These prospects could make big leaps on next Top 100 rerank

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We hit a pretty big marker over the weekend at MLB Pipeline. Our first edition of Top 100 Market Corrections went live on Sunday -- the day when players who began the season on MLB Opening Day rosters with zero previous service time graduate from prospect status. In other words, we were going to lose Kristian Campbell, Drake Baldwin and Cam Smith from the Top 100 anyways, so we decided to give the rest of the ranking a sprucing up too.

But a market correction is different from a full rerank. We only do two of those each year -- once in preseason to set the stage for the year, once in midseason to incorporate new Draft picks. This is more about making tweaks, adjusting guys up or down 10-plus spots that really deserve it.

Even so, there are some prospects we didn’t touch at this time but very well could in the next batch of MCs. With those types, it’s important to remember that our current ranking is a snapshot in time in the midst of a season on the move. As the sample of the season expands, we (and other evaluators) will be all the more confident that a player has increased or decreased his stock.

So here are five prospects who could very well jump up the next time we update the list and three others who are off the list for now but have plenty of momentum to join it soon:

Bryce Rainer, SS, Tigers (No. 47): The 2024 11th overall pick played in only two games over the first two-and-a-half weeks of the season for Single-A Lakeland but has been a regular contributor since April 17 -- and a big one at that. He enters Tuesday with a .292/.402/.492 line and three homers over 82 plate appearances. It’s loud contact, too, with a 108.2 mph 90th-percentile exit velocity and a 57.4 percent hard-hit rate in games played in front of Statcast. He’s whiffing more against breaking pitches than is ideal, but this level of thump is hard to ignore from an age-19 shortstop.

Cooper Pratt, SS, Brewers (No. 50): The Southern League is notoriously a tough place to hit, so take Pratt’s .252/.333/.382 line through 32 games for Double-A Biloxi with the appropriate salt. What’s most notable is that he’s cut his strikeout rate from 20.0 percent in his breakout 2024 to 13.4 percent entering Tuesday. That helps solidify the belief that he’s a future above-average hitter, and his slash line should improve as his .272 BABIP normalizes over a larger sample. A Gold Glove winner last year, Pratt just needs the power to show more in game to have one of the most well-rounded shortstop profiles in the Minors.

Travis Sykora, RHP, Nationals (No. 62): We didn’t touch Sykora this round because he’s still rehabbing from offseason hip surgery. He’s made two Florida Complex League starts to this point and has struck out 14 of the 17 batters he faced. The 2023 third-rounder admitted his velocity slipped a little due to the hip problem during what was still a dominant first full season (2.33 ERA, 129 strikeouts in 85 Single-A innings). Now that that issue is cleaned up, he could be in for another leap as he blows away the competition with his fastball-slider-splitter mix.

Trey Yesavage, RHP, Blue Jays (No. 71): The prospect of cold weather in High-A Vancouver was enough of a factor for Toronto to open its 2024 first-rounder at Single-A Dunedin, and the former East Carolina star has dominated the Florida State League appropriately with a 2.22 ERA and 43 K’s in 28 1/3 innings. The stuff has been there too with a mid-90s fastball, mid-80s splitter and upper-80s cutter that have all gotten plenty of whiffs. Yesavage’s current T100 spot is wholly justified, but for him to move up, we want to see the stuff play at least against High-A competition. We won’t have to wait long.

Jonny Farmelo, OF, Mariners (No. 82): The 2023 29th overall pick tore his right ACL after only 46 games last year and didn’t make his 2025 debut until April 29. But he’s been red-hot since joining High-A Everett with four homers, a .781 slugging percentage and 1.124 OPS in seven games. The typical small-sample warnings apply; Farmelo’s seven contests have come at Eugene and Everett -- the two most homer-happy ballparks in the Northwest League. But if this is a sign that Farmelo -- a plus-plus runner -- has developed better than average power, he could have plenty of rocket fuel in the second half.

Jonah Tong, RHP, Mets (NYM No. 6): Sure, Saturday’s 6 2/3 perfect innings help this case, but in actuality, Tong has been a strikeout machine for Double-A Binghamton all season long. The 21-year-old righty’s 44.7 percent strikeout rate through 28 frames is tops among Minor League full-season qualifiers. His four-seam fastball already featured elite ride, and he’s generating swings-and-misses with his mid-70s curveball too. Tong has replicated his 2024 breakout at the upper levels and has a strong case to join the Top 100 in short order.

Luis Peña, SS/3B, Brewers (MIL No. 9): Jesús Made wasn’t alone when he jumped from the Dominican Summer League straight to Single-A Carolina this spring. Peña made a similar leap for his age-18 season, and he’s handling the transition well with a .321/.398/.469 line and 7/9 K/BB over 20 games. He faced more power questions than Made entering 2025 -- a reason why he didn’t receive similar hype -- but has improved the loudness of his contact in the early small sample, leading to more extra-base hits than strikeouts. The longer such a run can continue, the stronger his T100 case.

Gage Jump, LHP, Athletics (ATH No. 13): Coming off Tommy John surgery, Jump used a breakout 2024 at LSU to become the 73rd overall pick in last year’s Draft, and with High-A Lansing this season, he’s shown zero signs of losing momentum with a 2.32 ERA, 45 strikeouts and only five walks in 31 innings. Standing at just 6-foot, the southpaw relies on deception and ride to get a lot of chase on his mid-90s fastball, and he plays off that well with a pair of above-average breaking pitches in his slider and curveball. The walk rate may climb against more selective hitters, and he should get to test that soon, given the way he’s performed. If he can still blow that heat past Double-A bats, then the Top 100 isn’t far off.