Baseball America came out early with their pre-season top 10. But they will be publishing a full Top 30 LAD prospects in the next several weeks.
Currently, the first publication to report on the LAD top prospects is Baseball Prospectus. They just published their top 20. Last year it was 21, and was 23 in 2023.
While I am not surprised that Zyhir Hope has rocketed to number 1 of a top LAD prospect list, I am surprised it has happened this soon. I predicted that Hope would pass De Paula perhaps as early as the mid-season update, but more likely the post-season update.
A taste of the Hope Power potential.
Zyhir Hope @Dodgers is a BEAST. 3 minute at-bat that he got to a full count and absolutely unloaded on this. He put this out to the walk way. Hope’s power is unreal #ProspectOne pic.twitter.com/nnzKiVV7LI
— The Welsh (@IsItTheWelsh) October 15, 2024
BP’s Jarrett Siedler was comparing Zyhir Hope this year compared to Roman Anthony from a year earlier. If Hope continues to develop, improve, and come anywhere close to Roman Anthony, he could be a top 1-2-3 overall prospect for 2026.
11 of the top 21 prospects per Baseball Prospectus remained on the 2025 list. Two others were top prospects with the Cubs (Jackson Ferris #11 and Zyhir Hope #16). Seven of the 2025 top prospects were new.
- Alex Freeland – SS – #5
- Emil Morales – SS – #6
- Eriq Swan – RHP – #8
- Kellon Lindsey – SS – #11
- Ben Casparius – RHP – #14
- Wyatt Crowell – LHP – #17
- Edgardo Henriquez – RHRP – #19
Dalton Rushing dropped from #1 to #3. Josue De Paula stayed at #2.
Baseball Prospectus uses an “OFP” grade rather than FV. OFP is “Overall Future Potential” and is comparable to FV (Future Value).
BP has graded prospects with a grade of 70. Both Zyhir Hope and Josue De Paula received a 70 OFP, equating to All Star OF.
Dalton Rushing is graded more as a catcher and received a 60 grade, first division catcher/outfielder. Jackson Ferris is the other prospect with a 60 grade. In BP’s Jarret Siedler’s podcast interview, he mentioned that there is virtually zero gap between Rushing and Ferris. Ferris’ 60 grade equates to a #3 starter.
As effusive as Siedler was with hope, he was hedging his positivity with Alex Freeland. Siedler does not see Freeland as a long term SS, but more of a Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández super utility guy. This will be a big year for Freeland.
My top 5 in order are:
- Jackson Ferris
- Zyhir Hope
- Alex Freeland
- Dalton Rushing
- Josue De Paula.
The top ten did have a surprise…RHP Eriq Swan. Siedler also had commentary on Swan. BP is heavily vested in stuff over results. BP likes Swan’s stuff. “Swan is still raw on the mound, using a bit of a brute force arm action to generate upper-90s heat, but it’s upper-90s heat. He also has a power slider that touches 90 and a demon sweeper, so he checks the usual “two plus breaking ball projections” box for your recent top Dodgers pitching prospects.” Swan is still learning how to pitch as he became a full time pitcher at Middle Tennessee State. BP grades him as a #3/#4 starter or late inning reliever.
There were four teenagers on the list. 8 RHP, 3 LHP, 1 Catcher, 4 SS, and 4 OF. 9 of the prospects were drafted by LAD, 6 were IFA, and 5 were traded for.
I have included a table below on the 20 top prospects per Baseball Prospectus.
There were 7 other prospects that were considered “interesting”.
- Maddux Bruns – LHP – A+
- Diego Cartaya – C – AAA
- Austin Gauthier – Util – AAA
- Elijah Hainline – SS – A
- Chase Harlan – 3B – DNP
- Ronan Kopp – LHP – AA
- Jakob Wright – LHP – DNP
BP’s Siedler discussed that both Hope and De Paula will be highly ranked in their top 101 overall prospects.
Cartaya interesting, but gone. That’s interesting. I still think we can look at Cartaya as an example of how the Rule 5 draft unfairly impacts LatAm signees. They are so young when they sign, they then get undue 40 man pressure too early in their career.
Cartaya shouldn’t have been on the 40 two years ago, he probably shouldn’t now. If he was an American he wouldn’t be.
FWIW
On the YouTube broadcast there was a little bit of love for Jung, who also has spectacular stuff+ ratings for his pitches, it’s just control that’s a problem (some of his pitches sail to the backstop.)
Diego Cartaya was traded to Minnesota for 20 year old RHP Jose Vazquez, who has pitched only in the DSL. Oh how hard some fall.
Besides Diego Cartaya, a couple of other former Dodgers made the news. LHRP Caleb Ferguson signed a one year deal with Pittsburgh, the team he made his MLB debut against in a starting role. He will be signing a $3MM deal, pending physical. Caleb was one of my favorite Dodgers, and had been since his 2016 championship season with Great Lakes. Fergie, Brock Stewart, and Walker Buehler were all pitchers who were fast tracked through the organization with varying degrees of success.
The second former Dodgers making news was infielder Jacob Amaya. Amaya was DFA’d by CWS. Some were against the Amaya trade to Miami for Miguel Rojas. I was an Amaya fan but was all for the trade. As it turned out, Miggy Ro has been vital to LAD’s World Series Championship run, while Amaya was just DFA’d by the worst team in MLB. Another that AF/BG got right.
A post on google news said that it is felt that the Dodgers are not finished and another trade and free agent signing could happen soon. The three Dodgers most at risk to be traded, Outman, Taylor and Miggy Ro. To me Outman would be the easiest to trade. I cannot see them trading Taylor unless they pay a chunk of his contract. As for Miggy, I think this team places a huge value on his clubhouse leadership.
Might great stuff be a precursor to TJ surgery?
There is a long list of players that began their MLB careers at or below the age of 21. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/Youngest_leagues.shtml
I hope Hope doesn’t spend too many years in the minor leagues.
I think it wise to exercise caution when giving high grades to any prospect below AA. That could be just me. A League players haven’t hit AA pitching and until they do I’ll take a wait and see approach.
That said, it would appear the Dodgers have plenty of trade talent in the system. Who stays and who goes? A question that comes to mind is what percentage of all this talent will make their debut with the immensely deep and talented Los Angeles Dodgers? 10% Less? More?
Obviously this team needs outfielders going forward. Hope? DePaula? Both? Also, you never have enough pitching so I suspect we will keep most of those guys. Freeland? I kinda doubt it. Rushing? Maybe after Barnes leaves, not before.
Good read this morning Jeff. Thanks.
Slow day today, workwise.
Baseball America has three (3) breakout stars:
($$$$)
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-breakout-prospects-to-watch-in-2025-for-every-team/
Eriq Swan, Brendan Tunink, Brooks Auger
At the very least some cool names. Eriq! Auger!
No inside knowledge or anything but I’ve had this recurring feeling lately that Andrew might surprise everyone and if he trades an infielder it might just be Rojas. With Kim, CT and Edman capable of covering what Rojas plays and Miggy being much easier to trade than CT3……
I know how they value his clubhouse presence but a Rojas trade wouldn’t shock me.
Kopech avoids arbitration and signs for $5.2 million for 2025. Nice job Dodgers FO.
Great offseason so far but there is still a RP (Tanner Scott) to sign and Kike must re-sign.
Won’t be long before ST opens with pitchers and catchers and soon after ITFDB!
Michael Kopech ($5.2MM) and Brusdar Graterol ($2.8MM) both signed today and have avoided arbitration.
There will be a familiar face on the Padre coaching staff. Nick Punto has joined SD as a coach
Jeff–Look into your crystal ball and tell me what becomes of De Paula & Hope. Thanks!
There are top pitching prospects in A ball. Some are throwing 95+ mph fastballs. Some are spinning the ball at high enough rates to achieve comparisons to ML pitchers. Most of those players likely don’t yet throw strikes enough to get promoted. There are metrics available to show how well strikes from these guys are handled by opposing hitters. How well do Hope and DePaula hit strikes from superior pitching in the lower leagues in which they play?
DePaula’s K % was .274 at A ball. Hope struck out a .297 rate at Rancho. Were those strike outs against the pitchers that will get promoted? Every pitcher they face in AA will be the best they faced in A ball. I don’t mean to be negative here, I’m just being rational – until they can clobber those superior pitching prospects night after night, they are both Cartaya.
Why doesn’t anyone talk about Jack Dryer ? The lefty we added on our 40 man roster this winter ? This guy has some really good numbers. We were obviously afraid that another team would draft him and put him in the big leagues. He’s been really good wherever he’s played. Yet, no love from any prospect rating groups… or any mention from fans anywhere ??? He could be another Steve Howe, without the drug problems. Just a head scratcher to me…