Still, there’s plenty to glean. Star Georgia Tech freshman Drew Burress headlines the list following his scorching-hot start to the season. Arkansas leads all schools with four players. LSU, Stanford and Vanderbilt follow with three players each.

Below, find the Top 50 prospects in the class, plus individual reports and brief biographical information for each player. You can find all of our rankings here.

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The 2026 high school class is already shaping up to be a strong one, perhaps the best since a stellar 2023 class. It’s a loaded top 10, and that’s even after two of the premier players in the class—6-foot-8 lefthander/first baseman Kruz Schoolcraft and infielder Quentin Young—reclassified to become 2025 eligible.

It’s a class rich in shortstops at the top, led by Grady Emerson, a potential No. 1 overall pick who checks just about every box scouts look for in a shortstop his age. Behind Emerson, almost every player ranked in the top 10 could have a case to be the No. 2 player in the class, with the class having more depth than is typical too.

Related rankings

• 2024 MLB Draft Rankings
• 2025 MLB Draft Rankings

Among the top 50 prospects, 24 players are uncommitted. That’s more than usual for this time, a result of an NCAA rule change last April designed to slow the recruiting process that prohibits college coaches from contacting players until Aug. 1 leading into their junior year.

Before that rule went into effect, many of the top players in the class had already committed to schools. Leading the way early in the recruiting process is Stanford, which has four top 50 commits in the class, including two in the top 10. Florida is also off to a strong start with three top 50 players, all in-state recruits.

The usual hotbed states for talent have the most players on the list. Florida high schools have the most of any state with 11 players in the top 50, followed by California, Texas and Georgia.

Below are our rankings of the top players in the 2026 class with scouting reports on every player.

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Clemson outfielder Cam Cannarella remains atop the list after winning ACC freshman of the year last season. While a long way to go until the 2025 draft, the outfield crop already looks particularly strong, comprising four of the first five spots in the rankings.

Florida State, Ole Miss and Tennessee all have four players on the list, tied for the most of any program in the country.

Baseball America subscribers can see scouting reports for each player in the Top 100 below. You can also find our updated high school rankings here, plus our full college preview here as we inch closer to the start of the 2024 season.

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The 2025 high school class looks stronger than 2024. Shortstop Ethan Holliday remains the No. 1 player in the country with a pretty lefthanded swing, a great eye for the strike zone and big power potential from his 6-foot-4 frame.

There are several shortstops toward the top of the rankings, including Coy James, who was already playing shortstop for Team USA at the U-18 World Cup last year on a team of nearly all 2024 players.

Among colleges, LSU easily leads the way with 11 recruits in the Top 100 and three in the top 10, headlined by shortstop Brady Ebel and outfielder Dean Moss. Those 11 commits from the Top 100 are more than double the next two teams, with Vanderbilt and Wake Forest each having five Top 100 players. Vanderbilt has four commits ranked among the top 25 prospects, including the top pitcher in the country with righthander Seth Hernandez and a big recent addition with infielder/outfielder Sean Gamble. Several schools have four Top 100 commits, including Georgia, which has a pair of premium in-state hitters in its recruiting class with outfielder Ty Peeples and shortstop Josh Gibbs.

Nearly all of the Top 100 players have a college commitment. Six players are still uncommitted, the most prominent being Kruz Schoolcraft, a 6-foot-8 lefthander/first baseman who reclassified from the 2026 class and has high upside both as a hitter and a pitcher. Two of those uncommitted players—outfielders Alec Blair with basketball and Micah Matthews with football—are navigating the recruiting process as two-sport standouts.

California high schools have 21 players ranked among the Top 10 prospects, the most of any state. Florida is next, followed by Texas, with Texas in particular well-represented in the top half of the list. North Carolina has a strong 2025 class as well with players like James, righthanders Josh Hammond and Tyler Baird and outfielder Everett Johnson, among others.

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The 2025 MLB Draft class appears stronger than 2024, especially at the high school level. Shortstop Ethan Holliday ranks No. 1 entering the prep season. The top of the list also features several recognizable stars at the college ranks who enjoyed loud starts to the season.

Florida State leads all colleges with four players on the list. Ole Miss follows suit with three players. High school baseball fans should keep an eye on Corona (Calif.) High School’s junior class this season, too. Corona has three players on the list, the most of any high school.

LSU fans will surely cross their fingers and hope at least some of this class makes it to campus in two years. The Tigers have the most commits (six) of any program in the country. Vanderbilt is next up with four commits. Only two high schoolers on the list remain uncommitted entering the 2024 spring season.

Check out our updated Top 100 below, complete with new scouting reports. You can also find the Top 100 College Prospects here and the Top 100 High School Prospects here.

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This year’s class has less clear-cut consensus at the top to begin the year and features several candidates who could emerge as the potential No. 1 overall pick in the draft. That sets us up for a potentially very intriguing spring depending on how some of the top names fare.

LSU leads all schools with seven players ranked in the Top 100, headlined by star 3B Tommy White. Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Tennessee are also well-represented on the list.

See the Top 100 players plus full scouting reports below. You can find our overall 2024 MLB Draft Top 200 here.

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By Carlos Collazo

Well, it’s finally here—the 2021 BA 500!

No, we’re not late, but this is the deepest into the calendar year we have ever released the BA 500, as the 2021 draft is the first to be moved into July and tied to the MLB All-Star Break.

Baseball has largely put Covid-19 behind it this spring, but the 2021 draft class has still felt the ripple effects of the pandemic. While it won’t be remembered as the Covid draft in the same way the five-round 2020 draft last year will be, there’s an argument to be made that the 2021 draft class is equally impacted by the virus—if not more so. 

Scouts wondered if that would be the case a year ago, as Covid largely blew up the summer evaluation period for scouts and players alike, especially amongst the college ranks. No Collegiate National Team. No Cape Cod League. No 18U National Team. While many high school events took place in the South, players from the West Coast were more limited in their options and scouts themselves had to miss events entirely due to personnel restrictions (and in some cases layoffs) and further step into the world of video scouting by writing reports remotely. 

That dynamic has led to plenty of volatility during the season as players who previously didn’t have a chance to establish a track record or baseline of performance stood out, and others with some history struggled. Teams are now left to try and sort out the signal from the noise by more heavily relying on area scouts and their history and/or adjusting their models to incorporate a much smaller sample of college stats. 

Those factors—on top of the exceptional depth of the 2021 class thanks to the five-round draft last year that brought back many players who would have been drafted in a typical year—have led to less consensus on the class than ever.

“This year I have no expectations because it is so wide open,” said one scouting director. “When I walk into that draft room the night of the draft I wouldn’t be surprised if it was completely all over the place in terms of where guys go. Just not a lot of consensus.”

There’s not a consensus No. 1 player in the class and instead a group of five players are generally seen as the top tier of talent. That group includes toolsy prep shortstops Jordan Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer, renowned Vanderbilt righthanders Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker and Louisville catcher Henry Davis, who was one of the best performers of the season.

After a full spring, the high school class looks more impressive than the college group. The 2021 class has a chance to be one of the best prep shortstop classes we’ve ever seen, with four potential top-10 picks at the position and a slew of intriguing depth options as well. Outside of the shortstops there is a bounty of up-the-middle position players with unusually impressive athleticism and tools. 

The high school pitching group, led by righthanders Jackson Jobe and Andrew Painter, seems close to average, with several legitimate first-round talents and perhaps more lefthanded pitching depth than in an average class.

Scouting departments were worried about the college hitting class entering the year, but there was hope that throughout the spring players would step forward and make it at least average. That doesn’t appear to have been the case. Most evaluators see the college hitters as the weakest demographic of the group—with a notable absence of shortstops and corner profiles with power—and it’s a solidly below-average college hitting class overall.

The college pitching saw attrition during the season as potential top-10 players like Gunnar Hoglund and Jaden Hill suffered season-ending injuries, but the group seems solid or a tick above-average on talent—but significantly below-average in terms of innings and established track record.

Overall, the 2021 class seems weaker than teams would prefer at the very top, but with elite depth that might leave organizations more excited with their draftees on Days Two and Three than in a typical year.

We will continue to make tweaks and adjust the BA 500 as necessary as we get closer to draft day. 

*BA Grades and Tool Grades — We’re excited to roll out BA Grades and tool grades for the top 200 players in the class for the first time. BA readers familiar with the Prospect Handbook should be familiar with these grades, which are based on the 20-80 scouting scale. Our attempt is to provide a deeper understanding of the class in a quantifiable manner and to also make it easier for readers to have a rough estimate of where a player might rank within a team’s Top 30 once they are drafted. Please note that all player grades and tool grades are future grades, not present grades.

**Rapscores — 85% of Baseball America’s Top 500 MLB prospects use Rapsodo data for player development and evaluation. In collaboration with Driveline Baseball, Rapsodo developed RapScore as a standard scale for scouting and recruiting. Utilizing the principles of the 20-80 scale and the verified data collected by Rapsodo’s technology, RapScore provides a quantifiable way to compare athletes of all ages. Players that complete a Rapsodo Certified Assessment receive a RapScore and are listed on the Rapsodo National Player Database.

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Baseball America’s draft rankings are an attempt to capture the industry’s consensus on the talent of the 2024 draft class. The list was compiled in consultation with MLB scouts, front office executives, scouting directors, college coaches and other professional evaluators.

After five weeks of the college season we’re updating our 2024 draft list and expanding to the top 300 players in the class.

This class has been defined by its wide open nature at the very top for some time now, and that remains the case with significant movement in all areas of the list below. There’s a new No. 1 prospect on the board as Georgia’s Charlie Condon has used an exceptional offensive start to the season to make his 1-1 case while former Nos. 1 & 2 JJ Wetherholt and Nick Kurtz have both dealt with injuries and fallen back.

While Condon is in the No. 1 spot for now, there’s still plenty of competition at the top of the draft. Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana has continued mashing and is showing a bit more power, Florida two-way star Jac Caglianone has shined on both sides of the ball and both Wake Forest righthander Chase Burns and Arkansas lefthander Hagen Smith are making sure teams keep an open mind about selecting a pitcher up top as well.

Ultimately the 1-1 decision for the Guardians could come down to who continues performing (and remains healthy) throughout conference play.

Mock Draft Version 1.0

Carlos Collazo’s first in-season mock maps out projections for every team in the first round.

READ MORE

While there are plenty of college players in the mix at the top of the board and throughout the first round, there’s a shocking lack of high school prospects in the mix. Only five prep prospects rank inside the top 30 in this update. A demographic that was perceived as below-average entering the year hasn’t been helped by a number of slow starts for many Southern state prepsters who are sliding. 

Perhaps that will change as players up north get started in the coming weeks. As of now, the first round is shaping up as extremely college-heavy.

Below BA subscribers can see the full top 300 with scouting reports for each player.

Related Content

• Top 100 College Prospects
• Top 100 High School Prospects
• How The Top 2024 Draft Prospects Can Get Even Better
• Diving Into The Fastball Characteristics Of The 2024 Class
• Analyzing Fastball Shapes In The 2024 Class
• Diving Into Data With The Top 2024 College Hitters
• 2024 MLB Draft Tracker
• 2024 MLB Draft Order, Lottery Odds

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Plenty could change between now and the MLB draft in July, especially considering this year’s crop of talent is relatively down compared to year’s past. Still, there’s a certain amount of predictability to what will unfold over the next several months.

Max Clark and Walker Jenkins were our top two prospects, respectively, at this time a year ago in our 2023 high school rankings. Both went on to become top-five picks and now rank among baseball’s 20 best prospects.

The first 13 high school players drafted, from Clark at No. 1 to shortstop Tai Peete at 30th overall to the Mariners, ranked among the top 35 high school players in our rankings a year out from the draft.

We can feel confident that the first-round picks from the 2024 high school class will mostly come from the top 50 players on this list, and that most of the Day 1 picks will already be ranked on our Top 100.

There’s work to be done, though. This year’s crop of high school talent lacks an abundance of premium up-the-middle profiles with hitting chops. There’s also no clear frontline pitching prospect like Noble Meyer or Andrew Painter in recent classes, although the pitching depth is enticing.

LSU has the most commits (11) of any program in the Top 100. Tennessee follows suit with nine commits.

You can find the updated high school rankings below complete with scouting reports. You can see our Top 200 draft rankings folding in college prospects here.

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The Baseball America Top 100 Prospects rankings are our 35th edition of our flagship prospect ranking, which means the players included below are part of a fraternity of the best prospects in baseball that stretches from 1990 (which included Hall of Famer Frank Thomas) through the 2000s (where 2004-2005 No. 1 prospect Joe Mauer is expected to be voted into the Hall of Fame next week) and now into the 2020s.

The initial preseason list in January was a culmination of an offseason of work. To report the list, we have discussions with MLB scouts, coaches, analysts and front office officials. We also see players in person and utilize as much data as we can get our hands on. It also relies on all the reporting we did to produce our Top 30 Prospects rankings online as well as the Baseball America Prospect Handbook.

Players are eligible if they have not exceeded 130 MLB at-bats, 50 innings pitched or 30 pitching appearances. Service time does not play a role in whether players are eligible for this ranking.

Now, with the season underway, our April update takes into account new reporting and strong performances already this spring. You’ll find several risers, including Pirates RHP Jared Jones and Reds RHP Rhett Lowder, and new names at the back of the list. Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn also graduated off the list.

Beginning this year, we are not including players who are classified by MLB as “foreign professionals” when they sign (i.e. players 25 or older who are eligible to sign MLB contacts immediately). So Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jung Ho Lee and Shota Imanaga do not appear in the rankings. We do have a story that explains where they would have ranked if eligible.

Players in the Top 100 Prospects list are ranked for their long-term MLB impact, with allowances for the risk that they will fall short of that ceiling. The tools grades listed for each player are all future grades of what we project them to be in the best stretch of their big league careers.

Additional Top 100 Content

• 15 players who just missed the list
• 9 players primed to rise the Top 100 in 2024
• Who could be the No. 1 prospect in 2025?
• 2024 Baseball America Top 100 by the numbers
• The Orioles continue their unprecedented run of No. 1 prospects
• Where would Yamamoto, Lee and Imanaga rank on the list?
• Here’s why Leodalis De Vries is a Top 100 prospect
• Baseball America staffers’ personal top 50s
• Podcast: The BA staff breaks down the Top 100 prospects
• All-time No. 1 prospects dating back to 1990
• Go even deeper: Here’s the Top 10 Prospects in every system

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