For most top young baseball players, the goal is the same: reaching the majors. But the path can take many shapes. There are United States high school and college stars vying to become top MLB draft picks. There are also international teenagers signing with major league teams at age 16 and older foreign players starring in professional leagues before jumping directly to MLB.
That can make tracking future big leaguers daunting, so here is the second annual version of a new way to present the best young players: grouped by their birth year.
To rank the top players at each age -- from 16 to 25 -- we'll start with the group born in 1999 and rank them based on whom I'd want on my team going forward. Then we'll move ahead until we get to players born in 2008.
1999
Guerrero, Tatis and Greene are a clear top three for this group, and they stay in the same order as they did last year. That's not something you will see often in these rankings (and a big reason this exercise becomes less entertaining for players older than 25). Lewis has trouble staying healthy but is still showing star potential when on the field, while Crochet went from busted prospect to front-line starter during a disaster of a year for the White Sox organization as a whole.
The rest of this list is made up of players I liked as prospects who have been able to make adjustments and figure it out at the big league level; a lot of those who just missed were due to injury, limited opportunities or too short a run of success. The 2024 breakouts include Mark Vientos, Wilyer Abreu, Heliot Ramos, Christian Scott, Reese Olson, Jacob Young and Joey Loperfido. The former top prospects who haven't quite broken through but are still solid players with a shot to turn into more include Grayson Rodriguez, MacKenzie Gore, Shane Baz, Brayan Bello, Bobby Miller, Heston Kjerstad and Jordan Wicks.
Geraldo Perdomo was the last cut, and Reid Detmers, Brett Baty, Jarred Kelenic and Miguel Vargas fell off the list because their big league performance hasn't matched their potential over the past year.
2000
Witt has turned into one of the best players in the sport and leaped to the top of another crop of established big league stars. Cowser, Greene and Abrams have all made strides this season; breakouts from Schwellenbach and Butler have thrust them into the top 10. Japanese infielder Munetaka Murakami, who looked like a potential star posting candidate, has really fallen off over the past two seasons. He is the only player from last year's top six who doesn't appear in this edition. Nolan Gorman, Oswald Peraza and Alek Thomas also fell out of the top 10.
Who could break into this year's list by next season? On the prospect side, some names to watch include Quinn Mathews, Brandon Sproat, Drew Gilbert and Jacob Melton. Zebby Matthews, Tyler Black, David Festa, Justin Wrobleski, Kyle Manzardo and Trey Sweeney have all had big league time this season. Triston Casas and Ceddanne Rafaela have shown flashes for Boston, while Luis Garcia Jr. has had a breakout season for the Nationals. If Bryan Woo can post bulk innings like some of his rotation mates in Seattle, he also could break onto the list next season.
2001
Henderson is now one of the best players in the sport. Sasaki could be coming to the majors from Japan this winter, with a chance to be a front-line starter. Harris, Neto, Volpe and Alvarez are all established big leaguers who could grow into perennial All-Stars. Jones, Langford and Mayo all debuted this year, and Rushing is a candidate to make his debut in September as an outfielder.
This is the first age where we really start seeing prospects competing with current major leaguers, which leaves some intriguing players on the wrong side of the top 10. On the prospect side, Chase Dollander, Brooks Lee, Chase DeLauter, Drake Baldwin, Matt Shaw, Ronny Mauricio, Orelvis Martinez and Alex Freeland are among the leading options to make this list next year. Among major leaguers who have graduated from prospect status, Ezequiel Tovar, Colt Keith, Taj Bradley, DJ Herz, Brayan Rocchio, Noelvi Marte, Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong have all shown flashes.
2002
This group is headlined by two of the brightest young stars in the entire sport followed by a smattering of current and recent top 20 overall prospects. There also are a handful of players who have made recent MLB debuts and could play their way onto this list with a hot month or two (Pete Crow-Armstrong, Jordan Lawlar, Jacob Wilson), along with some arrow-up collegiate draftees from the past two classes (Kyle Teel, JJ Wetherholt, Kristian Campbell, Luke Keaschall, Rhett Lowder, Brayden Taylor, George Klassen, Christian Moore). Ricky Tiedemann fell off the list due to a rough 2024 ended by an elbow surgery, while Jordan Walker, who ranked No. 4 last year, was just sent back down to Triple-A to work things out at the plate.
2003
After the best rookie position player in baseball at the top spot, this group is mostly just the top fifth of my updated pro Top 100. It feels like there are a lot of future All-Star appearances in this bunch -- and the future of the Rays franchise might depend on how close the three position players on this list get to hitting their upside.
The list of players who just missed this year includes Jasson Dominguez, Jac Caglianone, Chase Burns, Jett Williams and Moises Ballesteros. This also is the earliest birth year that amateur players are still a factor, but because the 2025 MLB draft crop looks below average right now, none of the top collegiate prospects (led by Texas A&M outfielder Jace LaViolette) makes this ranking.
2004
Other than Chourio remaining in the top spot, there is movement all over this list. Dropping out of the top 10 are Termarr Johnson (hasn't had the expected offensive impact), Cam Collier (has made progress this year, but still just missed), Miguel Bleis (shoulder injury slowed his momentum), Samuel Zavala (might have been overhyped), Jarlin Susana (surging, was the final cut), Brandon Barriera (elbow surgery) and Ethan Petry (a down sophomore year).
Basallo was mentioned as a rising prospect in last year's version, along with Miller, McGonigle, Mitchell and Eldridge. Thomas White, Aidan Smith, Luke Adams, Drew Burress (2026 draft's top collegiate prospect), Tyler Bremner and Jamie Arnold (the two top college pitchers in the 2025 draft) are the top guys to keep an eye on from the just-missed group.
2005
This list has changed the most of any group since last year's edition in May, at a time when only the top 10 to 15 picks of the 2023 draft were clear, the 2024 draft showcase season hadn't started and the 2023 January international signing class hadn't played a pro game.
Jenkins (one of the clear parts of the 2023 draft at that point) and De Paula (a younger signee in the 2022 international class) held strong, but Emerson -- the big post-draft mover in the 2023 draft class -- splits them up. Quintero, Celesten and Caba hadn't played a pro game at the time of last year's edition, but Celesten was pegged as a top player in his class years in advance while Quintero and Caba have since come on in pro ball.
George Lombard Jr. and Charlee Soto were the last two guys on the list last year and were two of the last cuts this year. Other close misses include Jefferson Rojas, Ralphy Velazquez, Theo Gillen, Arjun Nimmala and Brando Mayea.
2006
While the context for the 2005 group has changed a lot in the past year, this group actually seems pretty well-defined, in large part because of the proliferation of scouting and TrackMan data in the Dominican Summer League. Pena is one of the breakout players in the league this summer, Rodriguez was traded at least year's deadline out of the DSL and Morales expectedly dominated the DSL this summer.
The Padres habitually sign top talents in the international market and also move prospects quickly through the minors, so it's no surprise that they did both in back-to-back signing classes with de Vries and Salas, who are both already in the top half of my top 100. Walcott and Griffin are both big, toolsy, righty-hitting infielders with power who are working out the finer points offensively in the low minors. Francisca, Guerrero and Duno were known names at this point last year who have broken out in a big way.
From the just-missed group, we have other top international signees with limited pro experience (Fernando Cruz, Jose Perdomo, Humberto Cruz), strong pro performers (Rayner Arias, Eduardo Beltre, Daiber De Los Santos, Paulino Santana), some younger 2024 draft prospects (Cam Caminiti, Slade Caldwell, Ryan Sloan, Dax Whitney, Braylon Payne) and some older 2025 draft prospects (Xavier Neyens, Seth Hernandez, Brock Sell).
2007
I provided a deep breakdown of Made when I recently ranked him the No. 45 prospect in pro baseball. Holliday and Lombard are potential No. 1 overall picks in different draft classes who are infielders with pro bloodlines and first-round-pick/top-prospect older brothers -- but also with some holes in their in-game performance résumé. Pena and Gonzalez are the top two prospects who will sign in January (Pena likely with the Mets, Gonzalez with the Giants), while Padilla, Garcia, Cova and Hurtado had strong debuts as some of the best younger signees from last January's signing class.
There's another diverse group of just-missed types, with candidates from the 2025 draft class (Eli Willits, Lucas Franco, Cam Appenzeller, Kruz Schoolcraft, Aaron Watson) and the 2026 draft class (Anthony Del Angel, Ethan Bass, Bo Holloway) along with more members of last winter's international signing class (Adriel Radney, Ashly Andujar, Jhonny Level).
2008
This group contains the younger collection of the 2026 draft prep prospects (a very strong class), the younger players in the January 2025 international signing class (which isn't that strong) and the older players in the 2026 international signing class (which looks pretty good). Emerson has been pegged as the top player in the 2026 draft class for at least a year, and I think he still is. But he has competition from Lombard, Harris, Ponatoski, Kevin Roberts Jr., Del Angel and Bass on the prep side, along with Burress, Gavin Grahovac, Liam Peterson, Daniel Cuvet and A.J. Gracia on the collegiate side.
Hernandez is likely to sign with the Giants and could give San Francisco back-to-back years with top-of-the-class types, while Valdez (likely to sign with the Rays) looks like another one of this year's best. One 2009-born player worth mentioning is arguably the top player in the 2026 signing class, just a month from being 2027-eligible: Dominican-born shortstop Wandy Asigen (likely to sign with the Yankees).