When we rank prospects at MLB Pipeline, it’s always with a long-term-potential frame of mind. We’re trying to project what kind of big leaguer each of these Minor Leaguers are going to be, so we look at tools or stuff and how we think each player will use them consistently at the highest level.
All that said, every professional player does have to produce numbers to succeed and we certainly don’t ignore current performance when measuring all of these prospects against each other. With that in mind, here’s one statistic from each farm system that caught our eye in 2025.
Blue Jays: 41.1 K%
Trey Yesavage, RHP (No. 1/MLB No. 26)
The 2024 20th overall pick’s over-the-top delivery, high release point and armside-heavy arsenal allowed him to keep the punchouts coming across four Minor League levels in his first full season. His 41.1 percent strikeout rate was tops among 1,383 Minor Leaguers with at least 50 innings pitched in 2025, and he threw 98, not including his time in the Majors. For what it’s worth, he’s fanned 36.1 percent of his batters faced in the postseason heading into the World Series.
Orioles: 159 wRC+
Nate George, OF (No. 8)
The Orioles went over slot in the 16th round of the 2024 Draft to sign George out of the Illinois prep ranks and the early returns have been very, very good. He made his pro debut this year in the Florida Complex League and ended it with High-A Aberdeen and hit everywhere he went, finishing with a .337/.413/.483 line with 50 steals in just 87 games. His 159 wRC+ led all Orioles farmhands and was fifth among Minor Leaguers. The other four are in the Top 100, and George might not be too far behind.
Rays: 25.8 K/BB
Ty Johnson, RHP (No. 19)
Acquired from the Cubs last year in a deal for Isaac Paredes, Johnson enjoyed a solid first full season in the Rays system with a 2.61 ERA and 0.94 WHIP over 110 1/3 innings at Double-A Montgomery. But with 148 strikeouts against only 38 walks, it was his ability to balance missing bats while limiting free passes that stood out most. His 25.8 K/BB was second-best in the Minors (min. 100 IP), trailing only Jonah Tong (NYM No. 4/MLB No. 46) with a mark of 29.9. Johnson is essentially a two-pitch hurler with his 92-95 mph fastball and 83-87 mph slider, but it proved effective against batters from both sides in 2025.
Red Sox: 36.5 K%
Payton Tolle, LHP (No. 2/MLB No. 28)
The former Wichita State and TCU ace broke out big time in his first full season, going from the 50th overall pick in 2024 to a Top 30 overall prospect in the sport. Playing at High-A, Double-A and Triple-A before his ascension to the Majors in September, he fanned more than one-third of his batters faced in 91 2/3 innings, ranking third in the Minors for his strikeout percentage (min. 90 IP). His mid-90s fastball and massive 7 1/2 feet of extension contributed greatly to his K-heavy ways.
Yankees: 35 home runs
Spencer Jones, OF (No. 4/MLB No. 99)
The Vanderbilt product has one of the most highly dissected stats pages in all of Minor League Baseball with his high strikeout rates and loud contact when he does put bat on ball. There is no doubting the ceiling on the power. Jones finished with 35 homers – 16 at Double-A Somerset, 19 at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre – and that placed him second on the Minor League leaderboard behind the Dodgers’ Ryan Ward with 36. That more than doubles Jones’ previous career high of 17, set in 2024.
Guardians: 65 stolen bases
Tommy Hawke (Not ranked in CLE Top 30)
Normally, we try to keep these to ranked prospects, but Hawke’s baserunning prowess deserves a spotlight on this list. The 2023 sixth-rounder out of Wake Forest played only 67 games this season (mostly at Single-A) but swiped 65 bags in 70 attempts in that time. Only nine Minor Leaguers had at least 65 steals in 2025; none of the other eight played fewer than 100 games. It makes you wonder if he could have challenged Kendall George (LAD No. 24) with 100 SB for the MiLB lead, had he not been limited by a right shoulder sprain.
Royals: .647 slugging percentage at Triple-A
Carter Jensen, C (No. 1/MLB No. 39)
It was a decidedly successful season for the 22-year-old backstop, who ended 2025 in The Show. Before he reached Kansas City, he undoubtedly built his case with his power with Triple-A Omaha, where he had 14 homers and 26 total extra-base hits in 43 games between late June and August. Hitter-friendly environs with the Storm Chasers may have helped, but with lots of loud contact in the bigs too, Jensen built a strong case to be a Royals’ long-term catcher moving forward.
Tigers: 182 wRC+
Kevin McGonigle, SS (No. 1/MLB No. 2)
A right ankle sprain limited McGonigle to 88 games (mostly at High-A and Double-A) in his second full season, and he certainly made the most of his playing time. After working to improve his bat speed, the left-handed slugger hit .305/.408/.583 with 19 homers and 52 extra-base hits while running a 46/59 K/BB ratio. Considering the tougher hitting environments of the Midwest and Eastern Leagues, that translated to a 182 wRC+ that was tops among 1,079 Minor Leaguers with at least 300 plate appearances.
Twins: 25 home runs
Kala’i Rosario, OF (No. 29)
We might owe Rosario, a fifth-round pick of the Twins in 2020, an apology. He had been firmly on the Top 30, especially after winning Midwest League MVP honors and tying for the Arizona Fall League lead in home runs in 2023. But his follow-up was inconsistent and injury-riddled and he slid off the list in 2025 in our August re-rank. He landed back on and the power is hard to ignore. He hit 11 homers in August to help him finish with 25 to lead the Double-A Texas League. Sure, there’s swing-and-miss, but there are also plenty of walks and he’ll play most of 2026 at age 23.
White Sox: .433 on-base percentage
Sam Antonacci, 2B/3B (No. 11)
After a standout junior-college career, Antonacci posted a .523 OBP in his lone season at Coastal Carolina, a number that helped push him into the fifth-round pick in 2024. He carried that discipline nicely into pro ball with a system-best .433 OBP in 116 games, spent mostly at High-A and Double-A. He struck out in only 14.1 percent of his plate appearances, while walking only 13.3 percent of the time, balancing high contact with low chase rates.
Angels: .849 OPS
Nelson Rada, OF (No. 7)
The Angels are never ones to be conservative in pushing prospects up the ladder, though most of that attention usually goes to draftees making it to Los Angeles in a hurry. But it’s not exclusively a Draft prospect thing. Case in point is Rada, who spent the 2024 season in Double-A at age 18. He went back to Rocket City to start the year, but got bumped up to Triple-A, still as a teenager, where he proceeded to hit .323/.433/.416 (.849 OPS) with 20 steals in 42 games.
Astros: 19 homers, 18 steals
Zach Cole, OF (No. 19)
Cole likely would have cleared the 20-20 threshold in the Minors, had the Astros not called him up after only 15 Triple-A games in September. The 2022 10th-rounder has plus wheels and the bat speed to generate at least above-average power but needs to cut down on whiffs to make the most of it. Playing in his third full Minor League season in Corpus Christi and Sugar Land, he flashed the toolsy potential that could make him a larger piece of the Houston outfield puzzle in ‘26.
A’s: 44-for-46 SB
Henry Bolte, OF (No. 5)
The fact the uber-athletic Bolte, the A’s second-rounder in 2022, stole a lot of bases isn’t all that surprising. He swiped 46 in 2024 and 32 in 2023. But to get caught only twice all year when running that much? Color us impressed. Bolte was caught on April 6, the second game of the year. The second occurrence happened on May 31, both with Double-A Midland. That means he went on to steal 42 straight bases the rest of the way, a stretch that included a bump up to Triple-A and coincided with his best batting average (.284) and OBP (.385) while slashing his strikeout rate.
Mariners: 32 homers
Lazaro Montes, OF (No. 3/MLB No. 29)
Yes, Montes needs to tone down the K’s a bit (27.1% in his career, 29% this year), and he scuffled when he got to Double-A. But he’s shown an ability to figure things out and it should be noted that he mashed those 32 homers to lead the Mariners organization at age 20. His 51 homers over the last two seasons is tied for fourth among all Minor Leaguers and he’s at least six years younger than that quartet of players with him atop the board.
Rangers: 0.93 WHIP
David Davalillo, RHP (No. 7)
Among Minor League pitchers who threw at least 100 innings in 2025, only six finished with a WHIP under 1.00. Only two were better than Davalillo: Unranked White Sox lefty Shane Murphy and MLB Pipeline Pitching Prospect of the Year Jonah Tong (Mets). It’s nothing new for the right-hander, as Davalillo sports a career 1.02 WHIP thanks to a career 2.4 BB/9 rate. In 2025, while reaching Double-A for the first time, he also finished in the top 10 in BAA (.182) and K/BB (23.0) among that same group of 100+-inning hurlers.
Braves: 140 IP
JR Ritchie, RHP (No. 2/MLB No. 86)
There are a lot of numbers that look nice for Ritchie, the 2025 Futures Game starter. His .174 BAA, 1.01 WHIP, 2.64 ERA, 9.0 K/9 and even his 1.31 GO/AO while pitching across three levels, finishing at Triple-A, while turning 22 in late June, all create a very large up arrow next to his name. But the workload – he was one of just 16 pitchers in all of the Minors to hit 140 innings pitched – really stands out as he’s not that far removed from May 2023 Tommy John surgery.
Marlins: 14.6 K/9
Thomas White, LHP (No. 1/MLB No. 22)
Quick quiz: How many lefties in the Minors who threw at least 80 innings had a better K/9 rate than White’s 14.6? Answer: zero. In fact, Trey Yesavage (TOR No. 1/MLB No. 26) was the only pitcher of any kind to best that (14.7). White will have to bring the walk rate down, but it’s hard not to be excited by him finishing with a 2.31 ERA and .172 BAA while reaching Triple-A at age 20.
Mets: 179 strikeouts
Jonah Tong, RHP (No. 4/MLB No. 46)
Throw a dart at Tong’s Minor League stats page, and you’re bound to land on something mighty impressive. His 1.43 ERA at Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse was the best among MiLB qualifiers. His 40.5 percent K%, 29.9 K/BB rate, .148 average-against, 1.68 FIP and 2.16 xFIP were also at the top of the Minor Leaguer leaderboard (min. 100 IP), and his 0.92 WHIP was second-best. We highlight his Minor League-leading 179 strikeouts here since that’s a primary stat that speaks to his dominance as much as anything else, but you can’t go wrong here with the Pitching Prospect of the Year.
Nationals: 46.7 K%
Travis Sykora, RHP (No. 2/MLB No. 49)
This can either be hopeful or hurtful to any Nats fans reading this. The 6-foot-6 right-hander was dominating the Minors with 79 strikeouts in 45 1/3 innings across four levels (topping out at Double-A) before undergoing Tommy John surgery in August. His four-seamer/slider/splitter mix had him looking like one of the most promising arms in the Minors, and there’s a chance he could get back to that given the quality of TJ recovery and rehab these days. But there’s a chance we don’t see Sykora back on a Minor League mound until late 2026 or even 2027.
Phillies: .334 AVG
Justin Crawford, OF (No. 3/MLB No. 54)
Before the stat-savvy among you send in angry emails, we are well aware that batting average is far from a perfect stat, but at a certain point in time, you have to give a guy his flowers, no? Crawford spent all year at age 21 in Triple-A and won the International League batting title with that average. He’s now hit .322 in his professional career with a .385 OBP, which in turn helped him do his thing on the basepaths, stealing 40-plus bags for the third year in a row.
Brewers: 128 wRC+
Jesús Made, SS/ 2B (No. 1/MLB No. 4)
Such a wRC+ is solidly above-average; it’s the same mark as Josh Naylor in the Majors this year. What makes it pop even more is that it came from an 18-year-old switch-hitter playing at Single-A, High-A and Double-A in his first stateside season. Made entered 2025 with plenty of expectations and met them with ample bat speed and impressive discipline for his age.
Cardinals: 20 homers
Rainiel Rodriguez, C (No. 3/MLB No. 55)
Sticking with the theme of 18-year-olds showing out stateside, Rodriguez built on his explosive debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2024 with a breakout 2025, in which he went deep 20 times across the Florida Complex, Florida State and Midwest Leagues. No other Minor Leaguer age 18 or younger clubbed more than 16 homers this summer.
Cubs: 139 wRC+
Owen Caissie, OF (No. 1/MLB No. 47)
Caissie was just 21 when he started the 2024 season in Triple-A and he more than held his own (.847 OPS, 115 wRC+). Sometimes a young player can stall out when having to go back to repeat a level. Instead, Caissie got better, blasting 22 homers in 99 games, resulting in a .551 SLG and .937 OPS. All of that contributed to the jump in wRC+, not to mention his first jump to Chicago.
Pirates: 20/60
Konnor Griffin, SS/OF (No. 1/MLB No. 1)
It’s difficult to find just one stat to highlight for the top prospect in baseball and our Hitting Prospect of the Year. After all, he hit .333/.415/.527 across three levels as a teenager in his first full season of pro ball. He trailed only MLB’s No. 2 prospect Kevin McGonigle (Tigers) with his 165 wRC+. But that 20/60 season – 21 homers and 65 steals – is rarified air. He’s just the second player (Jonatan Clase did it in with the Mariners in 2023) to pull off the feat since the early 1980s.
Reds: 164 wRC+
Alfredo Duno, C (No. 2/MLB No. 48)
On the wRC+ leaderboard for 2025, there’s the Tigers’ Kevin McGonigle at the top, followed by the Pirates’ Konnor Griffin. Then comes Duno, who posted that big number as a 19-year-old while also learning how to catch at the professional level. He topped the Florida State League in homers, RBIs, walks, OBP, SLG and OPS.
D-backs: 96 walks
Ryan Waldschmidt, OF (No. 1/MLB No. 66)
Last year’s 31st overall pick came out of Kentucky with an intriguing mix of power and speed (especially as he put ACL surgery further in the rearview mirror), but he proved he was more than just those tools with the second-most free passes in the Minors, accrued over 134 games between High-A and Double-A. He finished with a .289/.419/.473 line, 18 homers and 29 steals on the season. Over 148 total contests in his brief pro career, Waldschmidt has a near-even 115/111 K/BB ratio.
Dodgers: .923 OPS
Eduardo Quintero, OF (No. 3/MLB No. 34)
Quintero began the year as the Dodgers’ No. 9 prospect, one who signed for $297,500 in January 2023 and who had put his name on the map with a .908 OPS in the Arizona Complex League to earn a bump up to full-season ball in 2024. He returned to the Single-A California League this year and hit .306/.426/.533 with 14 homers and 35 steals in 81 games before getting promoted to High-A Great Lakes, where he held his own at age 19 to finish with that .923 OPS. He’s vaulted up the Dodgers’ list and belongs in the same conversation as top outfield prospects in the system, Josue De Paula and Zyhir Hope.
Giants: 32.5 K%
Jacob Bresnahan, LHP (No. 11)
The Guardians nabbed Bresnahan as a relatively unknown high schooler from Washington state in the 13th round of the 2023 Draft, then sent him to the Dodgers in the Alex Cobb deal at the 2024 Trade Deadline. Back in Single-A for the 2025 season, Bresnahan would have easily led the California League in ERA, WHIP and BAA had he thrown enough innings to qualify. He still finished third in the league in strikeouts (124) over 93 innings and his strikeout percentage was third best among all lefties who threw at least 90 innings this year.
Padres: 29.4 K%
Miguel Mendez, RHP (No. 5)
Unranked at the start of the year, Mendez turned his starts into must-follow events in the San Diego system with a dynamic upper-90s fastball and a plus mid-80s slider. The 6-foot-2 right-hander climbed Single-A to Double-A in his age-22 season and used that quality stuff to post a 3.22 ERA with 118 strikeouts in 95 innings. You’d have to lower the minimum to 60 frames to find a Padres Minor League pitcher with a better K rate in 2025. Mendez is Rule 5-eligible this offseason and should be protected with a 40-man roster spot.
Rockies: .166 BAA
Griffin Herring, LHP (No. 9)
Herring put up most of his eye-popping stats with the Yankees, but the Rockies get kudos for getting him as part of the return for Ryan McMahon at the Trade Deadline. The 2024 sixth-rounder threw very well in seven starts post-trade to help him finish with that .166 BAA, a 1.89 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 11.2 K/9 rate, all reasons why he was our pick to be the lefty on our Prospect Team of the Year.
