One of the big developments of the past year in baseball is how many young players have risen to the top of prospect rankings. A look at MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list will show you just one player in the top 10 older than 21.
Of course, while there’s a bumper crop of teenage shortstops at the top, there are still plenty of intriguing prospects of all ages. With that in mind, for the second year in a row, we’ll take a look at the very best prospects of each age in a nod to Will Leitch’s long-running column.
First, some ground rules. In this exercise, any player who has not exhausted rookie eligibility and is considered a prospect is eligible. That means that unsigned international players under 25, high schoolers and college players count, in addition to prospects in MLB teams’ farm systems.
Although 23-year-old Japanese righty Shunpeita Yamashita has not been posted by his NPB team, he would be a prospect if he signed with a Major League club, so he counts (although, spoiler alert, he will not be selected). Munetaka Murakami made this list last year, but since he turned 25 and is now considered a foreign professional, he won’t be eligible.
With the World Baseball Classic coming up this spring, who are the players to watch? And how do some of the upcoming Draft prospects stack up to players their age? Without further ado, here are the best prospects in baseball from ages 16-25.
Hernandez is the easy choice as the top international prospect in the 2026 signing period because of his outstanding physical gifts and mature approach for his age. All five of his tools project as at least plus outside of an average arm, although he should stay athletic enough to stick up the middle defensively. Better yet, he’s already shown he can translate his skillset into success, as he dominated in the Venezuelan Major League against former MLB players, some of whom were twice his age.
Runner-up: Jacob Seamon, OF, Metrolina Christian Academy (N.C.)
Willits may be the third-youngest No. 1 overall pick in history, but he stands out for his polished approach at the plate. A switch-hitter who’s better from the left side, the Oklahoma native has perhaps the highest upside in this year’s Draft class because of his bat-to-ball skills and impressive motor that should help maximize his impressive toolset. The son of former big leaguer Reggie, he appears to be a safe bet to stick at shortstop as well.
Runner-up: Grady Emerson, SS, Fort Worth Christian HS (Texas)
A speedy switch-hitter with power who has the defensive chops to stick at shortstop? Made really might be the complete package, especially when you consider he earned a pair of promotions to become the youngest player in Double-A this year. And if his toolset isn’t impressive enough, he displayed some of the best swing decisions in the Minors, rarely chasing or whiffing (both 24 percent), while consistently making hard contact. He’s going to be quite hard to get out as he continues to mature.
Long considered the player with the highest potential in the ’24 Draft, Griffin exceeded even the highest expectations in his debut season to become baseball’s top prospect. The Mississippi native answered lingering questions about his hit tool and shortstop defense while continuing to display double-plus speed and impact power. He’ll have a chance to make his big league debut before his 20th birthday on April 24 as a 30/30 threat for years to come.
20: Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA
Cholowsky was the top-ranked player in the 2023 Draft to go undrafted and now looks like one of the best college prospects in years. Once having a hit-over-power profile, he’s grown into his 6-foot-2 frame at UCLA and now displays plus power from the right side. His strong defense at shortstop — where he has the strong arm and ability to throw from many angles befitting of a high school quarterback — gives him a high floor, and he should immediately be one of the 10 best prospects in baseball after signing next summer if he continues to develop as expected.
McGonigle is perhaps the best pure hitter in the Minor Leagues — he even hit better against fellow southpaws (.321/.444/.628) than he did against righties (.300/.396/.569) last year. Health was about the only thing that held him back this year, and he made up for it with Most Valuable Player honors at the Arizona Fall League. Growing up in a Philadelphia suburb, McGonigle looked up to Chase Utley and is on a path to have a career similar to his childhood idol.
Yesavage truly did it all in his first campaign, appearing at every full-season level in the Minors before making his MLB debut in September. With an extreme over-the-top delivery (7.09 ft, second among pitchers only to Justin Verlander), his combination of a rising fastball and devastating splitter, with a promising slider and curve to boot, enabled him to rack up 160 K’s in 98 Minor League innings. And after dominating in the postseason, he’s going to shoot up the Top 100, potentially into the top 10.
The West Virginia star might have been the first overall pick in the 2024 Draft had he not dealt with hamstring issues his junior season, but he’s looking every bit of the pure hitter scouts hoped he’d become, now that he’s healthy. His pure, low-effort swing from the left side provides pop to all fields, and he racks up elite contact rates (79 percent) while maintaining a discerning eye. Wetherholt is a good bet to start the year in St. Louis, although the exact infield position may depend on the Cardinals’ offseason moves.
We often talk about how players with two-way or multisport backgrounds have the potential to take off after focusing on one aspect of the game, and McLean is a perfect example — for both. After pitching, hitting and briefly walking on as a quarterback at Oklahoma State, he fully committed to the mound for the first time in 2025. Once seen as a likely reliever, McLean fits the bill of a potential top-of-rotation starter with an improved six-pitch mix led by a sinker-slider combination that helped him to an elite 60.2 percent ground-ball rate and 30.3 percent strikeout rate across 48 big league innings this year.
Sproat made his big league debut just over two years after the Mets drafted him 56th overall in 2023 and has the makings of a mid-rotation starter. The righty has tantalized with triple-digit velocity, but the shape of his fastball has not generated a ton of whiffs, leading him to lean more into his sinker. He generates plenty of ground balls overall — and chases with his sweeper and curve — while limiting hard contact well when he stays out of the heart of the zone with his improving control.
Runner-up: Quinn Mathews, LHP, Cardinals (STL No. 5)
