might steal 100 bases in a minor league season considering he stole 87 in 88 attempts in his final high school season. Somewhat shockingly for a player his size and age, he’s a promising defensive shortstop already and has the arm and speed to become an elite defender if his hands keep coming along. On talent alone, I think he’s the best prospect in baseball. In the context of his organization and ballpark, I have concerns: concerns that can look pretty silly in the light of his real-world outcomes: a slash line of .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs and 65 stolen bases in 122 games across three levels in his pro debut season.

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The Itch

St. Louis Cardinals Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 19, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 11 Comments

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1. SS JJ Wetherholt | 23 | AAA | 2026

A left-handed hitter at 5’10” 190 pounds, Wetherholt features double-plus contact skills along with plus power and speed. He topped the stash list several times down the stretch last year as I thought he’d earned a big league debut by slashing .306/.421/.510 with 17 home runs and 23 stolen bases in 109 games across Double and Triple-A. He also drew 72 walks against 73 strikeouts. Should break spring training with an every day role in St. Louis and make a run at rookie of the year.  

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The Itch

Milwaukee Brewers Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 15, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 4 Comments

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1. SS Jesús Made | 18 | AA | 2027

A 6’1” 187 pound switch-hitter with power and plate skills beyond his years, Made is the top prospect for our game in my opinion and a consensus top-five prospect for any purpose no matter who’s sorting the list. In 115 across three levels, Made slashed .285/.379/.413 with six home runs and 47 stolen bases. He was 2.4 years young for the level in Low-A, 4.2 years young for the level in High-A, and 5.7 years younger than the average age at the level during his five-game debut with Double-A Biloxi to close out the season. He was slow to get settled into full-season pro ball after skipping the complex league but was dominant in High-A, slashing .343/.415/.500 in 27 games, and I suspect we’ll see a lot of that moving forward.

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The Itch

Cincinnati Reds Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 12, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 1 Comment

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1. 3B Sal Stewart | 22 | MLB | 2025

The 32nd overall pick in 2022, Stewart enjoyed a breakout season in 2025, slugging more than .500 for his first time as a professional. At 6’1” 224 lbs with plus plate skills, he’s always had latent power that could make him a force in fantasy baseball. He likes to run and stole 17 bases in 20 attempts across two minor league levels, but he’s not fast: 14th percentile sprint speed according to statcast. Don’t have to be fast to steal some bags these days, and Stewart will probably find a half-dozen or so free bases even early in his career as he did in this year’s postseason. In 138 total games across three levels, he hit 25 home runs and stole 18 bases while hitting .300 with a great strikeout-to-walk rate. Should open next season as a rookie-of-the-year frontrunner.

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The Itch

Chicago Cubs Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 8, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 3 Comments

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1. C Moises Ballesteros | 22 | MLB | 2025

A left-handed hitter listed at 5’8” 215 lbs, Ballesteros puts barrel to ball with the best of them, making contact just about any time he feels like it and minimizing strikeouts every step of his climb to the precipice. In 114 Triple-A games this year, he slashed .316/.385/.473 with 13 home runs and just 67 strikeouts against 49 walks. His bat has outpaced his defensive development, so even though he’s always generated positive outcomes against much older competitors, Ballesteros might have to make a leap behind the plate or wait while the Cubs sort through other options at his position. 

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The Itch

Washington Nationals Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 5, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 1 Comment

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1. SS Eli Willits | 18 | A | 2030

I think I’ve been too low on Willits before digging in for this list. Sure, he looks like a high-floor type more than a high-upside guy, athletically speaking, but baseball is much more than athleticism, and Willits checks every box for getting the most out of his tools. He’s a sparkplug on the diamond and a hard-worker off of it, and as the son of major leaguer Reggie Willits, he’s always had a pretty big edge in terms of learning and working on his game. He’s also a switch hitter at 6’1” 180 pounds, which is not small for a 17-year-old. In 15 Low-A games, he slashed .300/.397/.360 and earned a 128 wRC+. Pretty impressive for him to hold his own jumping into a full-season pro league late in the summer like that. 

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The Itch

Philadelphia Phillies Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

October 1, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 10 Comments

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Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2026 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival 

1. OF Justin Crawford | 22 | AAA | 2026

I’ve been comparatively high on Crawford for a long time because I struggle to imagine a scenario where this guy fails to be valuable in our game. A left-handed hitter at 6’2” 188 lbs, he hasn’t elevated the ball much yet in his career, but that’s coming, and in the meantime he’s hitting well over .300 at every rung of the organizational ladder. In his final 52 games of the season, Crawford slashed .340/.418/.492 with six home runs, 20 stolen bases and a 16.7 percent strikeout rate. The math I’m trying to silence in my brain is of course not how baseball works, but if you multiply that by three, you get a glimpse at Crawford’s potential across 156 games. 

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The Itch

New York Mets Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

September 28, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 2 Comments

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1. RHP Nolan McLean | 24 | MLB | 2025

McLean might actually be a little closer to Lincecum than Tong in terms of stuff and approach to the game. His is more or less a “let’s see if you can hit this” style of pitching, featuring nasty stuff that moves all over the zone. He throws six different pitches at least nine percent of the time, and his sweeper is the only one that’s gotten hit this season. He’s throwing it 26 percent of the time even though batters are hitting .361 with a .528 slugging percentage against it. If he can back off on that pitch and maintain the results from the others, he’s going to be a monster for a long time. At 6’2” 212 lbs with another life as a position player, he’s got a lot of upside that the Mets are quickly unearthing. To even call it upside feels ludicrous looking at his 2.08 ERA through 48 major league innings. Reading these last few sentences back to myself made me bump McLean ahead of Tong, for what that’s worth.

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The Itch

Miami Marlins Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

September 24, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 6 Comments

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1. LHP Thomas White | 21 | AAA | 2026

At 6’5” 210 lbs., White wields the kind of stuff that would work against anybody: a mid-90’s fastball, a picturesque curve and disappearing changeup. It’s especially perilous for left-handed hitters, and as Blake Snell has proven, if you can eliminate lefties, you’re way ahead before the game begins. He dominated High-A and Double-A, and while he’s lost the strike zone a bit through two Triple-A starts, he still has 17 strikeouts in 9.1 innings against much older players. Miami is back in a familiar spot for the franchise, looking forward to the development of an extremely promising pitching staff while fielding a lineup peppered with question marks. 

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