Since we started giving out awards for the top hitting prospect in the game in 2013, honorees have gone on to earn a combined 24 All-Star nods (through the 2025 season) while notching (not including 2025) a collective nine Silver Sluggers, three Rookie of Year and two MVP Awards, while also winning a pair of home run titles.
So it’s worth paying attention to who takes home this season’s Hitting Prospect of the Year. The winner will be announced during MLB Network’s third annual MiLB Awards Show at 9 p.m. ET on Sept. 29.
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Here are the three finalists for the honor. Only Minor League stats were considered in choosing award finalists, who were selected by MLB Pipeline's staff.
Konnor Griffin, SS/OF, Pirates (No. 1/MLB No. 1)
Age: 19
Single-A: .338/.398/.536, 50 G, 9 HR, 10 2B, 2 3B, 36 RBIs, 15 BB, 53 K, 26 SB
High-A: .325/.432/.510, 51 G, 7 HR, 11 2B, 2 3B, 36 RBIs, 28 BB, 46 K, 33 SB
Double-A: .337/.418/.542, 21 G, 5 HR, 2 2B, 22 RBIs, 7 BB, 23 K, 6 SB
Total: .333/.415/.527, 122 G, 21 HR, 23 2B, 4 3B, 94 RBIs, 50 BB, 122 K, 65 SB
The No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 Draft entered pro ball with the reputation of having perhaps the best all-around raw tools of anyone in his class, albeit with some questions about his hit tool/ability to make contact. Some mechanical adjustments at the plate helped him quell those concerns, and then some. The Pirates, who often will tread carefully with high school talent, had no choice but to send him to full-season ball to start the season after an impressive Spring Training. Griffin forced their hand twice more and he finished the year in the Double-A Eastern League playoffs at age 19, sitting atop MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list. His 165 wRC+ was tops among all Minor Leaguers with at least 400 plate appearances, and he did all of that while playing a much better shortstop than expected, all but ending thoughts about him ending up in center field.
Kevin McGonigle, SS, Tigers (No. 1/MLB No. 2)
Age: 21
Single-A: .235/.350/.353, 6 G, 2 2B, 3 BB, 1 K
High-A: .372/.462/.648, 36 G, 7 HR, 19 2B, 39 RBIs, 23 BB, 19 K, 3 SB
Double-A: .254/.369/.550, 46 G, 12 HR, 10 2B, 2 3B, 41 RBIs, 33 BB, 26 K, 7 SB
Total: .305/.408/.583, 88 G, 19 HR, 31 2B, 2 3B, 80 RBIs, 59 BB, 46 K, 10 SB
McGonigle’s 182 wRC+ bests Griffin’s mark, though he finished just shy of the 400 PA threshold, cementing himself as the best pure hitting prospect in the game with a 2025 season that landed him in the Eastern League championship. Slowed early by an ankle injury suffered on Opening Day that kept him out for just over a month, McGonigle continued to walk more than he struck out and now has a career 15 percent walk rate and just 10.3 percent strikeout rate in the Minors. His ability to make quality contact consistently helped him get to his power more as he set career bests in homers, doubles, extra-base hits and total bases. Whether he sticks at short or ends up at second doesn’t matter much as that hit tool should get him to the big leagues in 2026.
Wetherholt, a product of the University of West Virginia, went two picks in front of Griffin in the 2024 Draft, No. 7 overall. He entered the pro game as perhaps the most advanced hitter in his class. (He and No. 1 pick Travis Bazzana were often brought up in the same discussion.) Going straight to Double-A to start his first full season, Wetherholt did nothing to dampen his reputation. He walked nearly as often as he struck out, showed off considerable extra-base power and put his previous hamstring issues from college behind him by topping 20 steals. All of that resulted in a 151 wRC+ while he showed off some defensive versatility to provide different avenues to get that impressive bat into the big league lineup next year.
Previous winners:
2013: Byron Buxton, MIN
2014: Kris Bryant, CHC
2015: Kyle Schwarber, CHC
2016: Alex Bregman, HOU
2017: Ronald Acuña Jr., ATL
2018: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., TOR
2019: Luis Robert Jr., CWS
2020: None (COVID)
2021: Anthony Volpe, NYY
2022: Gunnar Henderson, BAL
2023: Jackson Holliday, BAL
2024: Kristian Campbell, BOS