Top 49 Prospects: Cleveland Baseball Team
Below is an analysis of the prospects in Cleveland’s farm system. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. As there was no minor league season in 2020, there are some instances where no new information was gleaned about a player. Players whose write-ups have not been altered begin by telling you so. For the others, the blurb ends with an indication of where the player played in 2020, which in turn likely informed the changes to their report. As always, I’ve leaned more heavily on sources from outside the org than within for reasons of objectivity. Because outside scouts were not allowed at the alternate sites, I’ve primarily focused on data from there. Lastly, in effort to more clearly indicate relievers’ anticipated roles, you’ll see two reliever designations, both in lists and on The Board: MIRP, or multi-inning relief pitcher, and SIRP, or single-inning relief pitcher.
For more information on the 20-80 scouting scale by which all of our prospect content is governed, you can click here. For further explanation of Future Value’s merits and drawbacks, read Future Value.
All of the numbered prospects here also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It can be found here.
Editor’s note: Josh Wolf and Isaiah Greene were added to this list following their trade to Cleveland as part of the Francisco Lindor deal.
Angel Genao was added to this list after he agreed to a deal with Cleveland on January 15.
Rk | Name | Age | Highest Level | Position | ETA | FV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nolan Jones | 22.7 | AA | LF | 2021 | 50 |
2 | Triston McKenzie | 23.5 | MLB | SP | 2021 | 50 |
3 | George Valera | 20.2 | A | RF | 2022 | 50 |
4 | Brayan Rocchio | 20.0 | A- | SS | 2022 | 50 |
5 | Tyler Freeman | 21.7 | A+ | 2B | 2022 | 50 |
6 | Daniel Espino | 20.0 | A- | SP | 2022 | 50 |
7 | Bo Naylor | 20.9 | A | C | 2023 | 50 |
8 | Aaron Bracho | 19.7 | A- | 2B | 2024 | 45+ |
9 | Gabriel Arias | 20.9 | A+ | SS | 2021 | 45+ |
10 | Lenny Torres | 20.3 | R | SP | 2023 | 45 |
11 | Angel Martinez | 19.0 | R | SS | 2023 | 45 |
12 | Ethan Hankins | 20.6 | A | SP | 2023 | 45 |
13 | Sam Hentges | 24.5 | AA | SIRP | 2021 | 45 |
14 | Owen Miller | 24.2 | AA | SS | 2021 | 45 |
15 | Carlos Vargas | 21.3 | A- | SIRP | 2023 | 45 |
16 | Daniel Johnson Jr. | 25.5 | MLB | RF | 2021 | 45 |
17 | Joey Cantillo | 21.1 | A+ | SP | 2022 | 45 |
18 | Emmanuel Clase | 22.8 | MLB | SIRP | 2020 | 40+ |
19 | Carson Tucker | 19.0 | R | SS | 2025 | 40+ |
20 | Tanner Burns | 22.0 | R | SP | 2024 | 40+ |
21 | Logan Allen | 22.4 | R | SP | 2024 | 40+ |
22 | Petey Halpin | 18.6 | R | CF | 2025 | 40+ |
23 | Junior Sanquintin | 19.0 | R | SS | 2023 | 40+ |
24 | Nick Mikolajchak | 23.2 | A- | SIRP | 2023 | 40+ |
25 | Josh Wolf | 20.4 | R | SIRP | 2024 | 40+ |
26 | Cody Morris | 24.2 | A+ | MIRP | 2022 | 40+ |
27 | Gabriel Rodriguez | 18.9 | R | 3B | 2023 | 40+ |
28 | Isaiah Greene | 19.4 | R | CF | 2025 | 40 |
29 | Hunter Gaddis | 22.8 | A- | MIRP | 2023 | 40 |
30 | Bryan Lavastida | 22.1 | A | C | 2022 | 40 |
31 | Richard Palacios | 23.7 | A | 2B | 2022 | 40 |
32 | Jose Tena | 19.8 | R | SS | 2024 | 40 |
33 | Trevor Stephan | 25.1 | AA | SIRP | 2021 | 40 |
34 | Jose Fermin | 21.8 | A | SS | 2023 | 40 |
35 | Milan Tolentino | 19.2 | R | SS | 2025 | 40 |
36 | Raymond Burgos | 22.1 | A | MIRP | 2021 | 40 |
37 | Bobby Bradley | 24.6 | MLB | DH | 2019 | 40 |
38 | Alexfri Planez | 19.4 | R | RF | 2024 | 40 |
39 | Angel Genao | 16.7 | R | SS | 2021 | 40 |
40 | Yordys Valdes | 19.4 | R | SS | 2024 | 35+ |
41 | Cameron Hill | 26.6 | MLB | SIRP | 2021 | 35+ |
42 | Eli Morgan | 24.7 | AAA | MIRP | 2021 | 35+ |
43 | Robert Broom | 24.3 | AA | SIRP | 2021 | 35+ |
44 | Nick Sandlin | 24.0 | AAA | SIRP | 2020 | 35+ |
45 | Scott Moss | 26.3 | AAA | MIRP | 2020 | 35+ |
46 | Jean Carlos Mejia | 24.4 | A+ | SP | 2020 | 35+ |
47 | Jhonkensy Noel | 19.5 | R | 1B | 2022 | 35+ |
48 | Adam Scott | 25.3 | AA | SIRP | 2022 | 35+ |
49 | Steven Kwan | 23.4 | A+ | CF | 2022 | 35+ |
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Young Hit Tool Sleepers
Luis Durango Jr., OF
Jose Pastrano, SS
Jonathan Lopez, 3B
Dayan Frias, INF
Victor Nova, 3B
Christian Cairo, 2B
Joe Naranjo, 1B
The most common Cleveland prospect trope is the contact-oriented infielder; here are several more. Durango, whose father played in the ’09 Futures Game, has a tweener fourth outfielder vibe but could be a regular if he ends up with a plus bat. He signed for $500,000 last year and needed Tommy John in 2020. Pastrano signed for $1.5 million last year. He’s a switch-hitting infielder with advanced feel for contact and a medium frame but scouts who saw him in the Fall of 2020 didn’t think he had big-league explosion. Lopez was sent to Mahoning Valley at 19 and dealt with some injuries last year. He has a sweet lefty swing and I think he has had some of his playing time crowded out by other talented youngsters in this system. Frias is another short-levered, switch-hitting infielder with feel for contact. He’s been playing in the Colombian Winter League. Nova is a powerfully-built 5-foot-9, has feel to hit, a somewhat advanced idea of the strike zone, and well-regarded makeup. He plays multiple positions — 2B/3B/OF — but none all that well. He’s an interesting bat-first flier who was taken on from San Diego in the three-team Trevor Bauer deal. Cairo is Miguel Cairo’s son. I think he has a utility ceiling based on the tools. Naranjo was a SoCal pop-up bat who needs to get there by way of an elite hit tool. He doesn’t have much power projection so the contact has to carry the whole profile à la Jake Bauers’ prospectdom, and Naranjo still looked very raw in the Fall of 2020.
40-Man Depth Arms
Kyle Nelson, LHP
Jerson Ramirez, RHP
Juan Mota, RHP
Xzavion Curry, LHP
Kirk McCarty, LHP
Mason Hickman, RHP
Nelson will show you a 70-grade breaking ball once in a while but righty batters see the ball for a long time against him, even though he appears to hide it well. He only throws about 90 mph, and I think he’d need a third pitch to be more than a LOOGY. Ramirez, 22, throws fairly hard (up to 95) and is really athletic, but his body is maxed out. Mota will show you 93-96 with a plus slider but he has 30 control. Curry was drafted out of Georgia Tech with a shoulder injury. His fastball isn’t all that hard but has tough angle, and this org is good at making pitchers throw harder. The same is true for Hickman. His fastball has perfect backspin but he was only 87-89 when I saw him with Vanderbilt in the spring. McCarty’s report is unchanged from last year: he’s another lefty whose fastball has huge carry and misses bats even though it’s 88-92. His breaking ball has vertical action.
Toolsy, but Contact/Profile Concerns
Yainer Diaz, C
Quentin Holmes, CF
Will Benson, RF
Oscar Gonzalez, RF
Diaz moves to the front of this group after a decent Instructional League showing. He has warts but hits the ball really hard. The others here don’t make enough contact to be on the main section of the list. Holmes has elite speed, Benson elite power and arm strength. Both of them are lauded for their makeup, but I just don’t think either will hit enough to play in the big leagues consistently. Benson might TTO his way there. Gonzalez swings at everything but has plus power. All of these guys are in their early-20s.
System Overview
As always, Cleveland has some clear talent acquisition tendencies that they execute well and combine with fantastic player development (especially on the pitching side) to keep this system flush with talent. It’s really what enables the big league club to compete even though the front office can’t spend a lot of money. Let’s talk through those tendencies. First, this org usually drafts younger high schoolers. The closer to 17 the player is on draft day, the more likely they are to be picked by Cleveland. This proclivity seems to also have a geographical bent, as the team loves to take high school hitters from areas of high talent concentration, especially Southern California. These high schoolers often have a contact-centric profile, though the club’s approach to acquiring bat-to-ball talent (usually that switch-hits) is more extreme on the international side, where other clubs think Cleveland keeps diligent statistics that drive their decision making.
Cleveland also seems adept at understanding which pitchers they can fix or optimize, not just through velocity training but through pitch design and repertoire usage. They’re great at drafting college performers and tweaking something about them that enables them to compete at the upper-levels of pro ball.
We need to talk about Francisco Lindor. Remember, I’m the guy who took him ahead of Mookie Betts during our site’s 2019 franchise player draft. It’s horrendous that the club should trade a bonafide superstar whose smile shines like Archimedes’ Mirror. But since it appears as though they will, let’s examine how they’ll need to do it. It’s likely one of Lavastida or Diaz will break out and need to go on the 40-man. Palacios will have a season to prove he should, too. The entire 2017 international class (Bracho, Rocchio, Tena, Valera, Planez) plus Tyler Freeman needs to be added. And Cody Morris, Joey Cantillo, and both sidearm relievers do as well.
Not all of those players will pan out in the next 11 months, and someone who is currently on the big league roster will likely be non-tendered next year. But there are just too many viable prospects whose 40-man timelines start next year for Cleveland to avoid a crunch. Any package in return for Lindor either needs to a) involve quality over quantity or b) involve several really young players nowhere near the 40-man, or else they’ll need to package some of their current and future 40-man guys in other trades over the next few months. Based on how Cleveland has operated when trading established big leaguers lately (and given how other teams are behaving in similar circumstances), I expect they’ll choose the second option.
Does that make any team a particularly good fit? St. Louis has a pretty sizable contingent of recent high school draftees, including model-friendly, power-hitting third baseman Jordan Walker. The Cardinals also have a glut of upper-level outfielders who might fit into Cleveland’s platoon-heavy strategy (Bader, Thomas, O’Neill, etc.). The Angels have also taken a lot of the younger high schoolers available in recent drafts (Kyren Paris, David Calabrese) but their financial situation seems precarious after the way their owner behaved last year. Perhaps then San Francisco’s young, deep international contingent (Marco Luciano might be untouchable but a few of Luis Toribio, Luis Matos, etc. could be enticing) and rumored financial health is a better fit, but they’re probably too early in the rebuild to start cashing in prospects, even if it is for someone like Lindor. Maybe. Regardless, it’s an unenviable needle to have to thread, no matter how well this org has played in recent years nor how sustainable their success appears to be.
Eric Longenhagen is from Catasauqua, PA and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. He spent four years working for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, two with Baseball Info Solutions and two contributing to prospect coverage at ESPN.com. Previous work can also be found at Sports On Earth, CrashburnAlley and Prospect Insider.
Seems to me the Cleveland Baseball Team’s goal for 2021 is to win their division with a losing record, just like a certain Football Team just did.
Just neighing.