The 10 biggest breakouts on the new Top 100 Prospects list
MLB Pipeline unveiled our annual in-season rerank this week, and the Top 100 Prospects list looks significantly different. Forty-one players who weren't on the preseason Top 100 are now on the list, including 12 from the 2025 Draft class.
We have a brand-new top 10 and No. 1 prospect Konnor Griffin moved into the top spot only a few weeks ago. Elsewhere on the Top 100, dozens of other players moved up, down and even off the list.
On the latest MLB Pipeline Podcast, Jim Callis and Sam Dykstra -- along with host Jason Ratliff -- dug into some of those changes, highlighting 10 players unranked on our preseason list who made the jump onto the new Top 100.
Here are the 10 biggest breakouts on the Top 100 list:
Luis Peña, INF, Brewers (No. 16)
Peña's teammate and runningmate, Jesus Made, leapt 51 spots from his preseason ranking into the top five. But Peña's emergence from unranked to No. 16 overall is at least equally impressive. The 18-year-old was overshadowed by Made when both signed as part of Milwaukee's 2024 international class (Made for $950K, Peña for $800K), and both seemed primed for breakouts after excellent debuts in the Dominican Summer League. Those happened in tandem with Peña producing 26 extra-base hits and 40 steals in 71 games at Single-A Carolina. He was leading the Carolina League with a .307 average in 71 games at the time of his promotion to High-A Wisconsin last week.
Carson Benge, OF, Mets (No. 20)
Benge snuck onto the Top 100 in a rare March move related to injury and spent the next few months asserting himself with authority, courtesy of one of the best offensive seasons in the Minors this year. The 22-year-old really turned it on after a midseason promotion to Double-A Binghamton, where he homered eight times in 32 games (double his homer output at High-A in almost half the games) to earn another promotion to Triple-A Syracuse. All told, the '24 first-rounder was hitting .308/.413/.513 with 12 homers and 19 steals across three levels during his first full pro season at the time of the rerank.
George Lombard Jr., SS, Yankees (No. 25)
The first in-season replacement on the Top 100, Lombard's ability to show solid across-the-board tools and high baseball IQ led him to sign for an above-slot $3.3 million as the 26th overall pick in the 2023 Draft. His coming-out party happened this spring at High-A, where he opened the season on a .329/.495/.488 tear. Though he's been challenged since jumping a level, he's still produced seven homers and 29 steals as a 20-year-old this season, most of it at Double-A.
Payton Tolle, LHP, Red Sox (No. 28)
The most recent addition to the Top 100, Tolle crept onto the back half of the list in July before taking a huge leap forward, rising more than 60 spots to rank as the third-highest left-handed pitching prospect in the game. Boston's second-rounder from the 2024 Draft, Tolle didn't debut until this season and has already jumped three levels, reaching Triple-A last weekend. Armed with an elite fastball and great extension, he sports 119 strikeouts in 81 2/3 innings so far in his first pro season.
Nolan McLean, RHP, Mets (No. 37)
The Mets have had a recent trend of top pitching prospects struggling in their first taste of Triple-A, but not McLean. After an uneven first full season in '24, the '23 second-rounder reached the Minors' highest level after only five starts and emerged as one of the best pitchers in the International League, posting a 2.78 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning across 16 appearances (13 starts). McLean's best weapon is his 70-grade sweeper, which he can spin at upward of 3,000 rpm. And it's hurtled him to The Show, he's expected to make his MLB debut on Saturday against the Mariners.
Ryan Sloan, RHP, Mariners (No. 42)
If Sloan is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball at this point next season, don't say we didn't warn you. The 19-year-old is looking like one of the best steals of the '24 Draft, when he went to Seattle at 58th overall out of the Illinois prep ranks. A year later, he's striking out more than a batter per inning and walking less than two per nine, and he's surrendered only two homers in 70 2/3 innings so far at Single-A.
Jonah Tong, RHP, Mets (No. 44)
Three of the 10 players on this list are Mets, and Tong is the epitome of a breakout prospect with his Tim Lincecum comps and eye-popping strikeout numbers. The 22-year-old reached Double-A down the stretch last season and absolutely dominated the level this year, posting a 1.59 ERA in 20 starts before heading to Triple-A with Benge and others to start the week. He leads the Minors with 162 strikeouts -- 27 more than the next closest pitcher at the time of our rerank.
Eduardo Quintero, OF, Dodgers (No. 55)
The 19-year-old Quintero has been putting up numbers since signing out of Venezuela in 2023, and that translated to full-season ball this season. He hit .306/.426/.533 with 14 homers and 35 steals at Single-A Rancho Cucamonga to earn a midseason promotion to High-A. The Dodgers are ranked as baseball's top farm system on the strength of breakouts like the one they've seen from Quintero, who signed for a modest $297,500. He is one of four Dodgers outfielders on our new Top 100.
Gage Jump, LHP, Athletics (No. 58)
The A's success developing position-player prospects is plainly obvious at the big league level, but they are seeing encouraging things from some pitchers too. That's certainly true of Jump, whom they drafted in Competitive Balance Round B in '24 and have watched flourish in his pro debut this season. The 22-year-old pitched his way to Double-A by mid-May and sports a 1.81 ERA across 64 2/3 innings in the hitter-happy Texas League.
C.J. Kayfus, 1B/OF, Guardians (No. 59)
Size and positional questions dogged this third-round pick from '23, but he's just kept swatting them all away. Kayfus swung his way up the Guardians' Minor League ladder, onto our Top 100 and all the way to Cleveland in recent weeks. Outperforming other more heralded prospects, the career .293/.395/.525 hitter in the Minors eventually made it so the Guardians couldn't ignore his offensive potential any longer, and he rose from off the board to the middle of the Top 100.