Alden GonzalezFeb 11, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.Follow on XMultiple Authors
Why the Tigers have a World Series-caliber rotation (1:19)Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon detail why the Tigers’ addition of Framber Valdez creates a World Series-contending rotation. (1:19)
There is no shortage of stats and metrics these days that attempt to predict how baseball teams will fare in an upcoming season. But there is one area lacking in all of it: human will, and how certain players can push themselves to be better than even the best analytical models could have foreseen.
The foundation is laid over the winter, when pitches are learned and swing mechanics are tweaked and bodies are molded. And after asking coaches, managers, executives and scouts for all 30 major league teams to identify the players they’re most excited to see in spring training, the prospect of sizable, year-to-year growth became the overriding theme.
With camps starting this week in Florida and Arizona, we identified one player to watch for every team this spring. The vast majority of them are players who sources told us they believe have what it takes to make a bigger jump than some might expect — and can push their teams beyond what the prediction models tell us.
The Athletics’ pitching might be lagging way behind their hitting at the major league level, but the team has built some really intriguing starting-pitching depth in their minor league system. Jump headlines that group, and people within the organization have identified him as the most likely to force their hand and trigger an earlier-than-expected callup this season.
In his first exposure to pro baseball after being drafted No. 73 in 2024, Jump, a 22-year-old left-hander, posted a 3.28 ERA and struck out 28.4% of hitters between High-A and Double-A. His fastball velocity jumped a couple of ticks in the process. And at some point this season, he could help front the Athletics’ very needy rotation.
Perhaps no team improved more this offseason than the Orioles, who added two impact bats (Pete Alonso and Taylor Ward), two back-end relievers (Ryan Helsley and Andrew Kittredge) and one midrotation starter (Shane Baz) — with perhaps another still to come. But Henderson remains their best player.
Mayer, 23, struggled through a .228/.272/.402 slash line in 136 plate appearances as a rookie last year, then underwent season-ending wrist surgery. But the Red Sox remain bullish on his potential and will count on him to at least start against right-handers while playing either second or third base (depending on where they slot new infield acquisition Caleb Durbin). Rafael Devers is gone. Alex Bregman is, too. Ketel Marte never arrived. It’s Mayer’s turn.
One member of the White Sox’s front office singled out Vargas as having “a chance to be a breakout player in 2026,” a sign the organization still believes in the potential of his bat. At this time three years ago, Vargas was a consensus top-100 prospect. The Dodgers then made him their Opening Day second baseman. But Vargas struggled mightily and wasn’t any better during the 2024 season, when the White Sox acquired him at the trade deadline in a three-team, seven-player deal.
At his best, Vargas displays elite plate discipline and gap-to-gap power. There were times last year when that really showed up, mostly in May and August. As he enters his age-26 season, he needs to finally display that consistently.
DeLauter made his major league debut in last year’s postseason, starting in center field in Game 2 of Cleveland’s wild-card series against the Tigers, with the Guardians on the verge of elimination. It was an indication of his potential, and that his lengthy injury history hasn’t necessarily clouded it.
As part of his end-of-season news conference, Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said: “I expect the players that posted dominant years in Double-A to factor into our big league team next year.” Nobody fits that description better than McGonigle, who ranks No. 2 on McDaniel’s prospect list.
The Tigers took McGonigle out of high school at No. 37 in 2023 and have seen him handle every level since, including Double-A, where he had an OPS of .919 at age 20. In McGonigle, Max Clark, Bryce Rainer and Josue Briceño, the Tigers have a really intriguing crop of position-player prospects. Three of them — all but Rainer, who’s still only 20 years old — will be in camp. And McGonigle has the best shot among them to lock down a major league job this season.
No player has ever won a Gold Glove at both shortstop and third base. Correa has told some members of the Astros he’s motivated to become the first. He has also done some swing work over the winter, hoping to rebound from a 2025 season in which he finished with an OPS+ of just 103. Correa left Houston as one of the game’s best players in 2021, a year that saw him finish fifth in MVP voting. His next 3½ years with the Twins brought pretty dramatic highs and lows.
But Correa was highly productive after rejoining the Astros last summer, posting a .785 OPS over the last two months. He is still only 31 years old. A full offseason to work on third base, while back with a franchise and in a city where he is comfortable, has the Astros believing in a return to form.
Caglianone struggled in his first taste of the majors last year, slashing .157/.237/.295 in 232 plate appearances. It was also a lot to ask of him. The 2025 season represented Caglianone’s first full season of pro ball, which saw him advance through Double-A and Triple-A, land in the majors and sit out extended time because of a hamstring strain, all while learning right field.
Now that he has had a chance to breathe, the Royals are expecting big things from their 23-year-old former first-round pick. They need it. The Royals are trying to win the AL Central and will have no chance of doing so if they repeat a year that saw them score the fifth-fewest runs in the majors. Their offseason moves were subtle, and so their biggest chance of improving offensively will come down to whether Caglianone can translate his elite power to the highest level.
The Angels surprised a lot of people by selecting Bremner with the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft, passing on LSU’s Kade Anderson, who went third to the Mariners. Clearly the Angels, who have struggled mightily to develop starting pitching for more than a decade, think highly of Bremner’s upside.
He possesses an elite changeup, a mid- to high-90s fastball and plus control, making him the type of high-floor prospect the organization often targets. If he puts that on display in the minor leagues this season — while ideally refining a breaking ball — don’t be surprised if he joins the major league rotation late in the year. The Angels love early promotions.
He has a chance to be a building block of whatever this next Twins iteration becomes, along with Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis. But he needs to put it together now.
The return of Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham — not to mention the presence of Jasson Dominguez — means the Yankees don’t have an immediate opening for Jones, but team officials are fascinated to see how close the 6-foot-7 outfielder is to having an impact at the major league level. That should happen at some point this season.
Jones has struck out a whopping 534 times in 357 minor league games over the past three years, but he moves well, hits the ball incredibly hard and possesses a plus arm. One Yankees source described him as having “a wide variance to his game,” which is a polite way of saying he needs to cut down his strikeouts so that his power can truly emerge. This is a crucial year for him.
Farmelo tore an ACL in 2024 and spent most of 2025 sidelined by a rib injury. But he’s healthy now and expected to make big strides through their system in 2026.
“There will probably be some growing pains with the bat,” a team source said, “and he’ll hit some 440-foot bombs along the way.” If he can just cut down on strikeouts a bit, the rest of the tools should keep him as a major league regular.
Since claiming the franchise’s first World Series title in 2023, the Rangers have been hindered by a stunning level of offensive regression — so much so that the likes of Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim have since been replaced. But Langford’s arrow is clearly pointing up.
Heading into the offseason, many saw Okamoto — like fellow free agent and countryman Munetaka Murakami — as an eventual first baseman. But that obviously won’t be the case in Toronto. After signing a four-year, $60 million deal, Okamoto will come in as the Blue Jays’ everyday third baseman, looking to prove he can stay at the hot corner.
Lawlar cracked this list last year, then went on to play in only 28 major league games while producing a .545 OPS. But he very much remains a player to watch. Lawlar has struggled to produce and stay healthy but is still only 23 years old and is once again trying out a new position. Lawlar, mostly a shortstop since being drafted sixth overall out of high school in 2021, spent the offseason learning center field in winter ball.
With Ketel Marte staying put, Geraldo Perdomo locked up long term and Nolan Arenado added to the mix, the outfield is now his only path to real playing time. But if he can prove himself capable, he would solve the club’s massive need for a capable right-handed-hitting outfielder. Lawler will get his chance, now more than ever.
Strider didn’t quite look like himself in his return from elbow surgery last season. His strikeout rate was 24.3%, compared to 36.8% when he finished fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2023. His fastball was down a couple of ticks and often lacked late life. His ERA stood at 4.45. But Strider was highly effective in the stretch run, maintaining a 2.50 ERA over his last six starts. And one would expect the quality of his stuff to return now that he’s another year removed from surgery.