He had a paltry 7% swinging strike rate to go along with an amazing 90% z-contact% and 85% overall contact rate. : Mets+ ($1,100,000) More 30. 5. After playing some winter ball for Gigantes del Cibao, Marte saw 520 regular season plate appearances, changed organizations as the highest-profile prospect in the blockbuster Luis Castillo trade in the midst of those, went to Germany as part of Team Spains WBC qualifier roster, and then came back to the US and played for another six weeks in the Fall League. For these prospects, it is their first step in professional baseball. Still, the quality of Martes contact, as much as he might make, is not consistent or authoritative, and this was true in the regular season when he looked twitchier and looser than he did in the fall. When Julien does swing, he does so with bad intentions, taking a high-effort rip capable of putting balls out to all fields. Hassell was playing like his usual sweet-swinging self until he was traded to Washington as part of the Juan Soto blockbuster; after the deal, his performance took a nosedive. It is possible this will be the last international free agency class ever. It cost him all of 2022. Some of the volatile characteristics of his profile are still here. The batting average component was down a little due to his .241 BABIP at Columbus, but otherwise 2022 was another standard Rocchio season with the stick. Wood compares to a young Adam Dunn as a power-hitting outfielder of considerable size. Castrovince writes that under the draft proposal, the top 600 players would receive $172.5MM in total bonuses, up from the $163.9MM for the top 600 bonuses given to players during the 2019-20 . Theres substantial bust risk here but the ceiling is huge, too big to move off of Hernandez after a whiff-prone first year stateside. -- $800,000Luis Merejo, INF, D.R. Hes barrel-chested and quite bulky, and hell need to maintain his conditioning to be able to block and receive adequately. : Mets+ ($1,900,000) More 28. But all of a sudden, an influx of extraordinary high-level talent began funneling from the international market. Its fair to consider there to be subjective and persistent relief risk here related to Flores delivery and the length of his arm action. Mayo makes frequent, hard, pull-heavy contact despite his sometimes ugly-looking cut, which features a strange, choppy stride. He has some vulnerability to high fastballs and tends to do most of his extra-base damage against middle-middle mistakes, but Steer is capable of making line drive contact in basically all parts of the strike zone, and is especially adept at poking outer-third pitches the opposite way for base hits. Even though hes still eons from the big leagues, the Cubs were compelled to put Alcantara on their 40-man roster during the offseason to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. His slider (Hall was almost exclusively a fastball/slider pitcher against lefties during his big league run) is firm and now has better movement demarcation from his curveball, which is easily his least-used offering, usually a backdoor option to righties. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. This years 60 FV tier has some players who still show some hit tool red flags (Chourio, De La Cruz, Jones) that kept them from ever really being considered for the tier above. The bat is impactful enough to consider him a high-probability big leaguer regular of some kind, even at the bottom of the defensive hierarchy. Below is a look at which players from MLB.com's Top 50 International Prospects list have agreed to terms with clubs, and for how much. You'll see two of the international free agents high on my prospect list, with polished games and loud tools. At the plate, he shows an advanced approach with the ability to hit for average. -- $900,000Anyelo Marquez, SS, D.R. While his peak exit velocities have long been tops among his peers, college and pro, he didnt really start launching homers until after he was drafted, when it appears his swing and approach changed. Each Box Contains Eight Autographs, Two Memorabilia Cards & Five Opti-Chrome Cards! Historically, Mead has raked despite having a hyper-aggressive approach at the plate, and this is where he grew the most in 2022. Despite being this size at this age, which might typically cause long-term 1B/DH projection, Colliers defensive feet, hands, actions, and arm strength are all excellent, and make him a future plus third base defender. Moreover, in his 221 innings of career work in the minors, hes allowed just eight home runs. You run the risk of essentially wasting your entire draft while the managers around you are adding safer bets. Fernando Tatis Jr. took another step toward rejoining the San Diego Padres on Tuesday. Constant max-effort hacking often leads to lots of strikeouts, but Wiemer had mostly kept his Ks in check until 2022, when he punched out 30% of the time at Double-A Biloxi. Eder was a tantalizing but inconsistent high school prospect who at times would sit 94-97 mph, but often with scattershot control. Given that injury has always been the primary concern for Cavalli, the way his season ended is a letdown after a couple years of exciting progress. Were betting on Hassell in part because hes a very competitive guy who seems hellbent on maxing himself out. Thirty-two of the players on the 2022 Top 50 International Prospects list are from the Dominican Republic. Thats a plus metric for a big leaguer and is ridiculous for a 19-year-old who hasnt totally grown into his body. Busch has continued his long track record of excellent offensive performance so far in pro ball. Healthy Espino is a physical freak with exceptional talent and drive, and his continued presence on the 100 is as much a bet on his demeanor and makeup as it is his ability. He was suddenly a young-for-the-class college bat who might have gone very high in the draft if hed hit like he had the year before and gotten better at second base. He has some outfield experience but very little in pro ball, and he doesnt exactly look like a fish in water out there. He was a coveted prospect as a prep player, but his strong commitment to Cal Poly, where his dad coaches, and some general concerns about his physical longevity due to a back issue pushed the industrys assessment of him down, so he went to school. Hes actually a fairly rangy third baseman, as his foot speed allows him to cover a lot of ground, but his hands and arm accuracy are both pretty rough and cause him to be error-prone. 1. 3 or 4 starter on a contender like the Mets, who signed him to a five-year, $75 million deal. If he had somehow improved his throwing (which isnt terrible he could play short in an emergency), hed still be behind Oswald Peraza and Isiah Kiner-Falefa in this regard and would end up at second base anyway. Also, by disabling these cookies you will also disable banner ads served by Google Adsense on this website.. For more information about these items, view our complete privacy policy.Read More. Youve probably seen big league hitters use a toe tap, or heard broadcasters use that phrase. Of those accolades, perhaps the most promising was his durability; given the violence in his delivery, our biggest concern has been Cavallis ability to stay healthy, so the fact that he notched over 123 innings of work without an IL stint was a welcome development. -- $320,000Juan Frances, OF, Ven. Allen was an undersized, pitchability high school lefty who worked 88-92 mph with mostly average secondary stuff and a changeup that flashed plus. Hes hovering at or below the big league average in most chase and contact rate categories, while generating impressive power for a shortstop his age. And Chourio has that kind of power. Fold below-average third base defense into that picture and while Vargas is going to be a doubles machine and productive big league player, he is probably not a star. Barger has huge left-handed bat speed and a shot to stay on the dirt, just not at shortstop. He plays with the high center of gravity more typical of an outfielder, and has a hard time flipping his hips to make fundamentally typical throws if hes had to range left to field a groundball. If you would like to read a book-length treatment on the subject, one is available here. *** . He loads his hands high and cuts down at the ball, which makes him tough to beat in the upper two thirds of the strike zone because Peraza is so short to those locations. Collier has stand-out raw strength and generates it across a very short mechanical distance, capable of driving thunderous contact to center and left/center with a flick of his wrists. Ethan Salas, C, VenezuelaThe top player in the class is one of the best catching prospects in recent history. While especially adept at launching pitches on the inner third, Johnson also shows some ability to shorten up and cover the top and outer edge of the strike zone. Hes graded with the optimism that these traits will help him manage the swing-and-miss enough to be a multi-time All-Star. Back in Port St. Lucie to start 2022, Ramirez was red hot for the first month of the season, slashing a whopping .385/.423/.606 while cutting his strikeout rate by about 42% (from 31% to 18%), though his walk rate also dipped. With Martn Maldonado and Korey Lee around, Diaz will be able to ease into the everyday waters and start some games at 1B/DH to get his bat into the lineup. : Angels ($900,000) More . So are his reads and routes in center field, which he runs well enough to play right now. Lucianos bat speed is incredible but his barrel accuracy is not. -- $650,000Joseph Tailor, 2B, D.R. Hes also learning how to call a game and has a good makeup. Its comforting that there are contemporary examples of hitters making a huge impact who share Chourios potential blemish, ones who make that impact despite all the ponchados by getting to big power. Even though his career walk rates are extremely low (7%) for a complex-level prospect (where pitchers often struggle to throw strikes), Bleis chase rates are closer to average. Despite the extreme amount of chase, Rafaela only Kd at a 21% rate and also doubled his previous career high in homers with 21. He must turn 16 before he signs and be 17 before Sept. 1 the following year -- in practical terms, that means players born between Sept. 1, 2004, and Aug. 31, 2005, will be eligible to sign in the upcoming signing period. He runs well enough to play an outfield corner and were projecting him there, la Schwarbers trajectory. Holliday entered the summer ranked as the No. Vargas doesnt have the sort of projectable, statuesque frame typical of a hitter in his early 20s, and despite the relevant changes to his swing, he still isnt an especially electric athlete and the cement appears quite dry on his physique, so theres not much reason to project on his raw power going forward. He is similar to Henry Davis and Kyle Schwarber, in that he may have to move out from behind the plate due to poor receiving, ball-blocking, and his raw arm strength, though he is pretty accurate. Scouting and comparing international players tools and athleticism to those of recent and upcoming domestic amateurs helps me to triangulate approximately where theyd go in a given draft, and assign them a FV based on that approximation. Velocity, repertoire depth, and fastball control have Miller poised to be an impact, mid-rotation starter in the near future, while long-term secondary projection could eventually pull him into a different stratosphere. The Rangers then took an aggressive approach, assigning him directly to Double-A Frisco for his first year of pro ball in 2022. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. 4 cards per pack. Mauricios measurable power is already plus (45% hard-hit rate, 114 mph max exit velo), and at a strapping 6-foot-4 or so, he might still grow into more. Parada was the rare high-profile California high schooler who left the state for college, traveling all the way to Atlanta for two years at Georgia Tech. Lesko hasnt thrown a pro pitch yet due to TJ rehab, but his changeup and pre-injury velocity and fastball playability demand he be one here toward the back. He projects to be a top-of-the-rotation pitcher as his fastball sits between 94-97 and has emerging secondary pitches, including a slider, changeup and curveball. Saturday, Jan. 15, is an important date on MLB's offseason calendar. His stuff has gotten even better under the tutelage of Clevelands player dev system, and he dominated during his 2021 full season debut, putting up a strikeout rate north of 40% while shortening his arm action and altering his slot to impart more vertical movement on his heater. He has performed well through the lower minors (.271/.368/.438), and his frame, speed, general athleticism, and long-term frame-based power projection are all very enticing from a scouting standpoint, but the limitations of his current swing still make Veens big league impact more of an abstract projection than an inevitability. Here hes projected as a bat-only player. Position-wise, there are 20 infielders, 18 outfielders, five catchers, six pitchers and one two-way player. on January 15, 2022 Major League Baseball's international signing period opens on Saturday, Jan. 15 for the 2021-22 class. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 7:42 AM ET, Park Factors Its still very early in the career of all of these players, and several hurdles to clear. Wiemer often swings inside pitches on the outer third of the strike zone, and his in-zone swing and miss rates are on par with the bottom handful of big league outfielders who saw at least 300 PA in 2022, among names like Joey Gallo and Christopher Morel. Because his delivery is so elegant and consistent, Bradleys splitter has deep projection. March 1, 2023. Having started 2022 with the Yankees Triple-A affiliate, Wesneski was shipped to Chicago as part of the Scott Effross trade. There is no 70 FV prospect in this years class and only two 65 FV prospects. Below is Baseball America's international prospect bonus board, sorting the players in the 2021-22 signing class based on the top 50 expected bonuses. This isnt a common injury and the industry wasnt quite sure what to make of its impact on his trajectory. : Twins ($1,100.000) More 32. He primarily pairs the heater with a shapely low-80s slider and gets most of his swing-and-miss in the zone with both offerings. His fastball velocity is down, in the 92-94 mph range, a far cry from Priesters upper-90s peak. This is a little odd, but it might be remedied with an unobtrusive mechanical tweak. Berry has plus bat speed and raw power, with an uppercut bat path from both sides of the plate. This is another potential homegrown star for the Sox. High-risk hitters with huge tools are also welcome since FV is a subjective way to factor both ceiling and risk into the same grade. His overall chase rates remain a little worse than average but theyre not terrifying. Except Ortiz hit 19 homers and had 60 total extra-base hits in the upper-minors last year, and while he doesnt project to produce that kind of power against big league stuff, its enough damage to project Ortizs offense above the median bar at shortstop. Its enough that Julien comfortably projects as an everyday second baseman if it turns out he can stay there, and even though he has experience at other positions, second base is the only one he played in 2022. Hall might have debuted at some point in 2021 had he not dealt with elbow tendinitis and a stress reaction in his elbow, which was uncovered when he had a setback during rehab from the tendinitis and ultimately ended his season. Walkers gigantic frame at his age makes it likely that hed eventually outgrow third base. -- $500,000Rafael Alvarez, 3B, D.R. As Volpe has added strength and mass, the trunk of his body has thickened substantially and impacted his defensive mobility a bit. Mauricio is both What They Look Like and What They Look Like When They Bust. He is a huge-framed, switch-hitting shortstop with power from both sides of the plate and a rocket arm, but his swing decisions are often so reckless that even though hes coming off a 20/20 season at Double-A, hes still an extremely volatile prospect. His swing is a little odd and upright, and his hands load with a bit of a hitch, but he is still able to guide the barrel around the zone and produce shocking raw power for such a lithe teenage hitter. Rangers land Pablo Guerrero, brother of Vlad Jr. MLB Pipeline's Top 50 International Prospects. Though hes of relatively narrow build, Bleis still oozes projection, and his present footspeed gives him room to fill out and slow down some while remaining in center field. If he can throw strikes in Allentown, hell likely crack the Phillies bullpen in 2023, and he has closer ceiling if he can throw strikes consistently. By the time he was called up to Arizona in September, it was back into the mid-90s with Nelsons trademark angle and carry. Manuel Cabrera, SS, D.R. Hundreds of international prospects are taking the next step in their development when they sign with big league clubs and there will be hundreds more who will follow them until the middle of December. And while its not the ideal strategy, theres something to be said about coming out of your prospect draft with the best available talent, in hindsight. Acuas swing is explosive and athletic, starting upright with a load and leg kick similar to his brothers, before he takes a gargantuan stride toward the mound. Thanks to his looseness and flexibility (again, think a lankier Gerrit Cole), not only does Abel project to maintain this level of velocity, but perhaps hell add to it as his frame fills out. He looked great at the start of the Fall League before pitchers figured out they could get him to chase whatever and started junk-balling him to death. It plays as an above-average offering even though Allens raw arm strength is comfortably below average. Henderson is a viable shortstop defender (for now) who has plus-plus plate discipline and power. MLB.com's free scouting report says Cols can "play all three outfield positions and projects to hit in the middle of the order." But since the bust rate is so high, its advisable to take your shots deep in your drafts when the notable college and high school players are off the board. He sometimes sets up to block breaking balls too quickly, tipping off baserunners and peeking hitters to whats coming. But generally, I find targeting the forgotten international prospects deep in drafts can be even more effective. Rocchios calling card is still his switch-hitting offensive ability, specifically his bat-to-ball skills, which have made him a 50 FV mainstay since he finished his first domestic pro season. Susana is expected to sign with the Padres. And I was convinced I had discovered the secret to uncovering superstar talent before being seen as such. He may just be a DH, which would obviously make it tougher for him to profile, but there may be elite on-base ability here and that plus the power might be enough for Julien to make an impact that way, too. These are the top international prospects expected to sign when the signing period for the 2021-2022 class commences in January.