Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2024 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival
1. OF Roman Anthony | 19 | AA | 2025
Anthony charged to the top of this group with a superb season in 2023. A left-handed hitter at 6’2” 200 lbs, Anthony slashed .272/.406/.466 with 14 home runs and 16 stolen bases in 106 games across three levels, finishing with ten dominant games in Double-A (.343/.477/.543) after slugging .569 in 54 games at High-A. I include the full-season line here along with the particulars because the full season tells the story of a player improving in a hurry. He slashed just .228/.376/.317 with 38 walks and 38 strikeouts in 42 games at Low-A but started driving the ball in Boston’s friendly High-A setting, where he drew 40 walks with 70 strikeouts (30.6 percent) in 54 games. He then struck out just six times in the ten Triple-A games. Man that’s a lotta stat salad. I’m just trying to say he’s a player in flux and reminds me a little of Ronald Acuna at this stage in the sense that he’s got more than one path ahead of him as a hitter and could become a total-package type who slashes .300/.400/.500 on the regular. He’s also quick enough to swipe some bags in the go-go era. Snagged 16 in 23 attempts this season but got caught just once in six tries between High-A and Double-A. I’ve got his ETA as 2025 here, but that can change in a hurry if Boston is competitive and Anthony is on his game.
2. SS Ceddanne Rafaela | 23 | MLB | 2023
Rafaela’s most recent Rotowire blurb includes a quote from new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow suggesting that he expects the ninja turtle to play a significant role in 2024. Breslow didn’t call him the ninja turtle, but that’s a better title than chief baseball officer. What’s he here to do? Arrest somebody? Harass certain employees just going about their day in the facility? Anywho, back to Rafaela, who I like a lot for our game. He’s listed at 5’9” 165 lbs, and he might be a little bigger than that next time we see him, but probably not by much. He hit 22 home runs and stole 39 bases across three levels last year and feels extremely underrated for redraft leagues with an ADP of 495.57. Seems like little chance he’d actually be on the board for that pick in a competitive league, but you probably don’t have to run him up much further at the moment. He’s outfield eligible at the moment but could add shortstop and/or second base if the ooze spills just right. And oh dang he’s actually moving backward on ADP. I jumped to November 1 as the first draft recorded, and it’s 530.88 in those 105 drafts. But then I sorted for just Draft Champions formats, and it’s all the way up to 363.65. Makes sense. Should’ve sorted from there first, but I’m leaving all these words here now because it’s a useful enough little journey and decent reminder if my future self ever looks back at this. Jarren Duran would play center if the season opened today, but he’s not a good defender, and he ended the season with a toe injury. Enmanuel Valdez is at second base per roster resource. He played well as a rookie but isn’t Orlando Pace, as far as blockers are concerned. Tyler O’Neill and Masataka Yoshida are in left field. Wilyer Abreu is in right. I like Abreu, but the outfield would be best on defense with Rafaela in center most days (especially for fly ball pitchers in tough parks) while Duran, Yoshida, Abreu and O’Neill share the corners and the DH spot.
3. SS Marcelo Mayer | 21 | AA | 2025
Mayer slashed just .189/.254/.355 in 43 games at Double-A, and most true superstar prospects don’t get overmatched like that on their way up the ladder. In his defense, it’s not a huge sample, and he was 3.7 years younger than the league average age. More importantly, he was playing through a shoulder injury you can read about via Justin Leger and NBC Sports Boston here. So we’re left to either totally write off the awful stretch due to injury or develop some long-term concerns about a player’s shoulder or ability to adapt. Maybe some sort of blend. As with a lot of things in our game, I’d prefer to just wait and see how it plays out, but that’s just not an option, so he winds up ranked third here for now.
4. OF Wilyer Abreu | 24 | MLB | 2023
Abreu’s Breslow blurb is pretty similar to the one spoken for Rafaela. Significant playing time is mentioned, and as was the case with Rafaela, it’s more of a no-shit-Sherlock comment than anything . . . significant in and of itself. Abreu came over from Houston along with Valdez and got to work posting a 120 wRC+ with his new team in 2022 then a 130 in 86 Triple-A games in 2023. The party continued with a 135 wRC+ in 28 games for Boston. If an organization trades for a guy who hits like this and then doesn’t find room for him in the major league lineup, now that would be significant.
5. C Kyle Teel | 22 | AA | 2024
You may remember Kyle Teel from such draft picks as The Royals’ in 2023, when they passed on the college-tested shade of blue for high school catcher Blake Mitchell, who they could sign for a million dollars below slot value. While Mitchell was hitting .143 in 13 games on the complex, Teel was proving to be the real deal, burning through Boston’s system w wRC+ outcomes of 246, 166 and 167 in short stints in the complex than at High-A and Double-A. What he doesn’t offer in speed and topside for the dynasty game he makes up for in proximity and predictability. Teel really knows himself as a hitter and might look like a major league option in spring training because he controls the zone so well.
6. RHP Wikelman Gonzalez | 22 | AA | 2024
One thing you notice in a glance at Gonzalez’s baseball card is the home run suppression. In seven stretches across five levels, he has never allowed a homer per nine innings. The worst he’s done is a 0.71 HR/9, which would be pretty good as a career best for a lot of pitchers, and that happened across 63 innings mostly in a hitter-friendly High-A home park. Four of the five homers he allowed there happened at home. A slight six-footer, Gonzalez features a dynamic three-pitch mix of fastball, slider, changeup that works well against both sides of the plate. His control has been spotty throughout his baseball life but was good enough to generate a 2.42 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 48.1 Double-A innings spread across ten starts. If his command ticks up, he’s a rotation mainstay. If not, he’d still have upside as a back-end reliever.
7. OF Miguel Bleis | 20 | A | 2027
Hitting is the hard part for Bleis, who was slashing .230/.282/.325 through 31 games in the South Atlantic League when his season ended due to a left shoulder subluxation. That’s his lead shoulder as a right handed hitter, and it’s no surprise he threw it out of whack given how hard he swings to generate the impressive bat speed that’s apparent at a glance. I mention the Atlantic part of it because it can be cold early in the year, even in some of the southern stadiums, and I prefer to give young players a pass on their first encounters with cold weather. Few things in baseball suck as much as facing a nasty fastball with a wooden bat on a thirty degree night. But I’m in between on Bleis, who has a bit more value in the dynasty realm than I’m comfortable with at the moment.
8. SS Brainer Bonaci | 21 | AA | 2025
Had to think about these last few spots for a while because we’ve got options. You know how I like David Hamilton if you’ve been here a minute, but I dunno. Team doesn’t love him. Or hasn’t seemed to, anyway. And it’s fantasy goggles I’m looking at him with, to be fair. Besides, Bonaci has more than earned his place on the list, ascending to Double-A as a 20-year-old and posting a 117 wRC+ in 16 games after recording a 124 wRC+ in 63 games at High-A. I have the ETA here at 2025 because he figures to open 2024 back in Double-A, but he’s a switch hitter and plus defender up the middle, so there’s a good chance the team could use him in 2024 if they’re contending or in need and curious to see if he can hang.
9. RHP Richard Fitts | 24 | AA | 2024
The primary return from New York in the Alex Verdugo trade, Fitts should slide right into the rotation when the time is right. Like the Yankees do with a lot of their young arms, they found a few more miles per hour in Fitts’s fastball after drafting him in the 6th round out of Auburn in 2021. He’d started 14 games in 40 appearances with the Tigers and posted a 5.88 ERA in his junior year. Impressive scouting and development on this one. He pitched 152.1 innings across 27 starts in Double-A and recorded a 3.48 ERA and 1.30 WHIP. His command should allow a neater WHIP than that, but he’s pretty hittable, especially as long he doesn’t have something more effective against lefties than his slider.
10. 1B Blaze Jordan | 21 | AA | 2025
This reminds me I never finished that American Gladiators documentary series on Netflix. Did finish The Last Dance of course. I’m not a monster. One thing about this Jordan is he’s not the defender that Jordan was, and as a corner-only right-right bat, Blaze Jordan’s upside in the real game is considerably limited, so he has to rake to make it. So far, he mostly has, but Double-A presented a roadblock in his age-20 season. To his credit, Jordan only struck out 13.8 percent of the time, but he walked at a 5.9 percent clip, so his OBP ended up at .296. He didn’t hit for power either, slugging .402 with just 16 extra base hits in 49 games. He might head back there to open the season and will still be about three years younger than league average.
Thanks for reading!
