Format = Player Position | Age on 1-4-2026 | Highest level played | Estimated time of arrival
1. 3B Sal Stewart | 22 | MLB | 2025
Stewart was the 32nd overall pick in 2022 and enjoyed a breakout season in 2025, hitting over .500 for the first time as a professional. At 6-foot-4 and 224 pounds, he has always had latent strength that could make him a force in fantasy baseball. He likes to run, stealing 17 bases in 20 attempts at two minor league levels, but he’s not fast: 14th percentile sprint speed according to the stats. You don’t have to be fast to steal some bags these days, and Stewart will probably find a half-dozen open bases like he did even early in his career. in this year’s postseason He played a total of 138 games at three levels, hitting 25 home runs and stealing 18 bases while hitting .300 with a stellar strikeout-to-walk percentage. Should open next season as the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year.
2. C Alfredo Duno | 20 | A | 2027
Duno easily generates power from a 6-foot frame. He’s listed at 210 pounds, and that may be true, but he looked huge against low-A players, especially as this season progressed and he started to dominate. In 113 games, he slashed .287/.430/.518 with 18 home runs, six stolen bases and 95 walks against just 91 strikeouts (18.4 percent). Reminds me a bit of Salvador Perez, both in the way he moves smoothly and calmly behind the plate and in the way he uses his power in the batter’s box, especially when he hammers something on the pull side.
3. SS Steele Hall | 18 | After | 2029
A bit of a double-edged sword here, as Hall doesn’t have any professional reps on the baseball card yet, and I’m always wary of the Arch Manning Effect regarding word of mouth. On the other hand, Hall has incredible speed, plus strength, and plus bat-to-ball skills, so he could have made himself quite expensive with a month-long run at the complex or wherever. As it is, he remains a gamble at the top of an uninspiring first-year player draft class, where he represents perhaps the best upside on the board for our game.
4. RHP RHETT subcooler | 23 | MLB | 2024
Much to the chagrin of my Highlander team, Lowder didn’t pitch at all in 2025 due to a forearm injury followed by an oblique issue, so the profile remains largely the same as it was then, with a little added injury risk for a guy who isn’t the most agile athlete on the planet. He was great collegiately and continued that excellence in the pros, rising to the majors in one season and starting his MLB career with a 1.17 ERA through 30.2 innings, during which he didn’t allow a single home run. Sure, there are a few red flags, like the strikeout and walk rates, 17.2 percent and 10.9 percent respectively, but it’s certainly nitpicking to quibble with the results of a guy who has solid control over four-plus pitches (slider 27.3%, 4-seam 27.3%, sinker 25.9, changeup 19.5) that he deploys in almost equal measure.
5. SS Tyson Lewis | 20 | A | 2029
I’m going to pass this text on to my AI assistant.
Just kidding. Never in a million years will I help the robots conquer us. At least not consciously. There’s a good chance that bots have already been trained with my sentences. I have to give up on that somehow now. The new standard is that the companies can take whatever they want.
Sorry, I’m far from the road. Lewis, Tyson. 6’2″ 195 pounds with plus athleticism. 51st overall pick in 2024. Puncher’s chance to become a five-tool player. Hit tool lags, but that’s partly because he was a 19-year-old in the full season. Even with a 34.5 percent strikeout rate in 35 games there, he produced a 116 wRC+ and slashed .268/.347/.417 with three home runs and eight stolen bases.
6. 3B Camcollier | 21 | AA | 2026
They don’t look alike at all, but Collier calls out Termarr Johnson for me. Collier is a foot taller, but they are both left-handed hitters who came out of high school high and were supposed to be advanced hitters but have been disappointing thus far even while producing positive metric results. I suppose it’s because they’re just not who we thought they would be. Johnson was a hit toolman who usually hit around .240 with plus-plus patience, and Collier was a power threat who hit just two home runs in 74 Double-A games this year and just six home runs in 111 Low-A games in 2023. It’s weird. Collier was the 18th overall pick in 2022. He has a powerful build and has had drills that hint at what he could become if he harnesses that strength. In 2024, he hit 20 home runs in 119 games while slashing .248/.355/.443 with a 129 wRC+. In the context of a 19-year-old in High-A, that’s great, even if we could put on the brakes a bit, since he’s more physically developed than most 19-year-olds. I just have to find my way back there.
7. 2B BY Tyler Callihan | 25 | MLB | 2025
Callihan was a third-round pick in 2019 and made his debut in April 2025. He got a real chance to play a role when he ran into the left field wall chasing a catch and ended up with a broken forearm that cost him the season. A left-handed hitter with power and speed, Callihan hit .303/.410/.528 with four home runs and six stolen bases in 24 games to earn that early-season call-up. Should open 2026 with a chance to make a crowded Major League roster.
8. FROM Hector Rodriguez | 22 | AAA | 2026
Rodriguez is a 5’10” and 200 lbs left-handed hitter. He packs a punch when he meets one. He hit .298/.357/.481 with 12 home runs, six stolen bases and a 13.9 percent strikeout rate in 82 Double-A games when he made the jump to Triple-A. Things got worse there (.260/.304/.405), but he still hit just 16.5 percent of the time and added seven home runs and nine steals. If he can improve the lineup in Cincinnati, he could be a nice fantasy flyer, but he won’t be a great defender and he’s unlikely to carve his own path because he’s kind of a ho-hum outfielder at this stage.
9. SS Ricky Cabrera | 21 | A+ | 2028
Formerly known as “Ricardo” in the baseball world. Pretty good timing for the name change. Cabrera signed for $2.7 million in 2022 and has steadily climbed the system while adding good weight to his 6-foot-1 frame. He was solid in Low-A for 105 games (111 wRC+) before losing his groove during a 21-game stint with High-A, during which he slashed .187/.276/.240. Smart money suggests he will open 2026 at that level again and do much better this time.
10. SS Edwin Arroyo | 21 | AA | 2026
I think it’s fair to give Arroyo something of a mulligan on his still-solid 107 wRC+ in 2025. He just couldn’t generate power after tearing his left labrum in 2024. One full season removed from surgery, and we could be closer to the 13 home runs he hit in 2023 than the three he managed in 120 Double-A games this season. Perhaps even more disappointing than the fading force, Arroyo went 29-for-36 on the base paths in 2023, but just 12-for-19 in 2025. He played against older players and found his footing, so his .284 batting average, .345 on base percentage and playable defense at shortstop are still enough to stick in the profile.
Thanks for reading!
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