The most important tool for positional players is power. If you can’t bat, it’s almost impossible to be a regular in the big league. If you can’t hit at a high level, it’s difficult to be a star.
So, as we begin our prospect identification series with the best individual tools in each organization, we’ll start with the bats. Twenty-two of the 30 players below made our Top 100 Prospects list, with Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick and Pirates second baseman Termarr Johnson being the only ones to earn 70 marks on the 20-80 scouting scale.
Blue Jay: Otto Lopez, 2B/OF/SS
That’s not just because Lopez played 6-a-side in his various trips to the big leagues last year, but that certainly didn’t hurt. The 24-year-old utilityman is a career .305 hitter in the minor leagues and continues to post strikeout rates in his mid-teens, which shows home how strong his bat-to-ball skills are. The Blue Jays gave Lopez a look at second, short, middle and left at Triple-A in 2022 because they want to expand the pathways to his playing time and his ability to impact games with his batting ability.
Orioles: Gunnar Henderson, 3B/SS (No. 1)
It’s not exactly a shocking choice to pick our No. 1 overall and the all-time leader in the American League Rookie of the Year award. What’s most impressive is how Henderson has progressed as a hitter, learning to see more pitches, drawing more walks, and swinging and missing a lot less, allowing him to do a lot more damage.
Rays: Curtis Mead, 3B/2B (#33)
This is a close decision between Mead and 2022 breakout contender Kyle Manzardo, but we’ll go with the Australian native because his hit tool has carried him right to the majors’ doorstep. Mead, a career .306 hitter in the Minors, uses a simple upright stance to get a good sight of the ball out of hand and responds well to courts in the zone. Improvements in swing decisions towards pitches he can drive should help lock in both his fast-plus-plus club and his potential above-average pop.
Red Sox: Marcelo Mayer, SS (MLB #9)
Mayer was the top prospect in the MLB pipeline, as well as the top batter and picking defenseman in the 2021 draft, where the Red Sox happily picked the No. 4 overall California high school pick. Like fellow Eastlake HS (Chula Vista, California) Adrian Gonzalez, he has a sweet left-handed swing and advanced skill at the plate. He batted .280/.399/.489 with 45 extra base hits and 17 steals in 91 single-A to high-A games during his first full pro season.
Yankees: Anthony Volpe, SS (MLB No. 5)
Volpe, a freshman in 2019 as a high schooler from New Jersey, has a career average of .262 in the minors, belying his sheer hitting power and advanced judgment in the hitting zone. He was MLB Pipelines Hitting Prospect of the Year in his first full pro season in 2021 and was rewarded last year by becoming the first 20-homer, 50-steal minor leaguer since Andruw Jones in 1995.
Guardian: Will Brennan, OV
Brennan looks like a potential Steven Kwan 2.0 going from unheralded collegiate contact hitter to potential big league regular. He had a career strikeout rate of 5 percent in Kansas State, led the 2019 NCAA Division I in at-bats per breath (18.6) before Cleveland made him an eighth-round pick, and led the Minors with 166 goals and finished second last year with 40 doubles before making his debut with the Guardians in September. He has excellent hand-eye coordination and a compact left-handed shot that has translated into a .296 average in the Minors and a .357 mark during his short stint in Cleveland, while his solid speed also saw him win on the bases and power in the outfield.
Royals: Maikel Garcia, SS
Were it not for Bobby Witt Jr.’s presence, we’d likely be talking about Garcia as a potential Kansas City shortstop of the future. The infielder, who turns 23 on March 3, has displayed a consistent contact rate throughout his time in the Royals system, and while there’s not much pop behind it, his plus-speed could also help him score in the .280 -. 290 region in the bigs. Garcia heads into the spring after posting a .323/.444/.498 over 250 plate appearances in Venezuela’s Winter League.
Tiger: Jace Jung, 2B (#83)
Jung has one of the funkiest pre-swing setups you’ll ever see, pointing his racquet back at an unorthodox angle, but he brings it back to attention in time. He displayed a remarkable mix of hitting zone awareness (42/59 K/BB ratio) and power (14 homers, .612 slugging) in his senior season at Texas Tech, and that was a big reason the Tigers saw him 12th overall voted in last July’s draft. Considering he’s locked up defensively at second base, Jung will use his bat to accelerate his drive toward Motor City.
Twins: Brooks Lee, SS (No. 31)
Lee was considered the top straight collegiate pick in the 2022 draft class, and for good reason. He’s hitting wherever he is and exiting Cal Poly with a career line of .351/.426/.647 and more walks than strikeouts, not to mention a K-Rate of just 11.7 percent. He hit .405 in the Cape Cod League and, not surprisingly, hit a .303/.389/.451 in his pro debut, touching double A’s.
White Sox: Colson Montgomery, SS (MLB #38)
Montgomery has proved even better than expected since the White Sox picked him No. 22 overall in the 2021 draft, making advanced swing decisions, controlling the hitting zone and using the entire field. The former two-sport star — who had an offer to skate on Indiana’s basketball team if he hadn’t turned pro — hit .274/.371/.429 with 11 homers in 96 games while advancing in Double A’s in his first full pro season .
Angel: Zach Neto, SS (#89)
Neto established his hit tool in good faith by hitting over .400 in 2021 as a sophomore at Campbell a junior. The Angels took him 13th overall as a result, and after posting a .320 in 30 Double-A games after signing, it looks like it won’t take long for Neto to break into the big leagues.
Astros: Yainer Diaz, C
The most underrated capture candidate in the game, Diaz has stood out with his natural punching power and fluid right-hand drive since the Guardians signed him from the Dominican Republic for $25,000 in 2016. He has shown more power and improved his defense since he arrived in July Joined the Astros in 2021 in a deal for Myles Straw.
A: Jordan Diaz, 1B/3B
Signed in 2016, Diaz took a while to find his feet, but once he did, he did nothing but rake. He secured a spot on the 40-man list after hitting .288/.337/.484 on his season debut in 2021, then really started last year with a .326/.366/.515 line between Double A’s and Triple-A which led to his first major league call-up. Now the A’s will be working to find ways to get his racquet into the lineup, especially after he hit a .339 in Colombia’s winter league this offseason.
Sailors: Cole Young, SS
The Mariners’ player development department has a powerful mantra: “Dominate the Zone”. It looks like Young, Seattle’s 2022 first-round pick, will do just that. The Pittsburgh-area Prepster was one of the better straight high school hitters in the class, and he showed his all-fields approach when he hit .367/.423/.517 on his brief pro debut. Those worried about his effects should know that he’s put on around 15 pounds of muscle this off-season.
Rangers: Evan Carter, OF (MLB #41)
Carter has gone from being the shocking second-round pick of diminutive Elizabeth (Tenn.) HS in 2020 to a potential five-tool midfielder who is now considered one of baseball’s brightest prospects. He recognizes courts and controls the hitting zone better than most 20-year-olds, and his clean left swing has produced a .282/.406/.467 batting line in two pro seasons.
Braves: Ignacio Alvarez, 3B/SS
The Braves may have found a draft steal in Alvarez, which they won in the fifth round of last year’s draft. The Riverside Community College product peaked at a .370 in his draft year and then showed his super-progressive approach with a BB/K ratio of 26/15 on the plate in his pro debut between the Florida Complex and the Single-A Carolina League. He has really fast hands off the plate and makes a lot of contact with more extra base shots.
Mets: Brett Baty, 3B/OF (#21)
Since finishing 12th overall in 2019, Baty has hit the ball exceptionally hard in pro ball, but in 2022 he also began lifting the ball more on contact, increasing his 55.8 percent groundball rate (worst in the Mets system) in 2021 to 43.5 percent. The result was a .315 average in 95 games between Double-A and Triple-A. Baty’s ability to jab the ball from the left – he peaked at 183km/h during his short stint with the Majors – will continue to define his chances of scoring at the highest level.
Marlin: Jacob Berry, 3B (MLB #61)
Berry, the No. 6 pick overall in the 2022 draft, had 1,094 OPS with more extra base hits and walks than strikeouts at Louisiana State last spring and then batted .264 in Single-A. He’s a switch hitter with a nice shot and an advanced approach from both sides of the plate, although his ability to make contact stands out more than his foot exit speeds.
Nationals: Robert Hassell III (No. 35)
Nicknamed “Bobby Barrels,” Hassell has shown a classically beautiful left-handed swing in the pro and amateur ranks, and he got off to a solid start with a .299/.379/.467 line in 75 games at the High-A Fort Wayne before his transfer from the Padres to the Nationals in Juan Soto’s blockbuster. Washington has been trying to get him to keep his bat-trail in the zone longer, and he was set to continue that work in the Arizona Fall League before suffering a broken hamate. If these changes remain in place, Hassell’s predictions as a plus major league batsman are even safer.
Phillies: Hao Yu Lee, 2B
The Phillies thought they had a fairly advanced hitter straight away after signing Lee for $570,000 in June 2021 when he whetted their appetite by hitting .364 in a nine-game FCL debut in 2022. He has a clean swing and advanced approach that helped him hit the high-A ball in 2022, and he hit .284 with a .386 OBP as a teenager, limiting strikeouts and drawing lots of walks.
Brewer: Sal Frelick, OV (No. 30)
The game is supposed to get harder the higher you go. It didn’t look like it for the 15th overall winner in 2021 in his first full season. Frelick went up three notches from High-A to Triple-A, increasing his average and lowering his strikeout rate at every stop to the point where he was hitting .365 while only averaging 7.4 percent in 46 games with Nashville time struck. Frelick’s plate discipline and short left-handed swing help him count and protect the plate, and his plus-plus speed can help him absorb extra shots on grounders.
Cardinals: Alec Burleson, OV (No. 91)
The St. Louis outfielder won the International League batting title for Triple-A Memphis last season with an average of .331 in 109 games. He did this by showing an incredible balance of power (20 homers) and consistent contact (14.3 percent K-rate, sixth lowest among IL qualifiers). Burleson isn’t afraid to spray line drives on all fields, especially with two strikes, and that approach firmly establishes him as a part of a loaded Cardinals outfield mix heading into ’23.
Hatchlings: Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF (MLB #28)
Not only is Crow-Armstrong the best defensive player in the Minors, he’s also a gifted hitter with a quick left hitter and has made adjustments to deliver more power since the Mets made him the 19th overall pick in the 2020 draft. Traded to the Cubs in 2021 for Javier Báez and Trevor Williams, he batted .312/.376/.520 with 46 extra base hits and 32 steals ball in 101 games between single-A and high-A in his first extended stint in the pro game last season .
Pirates: Termarr Johnson, 2B (#26)
One of only two prospects with 70 hits in our top 100, Johnson was one of the best all-high school-hitting scouts in years, which is why the Pirates picked him fourth overall in last year’s draft. One reviewer even went so far as to say that Johnson combines the record discipline of Wade Boggs with the contact skills of Vladimir Guerrero Sr.
Red: Cam Collier, 3B (#69)
It’s clear that Lou’s child likes to be challenged. He dropped out of high school, reclassified for the 2022 draft, and went to Chipola Junior College, where he got .333/.419/.537 as a 17-year-old. That helped land him in the first round with the Reds, and he swung the racquet well during a brief pro debut. He has a sweet left handed swing that is loose and has excellent racquet speed. He makes a lot of contacts and makes good use of the entire field.
D-Back: Corbin Carroll, OF (#2)
Imagine a spring-loaded action figure attacking bats in a baseball game, and this is what watching Carroll at the plate looks like. At just 5ft 10, the left-handed racquet might not have the biggest presence in the box, but it generates great torque and racquet speed to send balls flying in all directions. With 130 wRC+ over 115 plate appearances for Arizona over the past year, Carroll is already an above-average hitter in the bigs with enough ceiling to get even better.
Dodgers: Miguel Vargas, 3B/OF/1B (MLB #37)
Lazaro Vargas was the DH at Cuba’s 1992 and 1996 Olympic champions, and his son’s clout has been evident since he rode Team USA’s Hunter Greene in the gold medal-winning race at the 2014 15-and-under World Cup. Signed in 2017 for $300,000, Vargas has top-notch hit-to-ball skills, a mature approach and a power that seems to continue to grow every year. He’s a career .313 hitter with the Minors who doubled Alex Cobb in his first big league at-bat in August last year
Giants: Marco Luciano, SS (MLB #22)
Though best known for his electric bat speed and massive power potential, Luciano also has a natural punch and an ability to adapt. Signed from the Dominican Republic in 2018 for $2.6 million, he is a career .271/.363/.491 batter in pro ball despite consistently being two or three years younger than the average player in his leagues.
Padres: Jackson Merrill, SS (No. 19)
It’s not hard to find Merrill admirers in the industry, between what he showed Padres officials in his first full season and many others during his advanced stint in the Arizona Fall League. Merrill’s on-field and off-field ratings were nearly equal at last year’s Single-A Lake Elsinore as he proved he’s willing to take pitches where they’re thrown and offload them in the outfield. Impressive early plate discipline should only improve his chances until he reaches San Diego to be a plus hitter.
Rockies: Adael Amador, SS (#68)
He won’t turn 20 until April, but Amador has already shown one of the best approaches in the Rockies organization. Since making his pro debut in the ACL in 2021, the infielder has posted a combined .294/.409/.445 and run a lot more (114) than he batted (96). That’s only a 12.7 percent K-Rate, and he’s shown good barrel feel while making excellent swing decisions as a switch hitter.