There’s a new No. 1 on Keith Law’s list of the best minor league prospects. At the start of the year, San Diego Padres’ SS Fernando Tatis Jr. and Toronto Blue Jays’ 3B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. headlined the list, but both players are now lighting it up in the majors. That has lifted Tampa Bay Rays’ SS Wander Franco from the No. 3 spot to the No. 1 spot at the midseason mark.
My midseason ranking of the top 50 prospects in baseball is now up for ESPN+ subscribers: https://t.co/RNm9yVxZ6i
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) July 11, 2019
The hype surrounding Franco is massive. It’s not often we see someone in High A ball listed as the top prospect in baseball, but there’s plenty of reason to be excited about his potential. He just turned 18 on March 1, and he has already been promoted from Low A to High A.
In 62 games at Bowling Green, Franco’s triple slash numbers were .318/.390/.506, and he has raked since being promoted to Tampa Bay’s High A team in the Florida State League. In 11 games with the Charlotte Stone Crabs, Franco has a 1.083 OPS and he has outstanding plate discipline for such a young hitter.
Franco already has a major league pedigree too. He is the nephew of Willy Aybar and Erick Aybar, and two of his older brothers played minor league ball.
#Padres prospects:
2. LHP MacKenzie Gore
16. RHP Luis Patiño
27. INF Luis Urías
28. INF C.J. Abrams
46. INF Xavier Edwards
HM: LHP Adrian Morejon https://t.co/fl71OIlfhS— John Nolan (@John_G_Nolan) July 11, 2019
Even though Tatis is in the majors, the Padres’ farm system is still the envy of the baseball world. San Diego had a whopping 10 of the top 100 prospects in baseball at the beginning of the season, and they placed 5 in Keith Law’s updated top 50.
MacKenzie Gore could be in the majors by the end of the season. The left-hander was recently promoted to the Double-A Amarillo Sod Poodles after posting some obscene numbers with the Lake Elsinore Storm of the California League. He went 7-1 with a 1.02 ERA in 15 starts, and he posted a 12.2 K/9 in 79 innings of A ball.
H/T ESPN
