Last week, MLB.com released their final Top 100 prospect rankings of 2024 in their first update since the beginning of August. Here’s a look at the biggest risers and fallers from their initial rankings in March to now.
Kristian Campbell, INF/OF, Boston Red Sox
No minor league player exceeded expectations more than Campbell, who went from a relatively unknown third-round pick to MLB.com’s Minor League Hitter of the Year in just six months. The 22-year-old hit .330/.439/.558 with 20 home runs and 24 stolen bases across three levels, including a ridiculous .362/.463/.582 in 56 games at Double-A Portland. Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Kyle Teel garnered most of the Red Sox prospect attention entering the season, but Campbell’s breakout has ensured it is now a Big Four.
Bubba Chandler, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates
As if the Pirates needed any more starting pitching help, Chandler firmly cemented himself as one of the game’s best pitching prospects. The 2022 third-round pick had an underwhelming first full season in the Pirates system but still entered the season inside MLB.com’s top 100 prospect ranking thanks to solid strikeout numbers and an electric fastball. After a rocky start in Altoona, Chandler overpowered Double-A hitters en route to a promotion to Triple-A Indianapolis. The right-hander elevated his game even further, posting a 1.83 ERA with a terrific 54/15 strikeout-to-walk ratio across seven starts. An uncertainty entering the season, Chandler now looks poised to join Jared Jones and Paul Skenes at the top of the Pirates rotation for years to come, perhaps as soon as next year.
Sebastian Walcott, SS, Texas Rangers
While top prospects Wyatt Langford and Evan Carer largely disappointed at the big-level level, the Rangers got a huge success story at the minor league level in the form of Sebastian Walcott. The 18-year-old shortstop from the Bahamas burst onto the scene in his full season of stateside ball, going from unranked entering the season to inside the top 25 and the unquestioned top prospect in the system. His .261/342/.443 slash line at High-A Hickory doesn’t jump off the page, but it looks far more impressive, considering he was over four years younger than the average High-A player. He also excelled during a cup-of-coffee in Double-A, posting a .348/.375/.609 in a five-game sample. Walcott will likely return to Frisco to begin next season, where he will be one of the youngest and most-watched players at the level.
Leodalies De Vries, SS, San Diego Padres
Like Walcott, De Vries excelled in his first full season of stateside ball despite being one of the youngest players at his level. The 17-year-old became the latest Padres prospect to be aggressively pushed, and after a slow start, he rewarded their faith in him. From June 30 to the end of the season, De Vries slashed .288/.407/.582, helping him become the youngest member of the MLB top 30 prospects. The Padres have drained much of their depth to supplement the big-league team, but De Vries and catcher Ethan Salas represent two of the best teenage prospects in the game.
Brandon Sproat, RHP, New York Mets
There was not much fanfare when the Mets selected Sproat in the seventh round of the 2023 MLB draft. The Florida Gator fell in the draft after a pedestrian senior season and didn’t pitch upon entering the Mets system. Yet upon debuting in High-A, Sproat dominated at a level that exceeded even his college production. He posted a 1.07 ERA over six appearances, then continued to dominate upon promotion to Double-A Binghamton. Though he struggled at the end of the season in seven starts with the Syracuse Mets, Sproat finished the season with a 3.40 ERA and 131 strikeouts in 116 1/3 innings. Look for him to get an MLB look sometime during the 2025 season.
Colson Montgomery, SS, Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox’s struggles weren’t just at the major league level. The 22-year-old Montgomery fell 29 spots in the prospect rankings after a disappointing campaign at Triple-A Charlotte in which he posted a .214/.329/.381 line and never got the call to the big-league club. The main culprit of his struggles was a 28.6% strikeout rate that far exceeded his mark at any other spot in his minor league career. On the bright side, Montgomery blasted a career-high 18 home runs and avoided the IL for the first time in his career en route to playing 130 games. Time and opportunity are still on his side, but Montgomery will need to make more consistent content to re-enter the upper echelon of prospects.
Adael Amador, SS, Colorado Rockies
In the follow-up to the breakout 2023 season that put him on the prospect map, Amador never found his stride during a season that dropped him out of MLB’s top 100 prospect ranking. The Dominican shortstop was undoubtedly thrown off by a 10-game call-up to the Rockies in the middle of June despite never reaching Triple-A. Still, his performance in Double-A Hartford disappointed all season. He hit just .230/.343/.376 over 100 games, a huge step down from the .287/.380/.495 mark he posted in 2023. If there is a bright side, Amador still flashed solid power (14 home runs) and speed (35 steals), and his 88/62 strikeout-to-walk ratio is more than acceptable. The makings of a good MLB player are still there, but there is no denying that his prospect stock has dropped quite a bit.
Ricky Tiedemann, SP, Toronto Blue Jays
Tiedemann’s 2024 campaign mirrored the performance of the Toronto Blue Jays itself, as a season that started with high expectations quickly turned into an unmitigated disaster. The promising lefty struggled through injuries through the first half of the season before eventually succumbing to Tommy John surgery in mid-July. When he did take the mound, Tiedemann hardly resembled the overpowering fireballer he was in past years, walking more batters than he struck out during a four-start struggle in Triple-A Dunedin. Tiedemann will likely not return to game action until 2026 when he will look to reestablish himself among the game’s best pitching prospects.
Jacob Misiorowski, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers had several pitching success stories to help them capture the NL Central crown, but Misiorowski was not one of them. The surface-level numbers overshadow a more troubling story, as the six-foot-seven-inch right-hander struggled with his control and raised questions about whether he could stick as a starter long-term. Those questions turned to reality upon a promotion to Triple-A Nashville, where he pitched in relief in two out of 14 appearances. Misiorowski still generates enough swings-and-misses (127 strikeouts in 97 ⅓ innings) to be an effective big-league pitcher, but that will likely be as a late-inning reliever rather than a rotation stalwart.
Robby Snelling, LHP, Miami Marlins
Snelling’s prospect status exploded after posting a 1.82 ERA across three levels in 2023, but the 20-year-old left-hander could not repeat the feat in 2024. An increased walk rate, a decreased strikeout rate, and a bit of bad luck combined to push Snelling’s ERA above six in 16 Double-A starts. A pitcher who once looked like he would one day anchor the Padres rotation was instead shipped to Miami at the trade deadline in the Tanner Scott deal, where he would perform much better (4.00 ERA, 2.8 BB/9, 10.3 K/9). He even turned in an excellent start at Triple-A Jacksonville, striking out seven over six one-run innings to close the season. Still just 21 years old, Snelling will likely begin the season back in Jacksonville, looking to build on his second-half momentum.
Photo Credit: Sea Dogs’ Kristian Campbell dives to first after a pickoff attempt by the Richmond Flying Squirrels Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
