There is more to Zebby Matthews’ game than an elite strike-throwing ability, though he certainly possesses that. As our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen put it last summer, the 24-year-old Minnesota Twins right-hander “has barely walked anyone the last half decade.” That wasn’t an exaggeration. Matthews issued one free pass every nine innings as a collegian, and his walk rate over 205 1/3 minor league frames is a Lilliputian 2.7%. Called up to the big leagues last August, he proceeded to walk just 11 batters in 37 2/3 frames. That works out to 2.63 batters per nine innings, or nearly two more walks per nine than he had in the minors last year, but don’t get too hung up on the small-sample spike.

Besides, as I mentioned up top, there is more to Matthews than what has garnered him the most attention. Displaying better stuff than many give him credit for — his heater sits comfortably in the mid-90s — the 2022 eighth-round pick out of Western Carolina University logged a 30.5% strikeout rate last year in the minors, and in the majors that number was 27.8%. Still rookie eligible and with a chance to break camp in the Twins’ starting rotation, Matthews is the organization’s top pitching prospect.

Matthews discussed the development of his underrated arsenal prior to a recent spring training game.

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David Laurila: Let’s start with your pitches. What is your full repertoire?

Zebby Matthews: “I have a four-seam fastball that has some decent carry on it, a cutter, a gyro slider, a curveball, and a changeup.”

Laurila: How much carry do you get on your fastball? Read the rest of this entry »

Drake Baldwin is one of baseball’s most-promising prospects. A third-round pick in 2022 out of Missouri State University, the 23-year-old catcher in the Atlanta Braves organization is No. 11 on our Top 100. His left-handed stroke is a big reason why. Flashing plus power, Baldwin bashed 16 home runs last season while logging a 119 wRC+ between Double-A Mississippi and Triple-A Gwinnett.

He could have pursued a career in another sport. All-State in hockey as a Wisconsin prep, the sturdily-built Madison West High School product potted 43 goals as a junior, then found the back of the net 46 times as a senior.

Why did he choose the diamond, and not the ice?

“Hockey recruiting is a little later, so I didn’t actually talk to many colleges,” Baldwin said of his decision. “I think I had a chance, and the [junior hockey] route was interesting too, but being able to go right from high school to college and start working on a degree was a more straightforward path to where I wanted to be. I mean, I love both sports. I wish I could play both of them. Baseball just came first.” Read the rest of this entry »

When our Arizona Diamondbacks Top Prospects list was published in December, Eric Longenhagen described 24-year-old Kyle Amendt as “a late-blooming illusionist righty with a cut/rise fastball and a deceptive delivery.” Our lead prospect analyst went on to say that the physically imposing 6-foot-5, 255-pound hurler had “a 15% swinging strike rate in 2024, among the best in the org, even though his fastball sits just 88-92 mph.” Not fully sold on the total package — command is among the concerns — Eric assigned Amendt a 35+ FV.

His unorthodox style of pitching and minor league numbers nonetheless suggest a future role in a big league bullpen. Along with the aforementioned 15% swinging strike rate, the 2023 ninth-round pick out of Dallas Baptist University logged a 2.86 ERA, a 2.38 FIP, and a 40.3 K% over 44 innings across High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A. And his delivery is indeed unique. Eric called it “over-the-top trebuchet arm action,” adding that Amendt “hides the ball forever.”

Currently a non-roster invitee at D-backs camp, Amendt discussed his delivery and three-pitch arsenal during the Arizona Fall League season.

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David Laurila: I’ve heard that you have an unorthodox delivery. How would you describe it?

Kyle Amendt: “Like a high left-handed slot as a righty. My curveball is a left-handed curveball, and my fastball is anywhere from an 11:45 to a 12-[o’clock] tilt. Everything looks like it’s coming from directly over my head.”

Laurila: What is story behind your delivery? Read the rest of this entry »

Triston Casas is making some changes with his left-handed stroke, and he’s doing so with the Green Monster in mind. The Boston Red Sox slugger has historically used the entire field — his pull-center-oppo numbers last season were 38.5%, 38.5%, and 23.0%, respectively — but he wants to take even better advantage of his home park. Bashing with arms bent will be part of that process… at least for now. Compared to his many of his contemporaries, Casas can be a bit of chameleon when it comes to fine-tuning his swing.

Always engaging when discussing his craft — last summer’s Triston Casas Talks Hitting Training and August 2023’s Triston Casas Embraces the Science of Hitting are good examples — the 25-year-old first baseman discussed his current efforts at Red Sox camp earlier this week.

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David Laurila: You’re making some adjustments at the plate. What are they?

Triston Casas: “It’s more an approach of keeping my swing inside my frame. I want to have the angles of my body — my hips and my shoulders — in alignment, and try to make sure that I’m making contact inside my body. I want to feel like I’m hitting with my arms bent at a certain point.

“As a hitter, you need that triple extension. Your wrists, your front leg, and your back hip are all perfect, at the right time, as you’re making contact. That’s where you get the power.”

Laurila: Can you elaborate on hitting with your arms bent? Read the rest of this entry »

Xavier Isaac’s game is built around damage. No. 98 on our recently-released Top 100, the 21-year-old, left-handed-hitting Tampa Bay Rays prospect has, according to our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen, “some of the most exciting power in pro baseball.” Getting to it consistently will be his biggest challenge going forward. As Longenhagen also wrote in his report, “By the end of the season, [Isaac] had a sub-60% contact rate, which is not viable at the big league level… [but] if “he can get back to being a nearly 70% contact hitter, he’s going to be a monster.”

While Isaac’s 143 wRC+ between High-A Bowling Green and Double-A Montgomery was impressive, his 33.3% strikeout rate was another story. The built-to-bash first baseman knows that cutting down on his Ks will go a long way toward his living up to his lofty potential. At the same time, he’s wary of straying too far from his strengths.

“I’ve tuned up my power, and now I need to get my contact up a little bit more,” Isaac told me during the Arizona Fall League season. “It’s like a tradeoff, kind of. I’m going to strike out, but I’m also going to hit the ball a little harder. I have a lot of power, so some of it is about going up there and taking a risk. I obviously don’t want to strike out — I‘m trying to put it in play — but I also don’t want to be making soft contact.”

That’s seldom a problem when he squares up a baseball. Not only does his bat produce high exit velocities, he knows what it feels like to propel a pitch 450-plus feet. He doesn’t shy way from the power-hitter label. Asked if that’s what he is, his response was, “For sure.”

That Isaac’s bombs often go to the gaps, particularly to right-center, is by design. Read the rest of this entry »

Hunter Bigge’s baseball career was in limbo when he graduated from Harvard University in 2021 with a degree in physics. Drafted in the 12th round by the Chicago Cubs two years earlier, the 26-year-old right-hander had scuffled in High-A and was unsure if he should continue to pursue his boyhood dream or move on to a career outside of baseball. Returning to the Ivy League institution to complete his studies following that difficult season gave him options, but he still loved the game.

Fast forward to 2024, and Bigge was thriving in the big leagues.

Bigge debuted with the Cubs on July 9, then a few weeks later was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays along with Ty Johnson and Christopher Morel in exchange for Isaac Paredes. He excelled in both uniforms. With 15 of his 19 appearances coming after the trade, Bigge worked 17 1/2 total frames, fanning 24 batters while allowing 17 hits and just five free passes. Moreover, he posted a 2.60 ERA, a 2.76 FIP, and a 32.9% strikeout rate. His heater played a huge role in his success. At 97.5 mph, it ranked in the 94th percentile among his contemporaries.

Bigge discussed his path to the big leagues, and his approach on the mound, during the final weekend of the 2024 season.

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David Laurila: Let’s start with one of my favorite icebeaker questions: Do you approach pitching as more of an art, or as more of a science?

Hunter Bigge: “I approach it more as an art. I’m pretty analytical, but I don’t think the analytical part of my brain is the one that allows me to play the best. I try to come at it with a little more flexibility. I let the science inform the high-level decisions, but when I’m out there, I’m thinking of it more like a dance with the hitter.” Read the rest of this entry »

The team that lost 121 games last season has a strong farm system. Revitalized by a major trade, an especially-promising 2024 fifth-overall draft pick, and the emergence of a 6-foot-9 southpaw, the Chicago White Sox boast one of baseball’s best prospect pipelines. Six of the organization’s young hopefuls are ranked among our new Top 100 list: left-handed pitchers Noah Schultz (18th) and Hagen Smith (22nd), catcher Kyle Teel (49th), shortstop Colson Montgomery (58th), catcher Edgar Quero (90th), and right-handed pitcher Grant Taylor (94th).

As White Sox director of player development, Paul Janish plays a key role in the club’s efforts to produce big league talent. Hired into his current position in November 2023, the 42-year-old Janish spent nine seasons as a major league infielder, from 2008-2017.

Janish discussed some of the organization’s philosophies and several of its top prospects earlier this month.

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David Laurila: How has player development changed since your playing days?

Paul Janis: “I think the best way to synopsize that is resources. There are more hands on deck. There is also more technology involved versus the kind of old-school eye test, if you will. At the end of the day, you’re still trying to help make players better, it’s just that player development systems are more robust now than they’ve ever been. When I was playing — even though, relatively speaking, it wasn’t all that long ago — there weren’t as many resources as our guys have.

“Ancillary to the actual player development system, there is what the guys have access to in terms of private facilities during the offseason. That’s a benefit to them, as well.”

Laurila: What are some of the things you’ve learned since moving into your role? Read the rest of this entry »

Derrick Edington is hoping to join select company. MLB history includes fewer than a dozen players born in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the most accomplished being Mike Bordick (Marquette) and George Brunet (Houghton). Also notable are Kevin Tapani, who was born in Iowa but grew up in the U.P. (Escanaba), and John Michaelson, whose family moved to a small town in the Copper Country when he was five years old so that his father could work in the mines. Michaelson, who got a cup of coffee with the Chicago White Sox in 1921, is the only big-leaguer to have been born in Finland.

Edington is from the village of Pickford, which is located roughly 40 miles north of the Mackinac Bridge, which separates the state’s two peninsulas. The 6-foot-8, 230-pound right-hander’s journey from rural Michigan to affiliated baseball spanned several years at baseball’s lower runs, and included a helpful boost from a former All-Star closer.

Signed out of an independent league by the Tampa Bay Rays last May, Edington has gone from throwing “maybe 82 [mph]’ as a high school senior — basketball was his better sport — to sitting 95-96, and occasionally reaching triple digits. Raw but nonetheless promising, he made 20 relief appearances between the Florida Complex League and Arizona Fall League, logging high ERAs but also fanning 39 batters in 32 innings.

I asked the erstwhile Pickford Panther about his atypical path to pro ball. Read the rest of this entry »

Bubba Chandler is on track to join Paul Skenes and Jared Jones in the power department of the Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation. Equipped with an elite upper-90s fastball and a solid array of secondary offerings, the 22-year-old right-hander has emerged as one of baseball’s highest-ceiling pitching prospects. As Eric Longenhagen notes in our forthcoming Top 100, Chandler, who was a two-sport, two-way player as an amateur and began focusing solely on pitching in 2023, is still developing, but “so far, [it’s] going as well as could have been hoped when he was drafted, and he’s tracking like a mid-rotation starter.”

His 2024 season offered ample evidence of his ability to overpower hitters. In 119 2/3 innings between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis, Chandler fanned 148 batters while surrendering just 81 hits. Along with a 30.9% strikeout rate and a .187 batting-average-against, he logged a 3.08 ERA and a 3.10 FIP. Moreover, he displayed improved command. The 2021 third-round draft pick out of Bogart, Georgia’s North Oconee High School lowered his walk rate from 10.5% in 2023 to a stingier 8.6% last season.

Chandler discussed his developmental strides, and the bat-missing arsenal he takes with him to the mound, earlier this month.

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David Laurila: What have you learned about pitching since getting to pro ball?

Bubba Chandler: “The number one thing has been command. You can have great stuff, but I’ve noticed that the more I’ve gone up [minor league levels], the less guys swing at crappy pitches. In Low-A, you can throw a slider way out of the zone, and a lot of times you’re going to get a swing. If you throw a slider way out of the zone in Triple-A, especially if you didn’t set that pitch up, you’re not even going to get a lean over, or a budge, on it.

“Learning how to set pitches up has been a big thing for me. Setting them up, tunneling, and just how pitches move… but really, the command part is really what has helped make me better.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Seattle Mariners currently have one of baseball’s best farm systems, and its strength differs markedly from that of the big league roster. Pitching-rich at the major league level, it’s Mariners position player prospects who populate the top tier of our rankings. That’s welcome news — at least on paper — for a Seattle team that has recently excelled at keeping runs off the board, but has too often struggled to score.

Justin Toole is front and center in the organization’s quest to graduate productive bats into the parent club’s lineup. Brought on as director of player development following the 2022 season, the 38-year-old Council Bluffs, Iowa native has both the background and the acumen to help make that happen. Prior to coming to Seattle, Toole played seven professional seasons, then served four years as a minor league hitting coach, followed by three as a major league hitting analyst. All of his pre-Mariners experience came with Cleveland.

Toole discussed several of the system’s most promising prospects prior to heading to Arizona for the start of spring training.

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David Laurila: What is the current strength of the system?

Justin Toole: “From a player development standpoint, I think the strength is the individuality with how we handle our players. When we get people into our system, we figure out their strengths, we figure out their weaknesses, we help them understand their identity. We work with our players to get a feel for where they think they are, and where they want to go.

“Our group has done an unbelievable job of creating good player plans that are clear, that are are easy to follow. They’re simple. I think that’s kind of been the strength of our player development group. Of course, any good player development group is going to be good because of the scouting group. They bring in good players, players that fit what we want to do, and who we want to be.” Read the rest of this entry »