Format = Player Position | Age on 1-4-2026 | Highest level played | Estimated time of arrival
1. FROM Nelson Rada | 20 | AAA | 2026
The pluses here are obvious: A legitimate center fielder with solid plate skills from the left side, Rada swiped 54 bases in 135 games across Double-A and Triple-A in 2025, slashing .292/.398/.360 and making huge gains in plate skills once he reached Triple-A. He walked 30 times against 35 strikeouts in his 42 games with Salt Lake, hitting .323/.433/.416 in the cozy hitting environment. He’s always been extremely young for this level — 7.8 years younger than average in Triple-A — and that usually works out, especially when a teenager like Rada arrives in the spring with new muscles after a Rocky IV-type winter. Rada was actually a bit stocked last season and could be a decent fantasy sleeper this year with just a little more manpower.
2. FROM Hayden Alvarez | 19 | A | 2028
At 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, Alvarez is a bit more physically developed than his same-age cohorts, but it seems a bit silly to say that to him when he’s playing against guys who are an average of 3.2 years older than him, as he was in the final 20 games of 2025 after playing in the complex league against guys 1.6 years older than him. He made significant cuts in those 20 games for Low-A Inland Empire. .355/.459/.435 with nine stolen bases. Also ten strikeouts against eight walks. I hope you’ve added him along the way, but if not, put him on your First-Year-Player-Draft list in case he’s in your free agent pool.
3. RHP Tyler Beerder | 21 | NCAA | 2028
A surprise selection at second in the 2025 overall rankings, Beerder has a lot to prove as a professional, but he certainly has the profile to rocket through the minors and make the club look smart by getting him early. Minor league hitters tend to struggle with the mix of plus fastball, plus changeup and plus command, and Beerder even mixes in a solid breaking ball. He hasn’t pitched for Los Angeles or Anaheim yet, but he did strike out 295 batters with a 1.07 WHIP in 221.1 innings pitched for UC Santa Barbara, so that’s something. It’s pretty hard to argue that he was the best player they could have had in that spot, but that’s how it goes.
4. RHP Ryan Johnson | 23 | MLB | 2025
Johnson is the 74th overall pick in the 2024 draft. He has blazed the kind of path only available to prospects in this organization. He started twelve games at High-A before jumping to the Major League bullpen for a non-contending team. To be fair, he had been dominant in High-A, posting a 1.88 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in 57.1 innings. Seems like a good time to send the 6-foot-4, 215-pound fireball to Double-A, right? He posted a 7.36 ERA in 14.2 MLB innings, but I think it’s fair to look past that and anticipate big things at Double-A in 2026. Or maybe out of the bullpen for a mediocre Major League team. Hekifino.
5. RHP Trey Gregory-Alford | 19 | A | 2029
Gregory-Alford, an 11th-round pick in 2024, appears to be the biggest draft-and-develop win for this organization since Mike Trout was selected as the pick after Randall Grichuk. At 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, he has plus extension on a dominant fastball that sits in the upper 90s. He has a good command of that pitch, but has difficulty recognizing his slider and changeup. He didn’t need off-speed command to dominate in his debut season, especially in Low-A, where he posted a 1.42 ERA and 0.86 WHIP in 25.1 innings over six starts.
6. SS Joswa Lugo | 19 | CPX | 2029
Lugo, signed for $2.3 million in 2024, is 6-foot-4, 187 pounds and can stay on the floor well into his 20s. He slashed .301/.370/.466 with five home runs and 18 stolen bases in 53 games during his debut season in the Dominican Summer League and followed that up with a solid debut in the United States, slashing .271/.375/.372 in 35 games at the facility. Perhaps the last chance to buy for nothing.
7. SS Denzer Guzman | 22 | AAA | 2026
Listed at 6’1″ 190 pounds, Guzman looked quite strong in his MLB debut. He didn’t make much contact (.190/.209/.357) in his 13 games, but at just 21 years old he was finding his way to Triple-A. It’s unclear why this club is hitting the gas pedal so hard on all of its prospects, but the upshot for our purposes is that they tend to be a bit undervalued as their Statlines have bothered by playing against guys half a decade older than them. Guzman was a hot name when he signed for $2 million in 2021, but as far as I know he’s pretty widely available today, and he has a real chance to open the season in the Majors or join the club after a decent few weeks in Utah.
8. SS Yilver De Paula | 18 | DSL | 2030
A 5’11”, 180-pound switch-hitter, De Paula signed for $900,000 in January. In the glimpses we got during the DSL, he looked like a big-money prospect, slashing .387/.525/.513 with one homer and six steals in ten games. If he hits the ground running in 2026, he could make it to Double-A by midsummer. I joking of course, but the point is This guy looks like a fast mover, and LA of A rarely slows down.
9. C Gabriel Davalillo | 18 | DSL | 2030
Davalillo signed for $2 million in January 2025 and made easy work of DSL pitchers, striking out just 21 batters against 23 walks in 41 games while slashing .302/.408/.518 with seven home runs and three stolen bases. At 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds, he’s more physically developed than many of his contemporaries, but the hitting tool is also advanced, so I don’t want to overemphasize the outcomes just because he’s stronger than the average teenage ballplayer.
10. FROM Matthew Lugo | 24 | MLB | 2025
Lugo scored a lot in his debut season: 34.3 percent of the time in 70 at-bats in 31 games. He made zero walks. Obviously that’s not going to work, but he put up an 89 wRC+ in the majors because he hit four home runs in that short span. He’s played a variety of positions during his ascension, but is now a pretty standard corner outfielder with big swing-and-miss questions. Only really on this list because of proximity in a pretty weak system.
Thanks for reading!
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