Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2024 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival
1. SS Marco Luciano | 22 | MLB | 2023
Luciano was rushed to the majors despite struggling at most stops along the way, and Farhan Zaidi has said he’ll have a chance to open 2024 as the starting shortstop despite hitting .209 with a 35.9 percent strikeout rate in 18 Triple-A games and .231 with a 37.8 percent strikeout rate in his 14-game September stint. If he does get that job, he’s going to have some rough patches. Like a lot of players who signed just before 2020, he hasn’t really played all that much and retains some hidden topside as he settles in at the highest level.
2. LHP Kyle Harrison | 22 | MLB | 2023
A sturdy 6’2” lefty, Harrison features explosive stuff and dynamite precision, by which I mean he struggles to throw strikes. Part of the issue might just be Harrison having enough reps to harness his juice. His four-seamer gets 13.1 inches of horizontal movement, according to statcast. The off-speed mix is changeup and slurve, with about three times as many slurves as changes in his 37 big league innings. That should probably even out, and it would help if he can uncover a cutter of some kind. But these are long-term goals. For now, it might be enough to repeat his delivery and start really commanding his fastball.
3. OF Rayner Arias | 17 | DSL | 2027
Time is a funny thing. When Luciano was this age, he was the talk of the town. An easy top 25 fantasy prospect. Along comes Arias, who’s every bit the offensive prospect Luciano was, and he’s barely a blip on the dynasty radar despite slashing .414/.539/.793 with 15 walks and 11 strikeouts in 16 DSL games. He also hit four home runs and stole four bases before his season ended early with a sprained wrist. He’s on a short list of guys most likely to jump way up the rankings by midseason.
4. 1B/RHP Bryce Eldridge | 19 | A | 2026
Listed at 6’7” 223 lbs, Eldridge manages the zone well from the left side and posted a .293/.406/.379 slash line in 15 Low-A games after storming through the complex league with five home runs in 16 games. He was announced as a two-player on draft night and offers a world of potential for this organization to unlock. The rub here is that he’s much further along as a hitter but doesn’t have the same positional value as he will if he can remain on the mound, which was his stated preference during the draft cycle.
5. LHP/1B Reggie Crawford | 23 | A+ | 2025
Another huge two-way first-round pick, the 6’4” 235 lb Crawford sits in the high 90s with his fastball and has double-plus power with the bat. He picked up his first professional work at first base in the Arizona Fall League but the pitcher in him is way ahead of the hitter, riding a double plus fastball and plus slider to 32 strikeouts in 19 innings across two levels this year. Like Harrison was for much of his minor league career, Crawford has been a starter in name only, topping out at two innings in his 13 games started.
6. RHP Mason Black | 24 | AAA | 2024
It’s a two-pitch, three-quarters look from the 6’3” Black, but if his command is on point, he gets an extra pitch or two out of the fastball/slider combo because he can work both inside and out, up and down. Stealing the back-door slider strike from lefties, especially, gives him a chance against them because he can also back-foot the pitch for punch-outs in two-strike counts. Though he struggled a bit in 60.2 innings at Triple-A, Black was the club’s minor league player of the year in 2023 and should get a look pretty early in 2024.
7. LHP Carson Whisenhunt | 23 | AA | 2024
A command specialist with a cartoon changeup, Whisenhunt should have a nice long career so long as he can sneak his middling fastball by the occasional bat. He’s managed that trick to this point, traversing three levels in 2023 with more than 12 strikeouts per nine innings at each level. He remains balanced throughout his delivery and repeats it well enough to be an innings-eating workhorse at 6’3” 209 lbs.
8. SS Walker Martin | 20 | NA | 2027
The 52nd overall pick in 2023, Martin got a first-round grade from multiple sources and signed for almost three million dollars, well over slot value for the pick. A left handed hitter at 6’2” 188 lbs, Martin hasn’t faced much of a challenge yet because he grew up in the high altitude of Colorado, where even professional breaking pitches are too tired to bend. When he wasn’t mashing, he was playing quarterback for a state champion football team. He didn’t debut in 2023, so we’ve yet to see the impact of Martin dedicating himself fully to baseball.
9. SS Tyler Fitzgerald | 26 | MLB | 2023
F.Scott has a Dylan-Moore-shaped path to redraft relevance in 2024. In 131 games across three levels this year, Fitzgerald hit 24 home runs and stole 34 bases. He went 20/29 with a 23.8 percent strikeout rate in 102 games at Triple-A. The outcome was just a 103 wRC+ despite a slash line of .287/.358/.499. It’s tough to stand out in the PCL, but the 6’3” 205 lb Fitzgerald can do a little bit of everything and could secure a roster spot out of spring training.
10. RHP Landon Roupp | 25 | AA | 2024
Salt n Pepa’s favorite player now that Jonathan Schoop is dancing off into the sunset of an everyday role, Landon Roupp is a curveball specialist who has pitched well whenever he’s been on the mound. He missed some time in 2022 due to a knee issue and most of 2023 to a variety of injuries. On the bump, he recorded a 1.74 ERA and 1.00 WHIP with a 27.5 percent strikeout-minus-walk rate in 31 innings stretched across ten starts. If he’s good to go when the bell rings to open the new year, he’ll be hard to keep off the pitching staff, probably in a swingman type role.
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