2022 mlb international prospects

Randy De Jesus, OF, Dominican Republic Angels ($1,200,000) More 39. Hes still likely to get to enough power and play good enough defense to be an impact regular for Arizona. The league-wide statistical standard at third base is very high right now due to the depth of excellent players at the top of that position group, and when you compare Vargas tools and underlying data to what constitutes an average regular at the hot corner, he tends to hover around average in terms of both contact quality and frequency, and a little below when it comes to high-end power, which is consistent with his visual evaluation. On last look, it was stuff that profiled in the middle of a contending teams rotation, rather than at the very front. Esmil Valencia, OF, D.R. Young stars like Fernando Tatis Jr, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Ronald Acuna, Yordan Alvarez, Wander Franco, Julio Rodriguez, and many more started as relatively obscure teenagers. Its still very early in the career of all of these players, and several hurdles to clear. Julien tweeted he was going back to school, then went to the Cape and had a great two weeks, after which the Twins offer rose to just shy of $500,000, inspiring him to sign. -- $997,500, GuardiansJose Marcano, INF, Ven. Vargas has great feel for contact and enough power to profile as an everyday left fielder or second baseman, with the latter looking more likely for now given the Dodgers roster situation. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. Doug Fister is a fair baseball body comp. When he returned, he was a completely different hitter. AUCTION - 2022 Panini Elite Extra Edition Baseball Hobby Box After a breakout 2021 season, Harrison managed to improve in virtually every column of his stat sheet in 2022. On paper, Cappe has performed well from a bat-to-ball standpoint early in his career, and he has very exciting raw power projection because of his wide receiver-ish frame. Davis skills and offensive style are tailored like those of Evan Gattis. We are still in a holding pattern with Veen because the length of his swing continues to make it very difficult for him to turn on fastballs. Hes as patient as any hitter in the minors and has walked at a 19% career rate; he has a .437 career OBP in the minors. Youll note that prospects are ranked by number but also lie within tiers demarcated by their Future Value grades. He hit .337/.453/.601 as a teenager in the Cal League before the Padres traded him to Washington as part of the Juan Soto blockbuster, after which he hit .293/.366/.463. -- $600,000, AstrosGerman Ramirez, SS, D.R. Hes able to pull his hands in and get the barrel on inside pitches, but he swung underneath a ton of fastballs during his 2022 season on the complex, which is why he struck out at a very scary 30% clip. After strikeouts were an issue for him in 2021, he narrowed his approach (which is now surgically precise) and began to attack pitches he could damage, avoiding ones on the outer edge of the zone until he has no choice but to put them in play. Frelicks style of hitting should enable doubles (and some triples) pop, but there isnt likely to be any kind of over-the-fence power here, so little that one could argue Frelick belongs south of the 50 FV tier even if he were a lock to stay in center field. Luis Almeyda, SS, D.R. Were taking the long view here and think Libby will find a way to be a fourth starter. 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. In the past, teams could trade for an additional 50 percent of their bonus pool, though bonus pool trades have been prohibited since MLB and the MLBPA agreed to changes in response to the pandemic. Even with the back issue, the Giants put Luciano on their 40-man roster during the winter. Its important to remember these are young players who havent faced top competition yet. "Consensus No. It is possible this will be the last international free agency class ever. New York Yankees 2022 International Signings - Prospects1500 Neither his slider nor changeup is fully baked quite yet, but if either (or both) become viable, they would bring with them a higher probability that Priester slots in as a mid-rotation starter. Camilo Diaz, OF, D.R. His plus velocity and uphill approach angle make Halls fastball extremely difficult for hitters to get on top of, and righty batters who are trying to anticipate the heater often end up embarrassing themselves against his changeup, which generated a whopping 54% whiff rate in 2022. Theres a chance he will have plus power, and he projects to be an average hitter. He gets a lot of swing and miss on his slider, both in and out of the zone, and commands it well. His strikeout rate improved upon promotion to Triple-A, albeit in a smaller sample. lvarez only ran a 75% Z-contact and 66% overall contact rate in the minors, which is near the bottom of the big league catching continuum, and almost identical to Joey Bart and Jorge Alfaro, who have struggled to find big league footing on offense. Abdidas De La Cruz, SS, Dominican Republic D-backs ($1,100,000) More 37. 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. He tends to throw his two breaking balls (his curveballs shape pairs especially nicely with his fastball) in the zone, often early in counts, and then use the fastball as a finishing pitch. Fernando Tatis Jr. took another step toward rejoining the San Diego Padres on Tuesday. He has incredible defensive range, especially to his right, and his footwork around the bag is balletic. In that case, were talking about a rock solid everyday player in the Mark Canha mold, and in fact Vargas career has tracked in a similar fashion, especially as we stand on the precipice of a likely position change. He has the speed to play out there, but Frelick is not a crisp center fielder, and later in the 2022 season he saw lots of time in left (though some of it was due to the sudden presence of Esteury Ruiz), where he also looked tentative. Position-wise, there are 20 infielders, 18 outfielders, five catchers, six pitchers and one two-way player. He has also seen a lot of time at first base and, more recently, a little bit in the outfield corners. To that point, hed shown an advanced approach on the backfields that belied his age, and he carried his performance into the Cal League, slashing .254/.355/.508 with a mid-teens walk rate in A-ball. Though he lacked present power and typical frame-based power projection, there was enthusiasm surrounding Frelicks catalytic offensive qualities. Juan Olmos, C, Colombia Royals ($797,500) More 26. There are 15 prospects from Venezuela, four from Cuba, two from Colombia, two from Panama and one each from the Bahamas and Mexico. : Cubs ($2,800,000) More 7. The area in which its most important for him to show late growth is on defense. Because just a few months of physical development can be quite meaningful for such young athletes, prospects have a tendency to change a lot between when they make a handshake deal with a team and when they actually sign. A newer offering for him (at least based on the previous notes and data FanGraphs has), it spins at 2,900 rpm, 300 rpm more than his trademark slider. 5. Both of Painters breaking balls have huge movement. Vargas is a bankable, big league-ready hitter with moderate upside, while Cappe is a risky low-level prospect with huge upside. International players under 25 can sign minor league contracts only. Its still quite the arsenal, its just that the breaking balls arent all 60s and 70s anymore, or at least they werent at the end of 2022. : Tigers+ ($1,100,000) More 49. The Chicago Cubs are the favorites to sign Dominican SS Fernando Cruz, the top prospect in the 2024 international FA period. Over the last year, Prez has added about 30 pounds, experienced a two-tick fastball velocity bump, and incorporated a second, harder breaking ball that has become his primary non-fastball weapon. Hes also shown some ability to make mechanical adjustments, trading a high leg kick for a lower, longer stride that makes it even more evident just how powerful and balanced his lower half is than his previous swing did. Already armed with plus-plus velocity after coming out of a Division-II school in Michigan, Brown has added a plus-plus curve and slider since turning pro. There are guidelines for signing prospects. Just three days after signing, Jones suffered a left posterior labral tear while hitting, another glitch in the Matrix that seems to be causing every high-profile Diamondbacks prospect to suffer a severe shoulder injury. At the peak of my pursuit, I would use every pick I had in an FYPD on international prospects. Just shy of age 21 in 2022, he was a draft-eligible sophomore and somehow improved on an incredible freshman season (.318/.379/.550) by nearly tripling his home run total, walking as often as he Kd and slashing .361/.453/.709 as a soph. Its the second year in a row the period started in January. He projects as a contact-oriented everyday shortstop, though one scouting director we spoke with for this list still wants to see what hed look like on the mound. As I mentioned in my KBO update from Tuesday, when talent acquisition rules change, they tend to do so in ways that are unfavorable to players and increasingly financially favorable to teams. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising. He was seen a ton as a junior because he played at IMG, which was home to a lot of 2021 draft prospects and served as competition for others. During his 2022 spring break, Holliday came to Arizona to work out and take BP with his high school team at some of the big league teams complexes, and he (and his younger brother, Ethan) put balls out of backfields into the teeth of the wind with ease. Instead, just a few days before Top 100 list publication, it was revealed that he still has a tear in his shoulder and will miss the first few months of the year. The Angels, Phillies and Red Sox each forfeited $500,000 from their pools for signing players who had rejected qualifying offers -- Noah Syndergaard, Nick Castellanos and Trevor Story, respectively -- last offseason, so each has a pool of $4,644,000 . He wasnt tested on the complex in 2022. Johanfran Garcia, C, Venezuela Red Sox ($850,000) More 35. It cost him all of 2022. It is alright to target one of the premium talents early if you believe in him. Cartayas exchange is absurdly fast for a player his size, and he actively hunts baserunners when they reach, a threat to throw to the bases at any time. The offensive package, even with a bat-to-ball blemish (for now), is still befitting of a star-level talent at shortstop or third base, wherever Henderson ends up playing. 4 cards per pack. He commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. It makes sense that there has been some second base experimentation here over the last few years, as Ramos range and actions make it plausible that he could eventually fit there, and Colson Montgomerys third base projection might force the issue. Kevin Ereu, SS, Ven. His four-seamer sits comfortably around 96 mph with gravity-defying carry, and a scout Tess spoke with described his curveball as having the potential to become a similarly elite offering. This cemented confidence in his feel to hit and also generated pre-draft conversations about whether there was a path for Jung to get to more power in games by pulling the ball more often, and whether that would hurt his ability to make contact. So Lawlar isnt quite as good as his cartoonish stats his present hit/power combination is actually closer to average but he does everything well and is a potential plus defender at short because of his acrobatics. Their ability as a group to rapidly move their way through the Minor Leagues was unprecedented. 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. McGarry still has below-average control and only throws his pitches for strikes at a 60% clip, but hes come a long way since his days at Virginia, when he was walking a batter per inning and was passed over in the 2020 draft. Prez shows bend and balance in his lower half as he propels himself way down the mound and releases on the doorstep of the batters box, making hitters extremely uncomfortable. Below you will find my personal top 50 International prospects. Now hes a strapping 6-foot-4 and has grown into considerable power, all while maintaining some amount of future physical projection (i.e. The latter is more important at this stage of his career. Neto finds a way to make lots of contact despite his cacophonous swing, which is enough to project him as an everyday second baseman. The Dodgers surpassed the luxury tax threshold the previous season and had to forfeit $1,000,000 for Freddie Freeman. Fernando Tats Jr. suspension: Padres star back in lineup in spring Even though Wood is quite big, he has feel for tucking his hands in and getting the barrel to softer pitches on the inner half of the plate, often staying inside them and driving them to the opposite gap. He still needs to find a position, though. Luis Guanipa, OF, Ven. An overview of the rules that govern signing international amateurs can be found on MLBs glossary here, while more thorough and detailed documentation can be found starting on page 287 of the CBA (forgive the 2017-21 version the full text of the latest agreement isnt publicly available yet), and page 38 of the Official Professional Baseball Rules Book. The Houston Astros officially signed Panamanian right-handed pitcher Antony Aparicio to a minor-league contract Thursday. Perazas true carrying tool is his shortstop defense. Touching 99 mph, Painter earns widespread praise. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. Updated: July 16, 2022. 2022 Top 100 Top 30 by Team Top 10 by Position Draft International Stats Podcasts Show Full List Prospect Headlines Winn has bragging rights over Walker with 435-foot HR March 3, 2023 Armed with 99 mph sinker, Uribe making electric comeback March 3, 2023 Who will back up Cooper at first base in 2023? 1st Round. : Brewers ($1,500,000) More 23. In his first full season, Mayer slashed .280/.399/.489, hit 30 doubles and 13 homers, and was 17-for-17 on stolen base attempts as he continued the track record of premium offensive performance that hes displayed since he was a high school underclassman. Added to the 40-man roster in November, De La Cruz is on pace for regular big league playing time in 2024. The Zion Williamson of baseball, Domnguez is a bulked-up, switch-hitting toolshed. Baty was an older draft prospect of considerable size, and there was worry hed have to move to first base in pro ball. Another candidate to Chourio, Ramirez is among the highest-variance prospects in the minors. The FV grade is more important than the ordinal ranking. In a typical year, wed have a couple more than that, and sometimes as many as five or six, but this year there are only two. A fantastic defensive shortstop, Tovars poor plate discipline somewhat undermines his excellent bat-to-ball skill. No more. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. His throws are accurate and effortless, and he's always in a position to make the throws. Just be honest with yourself about the risk involved. It can be tough to turn over a changeup from his arm slot, but that slot is also part of how Bibee creates depth on his curveball, which has become a show-me pitch that he lands in the zone at will. His 39.8% strikeout rate was the highest in the minors among qualified pitchers last year, and he fanned 186 batters in just 113 innings. Plus, lvarez isnt nearly as chase-prone as Alfaro and has much more power than Bart, so he should outperform both. Unless otherwise noted, clubs have not confirmed the deals. 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. He can be beaten with high velocity more regularly than anything else, but if pitchers miss and catch too much of the meat of the zone, that mistake is going to get hit hard somewhere. There Painter showed more refinement, incorporating a handful of changeups into his outings and displaying an ability to vary breaking ball shape in different situations. There are still visual and underlying statistical indications that Naylor is going to end up with a below-average hit tool (his swing is so uphill that hell almost certainly be vulnerable to whiffs in the strike zone), but he has very impressive bat speed and power (especially for a catcher) that is weaponized by his selective approach, which targets the up-and-in quadrant of the zone. -- $900,000Anyelo Marquez, SS, D.R. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. Enmanuel Bonilla, OF, D.R. The closest contemporary statistical predecessors and tool-based comps to make for De La Cruz are Willy Adames (a 29% K% hitter who has performed like a 60 because he gets to his power and plays great defense) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (27.6% K%). Hes likely to develop feel for that pitch over time and have a more complete arsenal at peak. But its shape, while deep, is a less-than-ideal pairing with his fastball. . Top international prospects rankings 2021 - MLB.com Before he got hurt, there were folks in baseball who considered him a top 30 prospect, so his ceiling is big enough to include him on the top 100 now even though hes coming off injury. The components of Hernandezs swing push and pull against one another, as his cut is pretty long but he also has very advanced barrel control. It has been his best in-zone bat misser thanks largely to the breadth of his arsenal. When an opposing pitcher releases the ball, the scoop in Johnsons bat head is pointing at the mound with his back elbow hiked way up above his shoulder in a position that seems to defy the rules of normal human physiology. His fastball now sits 95-99 mph, up seven ticks from his college days, and while it currently relies heavily on its velocity rather than its below-average shape, a scout we spoke with was optimistic regarding the 22-year-olds ability to continue to improve the offering, singing Graceffos praises when it comes to his work ethic. With the Dragons in 2022, Rece earned the Reds Minor League Player of the Month Award for May. -- $400,000Carlos Batista, OF, D.R. Bradleys fastball utility, command, and athleticism enable deep projection on his secondary pitches into his 20s. Long, lanky and loaded with tools and projection, Alcantara is a loose, 6-foot-6 outfielder with massive potential. A backfield wunderkind who stood out immediately because of his rare combination of size and athleticism, Alcantara has been a top 100 prospect at FanGraphs for a couple of years now. Davis was on the IL multiple times in 2022 with issues stemming from a small nondisplaced fracture of his left wrist that he suffered when he was hit by a pitch in May. It's not very often that a prospect comes along that projects to have plus to double-plus grades on his hit tool, power, and speed. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 7:42 AM ET, Park Factors Barger can really cut it loose and is a threat to do damage on every swing. Bat speed prodigy Luciano has encountered a few developmental speed bumps since roasting the Cal League in 2021. Here's a look at other prospects who signed for $300,000 or more: AngelsByron Castillo, OF, D.R. While he was already throwing quite hard, Ortiz came into even more velocity in 2022 and averaged 97 mph on his fastball, up two ticks from 2021. As always, the FV grade is a more important measure for readers to focus on than the ordinal rankings here. By his senior year of high school, Holliday already had. He was sitting 95-99 mph throughout entire outings, and punched out at least eight hitters in each of his final 11 starts, culminating in a 13 K postseason outing against Vanderbilt when his stock reached its pinnacle. There have been prior instances of prospects, including Mike Trout and Buster Posey, who had a terrible Fall League coming off a long year simply because they were tired and then rebounded the following season. His ability to do this consistently is surprising considering that Peraza is a fairly aggressive hitter in general, likely to run OBPs in the .310-.320 range. Theres definitely relief risk here for that reason and because it may take two seasons to put Eder in a position to work an entire load of starters innings at the big league level. Players with a 40+ FV grade or above tend to be prospects who I think would go in the first two rounds of a draft, while the teenage 40 FV prospects are the sort Id ballpark in the $700,000 to $1 million bonus range as draft prospects, basically the slot amounts just after the second round. Joendry Vargas, SS, Dominican RepublicAt 6-foot-3, the long and lean teen will face questions about his ability to stay at shortstop, but he already shows a quick first step, good hands and plus instincts for position. He finished that season with a 10-game A-ball stint, where he struck out in 16 of his 42 plate appearances. Even when he has to shorten up to protect, the strength in his hands enables him to do extra-base damage. You can do some thought exercises around where hed go were Noelvi a 21-year-old draft prospect, or play would you rather with the names of other prospects to try to triangulate where he should fall on the FV scale, and all of that went into placing him here. Casas went to the Dominican Winter League to be part of Liceys prospect-studded lineup (Elly De La Cruz, Ronny Mauricio, and a few others were also on that roster at the start of the LIDOM season), but a knee injury ended that jaunt after just three games. Some pre-draft medical question marks precipitated his fall to Minnesota. Now in the bullpen, Halls deep repertoire should make him a premium late-inning reliever. Keith added 30 pounds of bulk between when he was drafted and now, and he weighed in at 245 pounds when he showed up in Arizona for the 2022 Fall League. Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association finalized a deal in March 2020 that addressed the international signing period during the pandemic. Still, Mauricio owns a 40% chase rate and has a career .300 OBP in the minors. He boasted one of the lowest walk rates (5.1%) among minor leaguers who notched at least 130 innings in 2022 and looks poised for a starter role in the near future. After he made just five starts at High-A toward the end of his breakout 2021 campaign, last season the Marlins sent the 6-foot-9, 19-year-old Prez to Double-A Pensacola, where he was an absolute buzzsaw. 2022 MLB Mock Draft - Fueled by Sports You can see the power and athleticism in Davis lower half throughout other aspects of his game, and its an indication that he has the ability to polish this stuff up and control the running game. Olsons plus secondary stuff helps make him a potential starter even though he doesnt throw strikes with his fastball. by Retrosheet. Originally a high-profile Yankees amateur signee, the pandemic and a hamstring injury limited Alcantara to just nine stateside minor league games before he was traded to the Cubs for Anthony Rizzo in 2021. Montgomery did not look good at shortstop during that stretch, falling short of the positions high bar in most facets (range, hands, arm strength). He will reach back and show you a plus arm when he needs to. For now, its amazing how sentient his feel to hit is considering his age and size. MLB.com's free scouting report says Cols can "play all three outfield positions and projects to hit in the middle of the order." While his delivery features a lot of effort, he has held velocity like this across a starters workload every year since he was drafted. 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. Wood was a divisive amateur prospect, with some scouts seeing him as a center fielder with 70 raw power projection and others seeing him as an eventual first baseman with hit tool risk. It has been tough to truly find out even though Jung is now 25 and has set foot in the big leagues. Athletic, strike-throwing lefties with a great changeup tend to pitch in the big leagues forever. : D-backs+ ($1,250,000) More 48. We think there will be enough power for Barger to produce like an average regular in a multi-positional role. Naylors 2022 rebound is a great example of why its prudent to give catchers with any sort of offensive potential more developmental grace than their peers. Each MLB Team's Breakout Prospect Turning Heads in 2022 He rocketed through Arizonas system in 2021, making brief stops at both A-ball levels before closing the season with six starts for Double-A Amarillo, where he then spent most of 2022 dominating to the tune of a 32% K% and 4% BB% before a late promotion to Reno. These are the top international prospects expected to sign when the signing period for the 2021-2022 class commences in January. Carroll has evolved in some surprising ways as a hitter. Poised to make an immediate impact as Arizonas leadoff hitter, Carroll is the tip of the spear the Diamondbacks are pointing at the Dodgers and Padres. : Rockies ($1,700,000) More 25. Its no surprise, then, that his introduction to pro ball came with a reduced workload, which Graceffo combined with a clear commitment to hitting the gym, resulting in an immediate velocity increase across his repertoire. Chronic shoulder issues have derailed the careers of countless pitching prospects, and the new information caused Espino to be repositioned from the 60 FV tier (he was close to 12th overall on early drafts of the list) to here, where both his ceiling and heightened bust risk are factored in. Hes a complete hitter who will likely produce some 25-30 home run seasons by virtue of his contact quality and frequency, and some .400-plus OBP seasons because of his plate discipline and speed. Despite the number of international prospects to emerge as elite MLB players in recent years, its still a risky proposition in general. Ortiz rocketed through the system in 2022, skipping High-A and spending most of the season with Double-A Altoona before making his big league debut across four starts in September and October. Among other things,they were docked 50 percent of their bonus pool the last few years as part of the penalties for their 2017 signing scandal. Scouts like Priester, pitch data does not. At the plate, the athletic Salas has a good feel for the strike zone and shows the ability to hit the ball to all fields. His lefty swing is more powerful while his righty cut is more contact-oriented. De La Cruz has the most exciting combination of tools and defensive fit in the minors, a switch-hitter with plus-plus power, speed, arm strength, and all-around athleticism, as well as a somewhat more consistent look at shortstop than he had a year ago, even at 6-foot-5. : Mets+ ($1,400,000) More 44. Hes a compact-framed, contact-oriented middle infielder from a smaller conference, but Neto gets the most out of his body by taking very athletic, high-octane swings. He turned out to have a stress fracture in his lower back, which the Giants revealed as players reported to camp at the start of 2023. Teams will sometimes renege on their agreements if they think the player has regressed, or if one of their other commitments has progressed enough that the team feels compelled to up their offer to prevent another club from swooping in with more money late in process, closer to signing day.