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Baseball America today released their Top 100 MLB Prospects list, and it includes four potential Cleveland stars:
- 26. Triston McKenzie
- 45. Nolan Jones
- 66. Andrés Giménez
- 82. Tyler Freeman
One small note before getting into the list: Baseball America appears to be considering Giménez a prospect based solely on having fewer than 150 at-bats, though he technically qualified to lose his rookie eligibility last year based on his service time. Don’t @ us about him not being included in the community list.
Unsurprisingly, Baseball America has Triston McKenzie and Nolan Jones as Cleveland’s top two prospects.
McKenzie was left off of the Top 100 last year due to missing all of 2019 and the huge question marks surrounding his future. But with a solid handful of starts under his belt in the majors — but not enough to lose rookie eligibility — he still remains a highly-touted prospect.
Jones ranked as the No. 50 prospect on last year’s list, so this is a small bump for him as he sits on the precipice of making his MLB debut. Baseball America notes that he will likely get a look in the outfield this season (something he has been working on all offseason) and they praise his contact ability and power in their short blurb about him.
The crown jewel of the Francisco Lindor Trade, Andrés Giménez, comes in at No. 66 and Baseball America thinks he will make an immediate impact on the major-league squad. That is to be expected given that he produced a .263/.333/.398 slash in 49 games for the Mets last year. Giménez missed the list last year, but his impressive rookie campaign was enough to jettison him to the middle of the top-100 pack.
The only other Cleveland prospect on last year’s preseason list, Tyler Freeman, fell from No. 69 to No. 82. Freeman’s borderline-elite contact skills are going to carry him to the majors and potentially to a very effective career. Baseball America expects him to reach Double-A at some point this season.
After years of looking at McKenzie and Jones on top-100 lists but knowing they were still years away, it’s a breath of fresh air to see three prospects that are likely to have significant playing time this season and another who could debut as early as next year or in 2023.