Picks to Click: Who We Expect to Make the 2027 Top 100

It’s common for readers to ask which of the players who aren’t on this year’s Top 100 might grace next year’s edition. Who has a chance to really break out? This is the piece for those readers, our “Picks to Click,” the gut-feel guys we think can make the 2027 Top 100.

This is the ninth year Eric has conducted this exercise at FanGraphs, and there are some rules. First, none of the players you see below will have ever been graded as a 50 FV or better in any of our write-ups or rankings. Second, we can’t pick players who we’ve picked in prior years, though we can take players who other writers have previously selected. For instance, Eric picked Demetrio Crisantes last year, but he got hurt and didn’t make this year’s Top 100. He can’t select him again (though he would if he could), but James or Brendan could if they wanted to (though they didn’t). Cam Caminiti, on the other hand…

A few years ago, we decided to make this somewhat competitive to see which prospect writer ends up being right about the most players. Below is a brief rundown of how everyone has done since this piece became a part of Prospect Week; you can click the year in the “Year” column to access that year’s list. Our initials began appearing next to our picks in 2021. In the event that multiple writers picked the same prospect, we have that number in parentheses between the individual amounts, kind of like a Venn Diagram. We don’t count “click echoes” toward our totals, guys who enter the 50-FV tier multiple years after they were Picks to Click. However, we do count “click meteors,” players who pass through the Top 100 during the season but then graduate, like Michael Harris II did a couple of years ago:

Eric rebounded from a down 2024 and had a hit rate right in line with the year-over-year average at 30%, and you could argue it was higher than that because several of his picks who didn’t make our Top 100 could reasonably be included on one (Justin Crawford, Cam Caminiti, Aroon Escobar, Theo Gillen, maybe a couple of others).

We’ve separated the players into groups or “types” to make the list a little more digestible, and to give you some idea of the demographics we think pop-up guys come from. If a player’s team prospect list has already been published, or if the player was written up in full in a recent standalone piece, we link to it next to their name. For players whose org list hasn’t been written yet, we provide a brief scouting snippet below.

This Is What They Look Like
Hayden Alvarez, CF, Los Angeles Angels (BG) – Full Report
Harold Rivas, CF, Boston Red Sox (EL)
JoJo Parker, SS, Toronto Blue Jays (EL/BG) – Full Report
Billy Carlson, SS, Chicago White Sox (BG/JF) – Full Report
Steele Hall, SS, Cincinnati Reds (BG) – Full Report
Xavier Neyens, 3B, Houston Astros (EL)
Gavin Fien, SS, Washington Nationals (BG) – Full Report
Josh Hammond, SS, Kansas City Royals (JF)
Kevin Alvarez, OF, Houston Astros (BG)
Angeibel Gomez, CF, Kansas City Royals (EL)
Cris Rodriguez, OF, Detroit Tigers (JF)
Robert Arias, CF, Cleveland Guardians (BG) – Full Report
Mike Sirota, CF, Los Angeles Dodgers (BG) – Full Report

This is always the biggest and most fruitful group for this exercise. So many great big leaguers have outlier physical traits, and this is the cluster those guys tend to come from. These young hitters (mostly) tend to have one or two plus tools already, and also the size and athleticism to allow us to project that they’ll improve. Rivas, who hasn’t yet turned 18, is the best current defender of the outfielders in this group, and his potential excellence in center field seasons his profile. His swing is mechanically similar to Jackson Chourio’s. The 6-foot-4 Neyens signed for just over $4 million in last year’s first round, has plus power already at age 19, and might grow into more. He comes with some hit tool risk and the possibility that he’s eventually a third baseman or right fielder. Hammond was a two-way prospect who Eric liked better as a pitcher in the 2025 draft, so accordingly his hit tool could take quite a bit of time. But as a position player, he’s a superlative low-to-the-ground athlete at short, with plus power potential. Alvarez is a long-levered Cuban outfielder who laid waste to the DSL in 2025. He has huge power potential. Gomez was ranked third among the international prospects who signed in January, but was consistently pointed to by sources as the player from the class who had most dramatically improved during the commitment window. He signed for nearly $3 million and has a shot to be a do-everything center fielder. Rodriguez has almost certainly posted the last .300 batting average season of his life, but he popped 10 dingers in 50 DSL games last year while putting up 108 mph 90th-percentile exit velocities as a 17-year-old. The bones of his hit tool aren’t great, but if he can just put a dent in that whole 40% chase rate he’s got going on, it’ll be good enough to access his unholy levels of raw juice.

This Is What They Look Like: Arms Edition
Luke Sinnard, RHP, Atlanta Braves (EL)
Trey Gregory-Alford, RHP, Los Angeles Angels (EL/BG) – Full Report
Esteban Mejia, RHP, Baltimore Orioles (EL)
Kash Mayfield, LHP, San Diego Padres (BG)
Bishop Letson, RHP Milwaukee Brewers (EL/JF) – Full Report
Christian Zazueta, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers (EL/JF) – Full Report
Johnny King, LHP, Toronto Blue Jays (EL/BG) – Full Report
Dasan Hill, LHP, Minnesota Twins (EL)

Sinnard is 6-foot-8 and he has barely played baseball (he only started during his senior year of high school and had just one healthy year at Indiana), but he’s thrown strikes when healthy even though he’s adding pitches. He could be a four-pitch mid-rotation guy if he continues on his current trajectory. Mejia, a 6-foot-3 18-year-old, has elite arm talent. The way his body unwinds to create elite velocity (he’ll touch 102) is incredible, but still currently out of control. If things “click” for him, he’ll be a 55 FV by the end of the year. Mayfield was a pop-up pick in the 2024 draft, when San Diego pounced on him in the first round. He’s a large, low-slot lefty with an average fastball and plus-plus change. He had an uneven and injury-plagued 2025, but was starting to work deeper into games by August; more length and breaking ball development will be key. A skinny 6-foot-5, Hill had a huge velo spike between his junior and senior years of high school and has been living in the 94-97 mph range ever since. His fastball plays down a bit due to shape and plane, but both of Hill’s secondaries generated plus miss and chase last year. He needs to throw more strikes.

Surgeons
Gary Gill Hill, SP, Tampa Bay Rays (EL/JF)
Zach Thornton, LHP, New York Mets (EL)
Bryce Mayer, RHP, Houston Astros (JF)
Braylon Doughty, Cleveland Guardians, RHP (EL/BG) – Full Report
Wei-En Lin, LHP, Athletics (EL)
Owen Murphy, RHP, Atlanta Braves (BG)

Eric and James were probably even more Gary Gill Hill-pilled this time last year than they are now, as GGH allowing a contact rate over 80% in High-A wasn’t quite the leap they hoped for. But he’s an athletic 21-year-old with a repeatable delivery who just ran a 5.3% walk rate in over 130 innings of work in 2025. Thornton, a strike-thrower with light stuff when he was drafted out of Grand Canyon, had a sub-1.00 WHIP in 52 Double-A innings last year. He sat 91 last year (more than in college), and if that takes another step this year, we might see Thornton in the big leagues quickly. Mayer’s velo is only average, he’s 24 and has only just reached Double-A, he has yet to cover 100 innings in a season, and he needs a better changeup. But the dude can pitch. After undergoing TJ in college and having a disjointed draft year at Mizzou, he showed above-average command in 2025, and his fastball played like a weapon thanks to good ride and a flat approach angle. Lin didn’t make the Top 100 because his secondary stuff is soft. But his fastball plays, and his body and delivery are a lot like Jose Quintana’s. If he can add some power to those breaking balls, he’ll be a stable no. 4 starter prospect a year from now. Murphy, another Braves arm on our Top 100 long list, has overwhelmed low-minors hitters since he was drafted in 2022. Tommy John surgery cost him most of the last two years, though he looked sharp late last summer. He could have plus command of a mix of average and above-average stuff.

Switch-Hitters
Jansel Luis, 3B, Arizona Diamondbacks (BG) – Full Report
Yairo Padilla, SS, St. Louis Cardinals (EL) – Full Report
Dorian Soto, SS, Boston Red Sox (EL/BG/JF)
Devin Fitz-Gerald, INF, Washington Nationals (JF) – Full Report

Soto is an exceptionally twitchy shortstop with feel to hit, and as you can perhaps infer from how all three of us nominated him, he’s one of the DSL graduates we’re most excited to see come stateside in 2026.

2025 Draftees
Tanner Franklin, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals (JF) – Full Report
Jamie Arnold, LHP, Athletics (EL/BG)
Marcus Phillips, RHP, Boston Red Sox (EL)
Anthony Eyanson, RHP, Boston Red Sox (EL)
Marek Houston, SS, Minnesota Twins (EL)

Arnold entered the 2025 college season as a potential 1:1 pick. Inconsistent fastball feel (sub-50% zone rate, sub-60% strikes) scared us away from hondo’ing him this list cycle; a command bounce back would fully allow his monster slider to play and could propel him through the minors quickly. Phillips has late-bloomer traits (he was a South Dakota high schooler and two-way JUCO guy before he went to Tennessee) and looks like an outside linebacker coming at you down the mound at 6-foot-4, 250 pounds. He has power stuff and is now in an org that’s great at teasing the best out of its pitchers. Eyanson, who is coming out of LSU, has more of a reliever’s mechanical look, but his stuff is funkier and might be a little nastier. Houston is a contact-oriented shortstop who, at 6-foot-3, might still have power on the way even though he was a college draftee out of Wake Forest.

Monster Breaking Ball
Landon Harmon, RHP, Washington Nationals (EL)
Ben Hess, New York Yankees (EL/BG)
Keyner Martinez, RHP, San Francisco Giants (BG)
Cam Caminiti, LHP, Atlanta Braves (BG)
Ryan Forcucci, RHP, Houston Astros (JF)
Joey Oakie, RHP, Cleveland Guardians (JF) – Full Report
Anthony Nunez, RHP, Baltimore Orioles (EL)

Harmon, a Mississippi high schooler who signed for $2.5 million in 2025, has a power pitcher’s vertical fastball/breaking ball attack at a sturdy 6-foot-5. Let’s see what kind of offspeed pitch he can find. Hess is a large lad at 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds. He’s more athletic than he looks, and has a path to three above-average pitches. We’d like to see him command the ball to both sides of the plate, as he’s mostly glove-side presently. Martinez was a pop-up arm on the Arizona complex last year. A good athlete, he touches 97 and flashes a plus slider. Caminiti, the cousin of late big-leaguer Ken Caminiti, was still 17 when Atlanta selected him in the first round of the 2024 draft. The Braves have taken it slowly with the young lefty, who worked about four innings per outing last year. He has a solid fastball/slider foundation, and if he’s able to refine his change and build stamina in 2026, he’ll be in good shape for jumping onto our list. Forcucci hasn’t pitched in a professional game since blowing out five awesome starts into his draft year at San Diego in 2024, but he has a workhorse starter’s frame and was growing into a traditional power supinator’s arsenal. Nunez was drafted as a high school shortstop in 2019, released in 2021, then used an NCAA rule exemption (which states that high school signees can return to a school with baseball so long as it’s not Division-I) to attend Division-II University of Tampa, where he began his journey to the mound. He doesn’t throw all that hard, but he commands an incredible slider and has a good cutter that keeps hitters off of his fastball. If he ever has a velo spike, look out.

Catchers
Nathan Flewelling, C, Tampa Bay Rays (EL)
Leonardo Bernal, C, St. Louis Cardinals (BG) – Full Report
Ramon Ramirez, C, Kansas City Royals (BG)

Flewelling was one of the younger high schoolers in the 2024 draft class, a power-hitting lefty bat whose swing has big hip and shoulder separation and explosion. He entered pro ball needing a ton of work on defense and hopefully at the end of his second full year, he’ll have made real progress. The Royals might replace one catcher on the 100 with another next year, as Ramirez’s well-rounded game and power potential had him on the long list for this year. We want to see him maintain the offensive prowess he showed in 2025 at a higher level, and ideally continue to progress with his throwing accuracy.

6-Foot or Less
Charles Davalan, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers (EL) – Full Report
Roc Riggio, 2B, Colorado Rockies (EL)
Victor Arias, CF, Toronto Blue Jays (BG) – Full Report
Kendry Chourio, RHP, Kansas City Royals (BG) – Full Report
Joseph Sullivan, OF, Houston Astros (JF)
Elian Peña, 3B, New York Mets (EL)
James Tibbs III, RF, Los Angeles Dodgers (JF) – Full Report

Riggio is a short-levered, lefty-hitting second baseman with above-average power and plate discipline. Though he’s a good defender, he’s not the sort of athlete who can be a utilityman; he needs to hit enough to be an everyday second baseman. Sullivan was a small-school star at Southern Alabama with too many quirks for Top 100 inclusion this year (passive approach, ‘tweener outfielder build). But if a source was correct when they recently accused FanGraphs’ prospect team of being “drunk on tools,” he would be an example of living our truth. He’s a freak athlete with a lot of football in his family history, as both his father and grandfather played quarterback in the SEC, and he’s already accessing above-average power. Peña received the top bonus in the 2025 international class at $5 million and had a great debut season, with a .949 OPS. He is already very physical and might end up in the 3B/1B realm fairly early in his 20s, but he has serious thunder in his hands and natural feel for airborne contact.

Two-Year Dart Throws
Last year, Eric introduced “Two-Year Dart Throws,” a section where we attempt to identify players we like quite a bit, but who are too green to expect to break out within the year. Eric’s inaugural list is below, followed by this year’s crop. We’re still getting a feel for how to best identify candidates for these little 10-player lists (beyond them being guys who are simply rawer versions of the players we already like), what constitutes good performance, or how we can score/compete with each other. Here’s we’ll note that a guy might be a Pick to Click for one of us and a Dart Throw for someone else.

2025 Two-Year Darts (All Eric)
Eriandys Ramon, 3B, Chicago Cubs
Josh Knoth, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers
Anderson Brito, SP, Tampa Bay Rays
Tyson Lewis, SS, Cincinatti Reds
David Matoma, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates
Hyun-Seok Jang, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers
Yohanfer Santana, RHP Miami Marlins
Sheng-En Lin, RHP, Cincinnati Reds
Asbel Gonzalez, OF, Kansas City Royals
Humberto Cruz, RHP, San Diego Padres

2026 Two-Year Darts Throws
Riley Quick, RHP, Minnesota Twins (EL)
Adrian Pena, RHP, Miami Marlins (EL)
Marlon Nieves, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers (EL)
Sadbiel Delzine, RHP, Boston Red Sox (EL)
Kevin Alvarez, OF, Houston Astros (EL)
Juan Sanchez, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays (EL/BG)
Nick Becker, SS, Seattle Mariners (EL)
Angel De Los Santos, SS, Detroit Tigers (BG)
Gabriel Rodriguez, SS, Cleveland Guardians (EL)
Haritzon Castillo, INF, Minnesota Twins (EL)

Source Picks
Finally, another recent addition to this piece has been to ask our scout sources who they think will “click” this year. Their answers are jumbled below with an indication given if multiple sources named the player.

Christian Zazueta, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers x3
JD Dix, INF, Arizona Diamondbacks x3
Devin Fitz-Gerald, INF, Washington Nationals x3
Zach Thornton, LHP, New York Mets x2
Harold Rivas, OF, Boston Red Sox x2
Yairo Padilla, SS, St. Louis Cardinals x2
Dasan Hill, LHP, Minnesota Twins x2
Braylon Doughty, RHP Cleveland Guardians x2
Charles Davalan, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers x2
Luis Lara, CF, Milwaukee Brewers x2
Diego Tornes, OF, Atlanta Braves x2
A.J. Ewing, CF, New York Mets x2
Luis De La Torre, LHP, San Francisco Giants x2
Aroon Escobar, INF, Philadelphia Phillies
Hayden Alvarez, CF, Los Angeles Angels
Kennew Blanco, INF, Toronto Blue Jays
Sammy Stafura, SS, Pittsburgh Pirates
Kash Mayfield, LHP, San Diego Padres
Justin Gonzales, 1B/OF, Boston Red Sox
Malachi Witherspoon, RHP, Detroit Tigers
Gage Wood, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies
Juan Valera, RHP, Boston Red Sox
Nien-Hsi Yang, RHP, San Francisco Giants
Yandel Ricardo, SS, Kansas City Royals
Cam Caminiti, LHP, Atlanta Braves
Parks Harber, 3B, San Francisco Giants
Anthony Eyanson, RHP, Boston Red Sox
Ethan Frey, OF, Houston Astros
Jaitoine Kelly, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Landon Harmon, RHP, Washington Nationals
Juneiker Caceres, OF, Cleveland Guardians
Enddy Azocar, OF, Boston Red Sox
Johan De Los Santos, INF, Pittsburgh Pirates
Jonathon Long, 1B/3B, Chicago Cubs
Nelson Rada, CF, Los Angeles Angels
Francisco Renteria, OF, Philadephia Phillies
Santiago Suarez, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays
Kevin Alvarez, OF, Houston Astros
James Tibbs III, RF, Los Angeles Dodgers
Angeibel Gomez, OF, Kansas City Royals
Mitch Voit, 2B, New York Mets
Freddy Contreras, RHP, Kansas City Royals
Jackson Lovich, SS, New York Yankees
Kane Kepley, OF, Chicago Cubs
Nate Furman, 2B, San Francisco Giants
Slade Caldwell, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks
Dillon Lewis, OF, Miami Marlins
Jacob Bresnahan, LHP, San Francisco Giants
David Shields, LHP, Kansas City Royals
Alberto Laroche, RHP, San Francisco Giants
Griffin Herring, LHP, Colorado Rockies
Luke Adams, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers
JoJo Parker, SS, Toronto Blue Jays
Jaden Fauske, LF, Chicago White Sox
Andrew Fischer, 3B, Milwaukee Brewers
Sean Gamble, 2B, Kansas CIty Royals
Josh Adamczewski, OF, Milwaukee Brewers
Ramon Marquez, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies
Seaver King, SS, Washington Nationals
Jared Thomas, OF, Colorado Rockies
Nathan Flewelling, C, Tampa Bay Rays
Boston Bateman, LHP, Baltimore Orioles
Landon Harmon, RHP, Washington Nationals
Joseph Dzierwa, LHP, Balitmore Orioles
Marco Dinges, C, Milwaukee Brewers
Anderson Brito, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays
Johnny King, LHP, Toronto Blue Jays
Tucker Musgrove, RHP, San Diego Padres
Allen Facundo, LHP, New York Yankees
Silvano Hechavarria, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays
John Gil, SS, Atlanta Braves
Andres Valor, OF, Miami Marlins
Josh Hartle, LHP, Cleveland Guardians
Angeibel Gomez, OF, Kansas City Royals
Nathan Flewelling, C, Tampa Bay Rays
Kelvis Salcedo, RHP Detroit Tigers
Braden Nett, RHP, Athletics
Brady Ebel, SS, Milwaukee Brewers
Chase Shores, Los Angeles Angels
Yoel Tejeda Jr., RHP, Washington Nationals