Kiley McDanielJan 29, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseESPN MLB Insider Kiley McDaniel covers MLB prospects, the MLB Draft and more, including trades and free agency. Has worked for three MLB teams. Co-author of Author of ‘Future Value’ Follow on XMultiple Authors
MLB prospects to keep an eye on (1:16)Kiley McDaniel lists some baseball prospects to keep an eye on, including Caden Scarborough. (1:16)
Now that we have ranked the top 100 MLB prospects entering the 2026 season (along with a breakdown of the players landing in the Nos. 101-200 range), it’s time to see how all 30 farm systems stack up. And for the second straight year, there is a new No. 1 team.
These rankings were done, for the most part, the same way as my previous versions. While at FanGraphs, research by Craig Edwards (who now works for the MLB Players Association) revealed empirical surplus dollar values for each future value tier of prospect, so we can make an objective ranking of farm systems derived from my individual team lists, which will be published next week.
A benefit of this approach is that you can use your own judgment to disagree with a ranking if, say, a team has $500,000 more talent but the lower-ranked team has prospects of the sort you prefer. This gives you the tools to see exactly how close each team is and a more granular view of what its players are like as compared with the other 29 teams.
In addition to all of these avenues of talent, the Brewers tend to be adding prospects in deals — Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat were added from the Mets for Freddy Peralta, and both made the top 100 — rather than trading them. Put all of these players together and you can see why it was inevitable Milwaukee would take this title — for the first time since I’ve been doing this.
The Guardians aren’t that far behind Milwaukee in almost all respects, and they also have a unique blend of high-end talent and quality depth while regularly finding success in all aspects with limited payroll resources.
There also seems to be a widening of Cleveland’s scouting aperture to consider the kinds of hitters the franchise has avoided in the past. Historically, the Guardians have invested heavily in hit-over-power infielders — often not the biggest or most physically impressive players but very effective ballplayers.
To that point, 2025 first-rounder Jace Laviolette, 2023 first-rounder Ralphy Velazquez and recent trade addition Alfonsin Rosario are all in their top 11 prospects, and each is a power-over-hit type. The Guardians also were rumored to be kicking the tires on Jac Caglianone with the top pick in the 2024 draft before ultimately taking Bazzana. This could be a shifting taste for risk, responding to market forces or just an aberration, but I’m keeping an eye on it.
But don’t fret, Pirates fans! The point of baseball is to win games, not fly a “Farm Rankings Champions” flag.
The Dodgers have 18 such prospects, one more than the Brewers. I would guess four or five of those 18 will play in the big leagues this season, and I don’t think any of those players are future stars. So, this might be a light year for the Dodgers introducing impact rookies, but that should start up again in 2027. I think the big league team should do fine in 2026 without the extra help.
The point here is that this empirical system heavily values prospects who are high in the top 100 over dozens of lower-ranked prospects, and the Mets’ system is heavily skewed toward a handful of prospects who rank very high. There also is some depth in this system, with five players landing in the 101-200 tier (and nearly a sixth, with RHP Jack Wenninger just missing).
Beyond that, the depth is solid but pretty ordinary, though that also is impacted by graduating a number of potential or already good big leaguers in the past few years: Christian Scott, Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez, Mark Vientos, Luisangel Acuna (since traded for Luis Robert Jr.) and Ronny Mauricio.
Like the Mets, the Tigers’ system value is concentrated in four elite prospects and good but not great system depth that has been affected by graduating so many young big leaguers over the past few years.
The scouting and development machine marches on, graduating Cole Young and trading Harry Ford from last year’s list. Emerson looks poised to impact the big league team at some point in 2026, while Kade Anderson, Michael Arroyo and Lazaro Montes are just behind him (and Ryan Sloan and Jurrangelo Cijntje might be in that wave too). Those are a lot of potential impact types who are close for the third-best team on paper right now in the American League.
The top of the Twins’ list looks similar to last year after losing Luke Keaschall and Zebby Matthews to graduation and replacing them with the headliner from the Jhoan Duran trade in Eduardo Tait. Kendry Rojas also was acquired at the deadline, ranking 163rd, and Mick Abel just barely graduated after being included in the Duran return.
I like their draft haul, with a low-floor shortstop in Marek Houston and maybe the prospect with the highest ceiling in the draft in Quentin Young, along with possibly the highest-ceiling college pitcher in Riley Quick.
Keep an eye on Dasan Hill (161st) for a possible breakout and also No. 54 prospect Connor Prielipp as a stealth Rookie of the Year contender if he can get into the rotation in time.
The wave behind that has been beefed up by additions in trades and the past two draft and international classes. They’re now reaching a saturation point of young talent in the minors, with the most players getting a prospect grade (35+ FV or higher) at nearly 60.
The Red Sox have only one position player (Franklin Arias) in the top 200 prospects in baseball, maybe even the top 250. But there’s a good reason for that: Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell graduated last year, with Carlos Narvaez, Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela graduating just before them and Jarren Duran just before that.
In addition, Boston’s top two picks in the 2025 draft were pitchers, it traded two former first-round position players to land Garrett Crochet and it traded another top 200 position player to land Johan Oviedo. It’s not a problem given the makeup of the organization, but it’s worth mentioning.
The Orioles sent four players from their extensive farm depth to the Rays in the Shane Baz deal, though Baltimore still ranks seventh in quality depth. Basallo, Trey Gibson and Dylan Beavers are the top three prospects in the system and should all play in the major leagues this year.
There’s a nice layer beyond them of nearly 20 prospects who could be in the top 200 prospects in the sport next winter, so I’d expect that part of the system to make a jump forward while Basallo and Beavers likely graduate in the first half of the year.
Stewart has had quite a rise. I was too low on him at draft time. I jumped on board aggressively early in pro ball and was rewarded. If he can improve his third-base defense in 2026, he could be an All-Star-level talent.
Yesavage has one of the highest floors in recent top-100 history, as he already has proved that his unusual combination of stuff and release point work against the best hitters in baseball in the highest-stake situations.
The A’s have had an incredible run of graduating solid to very good prospects across the past few years. Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson, Lawrence Butler, Max Muncy, Denzel Clarke, Darell Hernaiz, Colby Thomas, Zack Gelof and Brett Harris are the position players. Luis Morales, Jacob Lopez, Luis Medina, Hogan Harris, Justin Sterner, J.T. Ginn and Joey Estes are the pitchers.
There are still more solid young players coming though! De Vries was obviously a rare deadline acquisition of an elite prospect, while lefties Gage Jump (made a huge jump in 2025), Jamie Arnold (a great value in the first round of 2025) and Wei-En Lin might now be bulk-innings types.
Keep an eye on deadline acquisition third baseman Parks Harber, who has had an incredible rise since signing with the Yankees as an undrafted free agent in the summer of 2024.
The White Sox have done a solid job in their past two drafts, landing Billy Carlson, Jaden Fauske and Kyle Lodise in 2025 after taking Bonemer, Hagen Smith and Sam Antonacci in 2024. I have them all in the top dozen prospects in the system.
Christian Oppor and Tanner McDougal are both arrow-up arms with a chance to break through comfortably into the top 100.
Arizona graduated Jordan Lawlar, Adrian Del Castillo, Tyler Locklear and Andrew Saalfrank from eligibility last season. This year, Tommy Troy, Kohl Drake, Cristian Mena, Brandyn Garcia, Andrew Hoffmann and possibly Ryan Waldschmidt will join them; four of those six were acquired in trade over the past year. I like a number of other arms acquired in recent deals as possible risers in 2026: David Hagaman, Mitch Bratt, Ashton Izzi and Hunter Cranton.
The Rangers’ quality depth was thinned out by this month’s MacKenzie Gore trade, with Gavin Fien, Devin Fitz-Gerald and Alejandro Rosario all ranking in the 101-200 range and Yeremy Cabrera a low-minors sleeper who could be in that tier next year.
Walcott is tracking like a potential star. And Caden Scarborough could catapult up the list this season; he’s a popular pick from evaluators to click this year. Jose Corniell, Winston Santos and David Davalillo might be candidates to be big league starters as soon as this year. A.J. Russell and Josh Owens are two intriguing 2025 draft picks with breakout potential.
Ben Rice, Austin Wells, Jasson Dominguez, Cam Schlittler and Will Warren have graduated over the past few years, while a number of prospects have been traded to Miami to land Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ryan Weathers, to Pittsburgh to land David Bednar, to Milwaukee to land Devin Williams and to San Francisco to land Camilo Doval.
The depth has been largely hollowed out, with some of the recent draftees and international signees making up all of the prospects of consequence. Spencer Jones might be the biggest boom-or-bust prospect in the top 200. Dax Kilby is one of the biggest arrow-up 2025 draftees. Carlos Lagrange might be a reliever, but he’d be a good one. Elmer Rodriguez was a savvy acquisition (though giving up Carlos Narvaez was a high price). And Lombard should be a good every-day player, maybe better.