Cycles! Three-homer games! Stars … well, doing star things! The game’s top two prospects -- the Pirates' Konnor Griffin (who made his Double-A debut) and the Tigers' Kevin McGonigle -- wore fantastic alternate uniforms on the same night. The Mets’ pitching pipeline continued to chug along and 2024 first-rounder Hagen Smith (White Sox) celebrated his birthday with a gem. Here's the best of the best across the Minor Leagues:
Kevin McGonigle, SS, Erie (DET No. 1/MLB No. 2)
The stage was set for McGonigle: Moon Mammoths uniforms. MiLB Free Game of the Day status. Facing fellow Top 100 prospect Jarlin Susana. And then somehow, he superseded it. Few balls have ever landed where McGonigle’s fourth-inning roundtripper did for Erie. He turned around a 100.2 mph fastball from Susana and parked it over a neighboring building. Suiting up for the first time since turning 21 on Monday, McGonigle added a double to account for his 24th multihit game of the season. Among all qualified Minor Leaguers, the Pennsylvania native leads the sport in wRC+ (191), posting a .333/.428/.617 slash line across three levels. His tape-measure homer marked his seventh in 27 Double-A contests, and he’s added 27 RBIs and an 18/13 BB/K ratio in his first taste of the upper Minors. Full story | Gameday
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Jarlin Susana, RHP, Harrisburg (WSH No. 3/MLB No. 72)
Matched up against a Double-A Erie lineup that is regarded as one of the best in the Minors with four players who have spent time on the Top 100 Prospects list, Susana didn’t blink. But if you blinked, you likely missed his triple-digit fastball, which he relied on while strong-arming his way to a career-high 13 strikeouts. The radar gun flashed as high as 103 mph as Susana enjoyed a stretch of setting down six straight batters via the K over his five frames of one-run ball. A Grade 1 UCL sprain sidelined Susana earlier this year, but the velo has come back fruitfully for the 21-year-old. In three August starts, batters are hitting just .131 off the 6-foot-6 hurler and his season K/9 rate has climbed to a near-outrageous 14.9 across two levels. Gameday
Hagen Smith, LHP, Birmingham (CWS No. 5/MLB No. 92)
Getting the ball on his 22nd birthday, Smith turned in one of his best outings of the summer for the Double-A Barons. With his heater sitting consistently in the 93-96 mph range and his two-plane breaking ball devastating hitters, Smith finished with seven strikeouts across five frames with just one run allowed. He scattered two singles and two walks, with just four balls leaving the infield. The fifth overall pick in the 2024 Draft, Smith has had an uneven first full year (3.54 ERA, 40 walks in 59 IP) but hasn't allowed more than three runs in all 16 of his starts while holding opposing batters to a .167 average. His 34.1 strikeout rate leads all White Sox Minor Leaguers who have thrown at least 50 innings in 2025. Gameday
Brandon Sproat, RHP, Syracuse (NYM No. 5)
Any concerns about how Sproat would rebound from a rough start in his last go-round were quickly assuaged when the 24-year-old struck out the side for Triple-A Syracuse to open his 24th start of the season. He added five more K's over his six innings of one-run ball, notching them on four different offerings -- sweeper, sinker, changeup and four-seam fastball. His heater, which he threw 41 percent of the time, averaged 97 mph and was clocked as high as 99.2 as he crossed the 110-inning threshold for the second consecutive year. Batters have found Sproat difficult to square up in 2025, with his 17.8 percent line-drive rate the second-lowest among all Mets prospects throwing at least 55 frames. Gameday
Gage Stanifer, RHP, Vancouver (TOR No. 6)
It took Stanifer a bit to pop up on prospect radars after Toronto inked him as a 19th-round Draft choice out of the Indiana high school ranks in 2022. But the development has been worth the wait. The 21-year-old spun his 10th scoreless outing between two levels, delivering six shutout frames with just one hit allowed and eight strikeouts for High-A Vancouver. Canadians history was narrowly eluded as Stanifer allowed a leadoff single before retiring 17 of his final 19 batters. No matter his role in 2025 (his first 11 outings of the year came as the back end of piggyback appearances), Stanifer has piled up punchouts. He’s up to 137 in 91 IP (tied for fourth-most in the Minors) and batters haven't made impactful contact either; he’s allowed just one home run and an opponents’ .524 OPS. Gameday
Cameron Cauley, SS/OF/2B, Frisco (TEX No. 17)
When you’ve got 70-grade wheels like Cauley, homers aren’t usually how you bring home the bacon. In fact, the 22-year-old had gone deep just once across 112 plate appearances in the second half. But you can’t predict ball. Cauley drilled a leadoff homer off rehabbing Astros right-hander Luis Garcia. Then he did it again in the third. And with Double-A Frisco needing a little insurance, he swatted his third roundtripper in the ninth, bringing his season total up to a dozen in one fell swoop. On the back of his big night, the southeast Texas native becomes the first player in the Rangers organization to have more than 10 homers and 25 steals this season. Gameday
Raynel Delgado, INF, Nashville (MIL unranked)
Cycles are rare. Triple-A Nashville hadn’t had a player hit for one since 2011 and it had never happened at First Horizon Park. But Delgado got to work early and started knocking out the requirements -- in order of most difficult to least. A second-inning homer, a third-inning triple, a sixth-inning double and an eighth-inning single gave the 25-year-old a reverse cycle and a career-high five RBIs all at once. A longtime member of the Cleveland organization before signing a Minor League deal with Milwaukee this offseason, Delgado has been locked in over the past six weeks, delivering an .833 OPS since July 1. Gameday