With more than six weeks of the Minor League season in the books, the sample sizes are swelling, and trends are beginning to emerge. It's time to start taking stock, which is what MLB Pipeline's recent market-corrected Top 100 Prospects list shakeup is all about.
With that in mind, the MLB Pipeline Podcast is digging even deeper. For each of the next five weeks, Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo will do a division-by-division look with an eye toward identifying each division's most intriguing, somewhat under-the-radar prospects.
First up is the American League East. Here are five intriguing prospects from the division often considered the most competitive in baseball:
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Red Sox: 1B/OF Justin Gonzales (BOS No. 15)
The skinny: Listed at 6-foot-4, 210-pounds, the 18-year-old Gonzales signed as part of the Red Sox 2024 international class and was their Latin American program player of the year after hitting .327/.396/.516 in the Dominican Summer League in his pro debut. He played one game in the Florida Complex League this season before the Red Sox promoted him to Single-A Salem.
Callis' take: He's intriguing. It's interesting to me they promoted him after one game, and I think it shows what high regard they hold him in. He was 6-foot-4, 210 pounds when they signed him, he'd just turned 17 in 2024. He's bigger and taller. I don't know what he's listed as, but he's going to be your next Oneil Cruz. He breaks into pro ball last year ... big year in the DSL: 20 extra-base hits, eight steals in 47 games, OPS over .900. As a big guy, you figure there is power there. And there is. It's at least plus raw power, and it'll probably be more than that as he gets older, stronger and more physical. He already registered massive exit velocities for his age. But he's not a guy just mashing the ball and taking big swings. He's a polished hitter.
Orioles: RHP Michael Forret (BAL No. 8)
The skinny: The Orioles think they pulled off a heist with Forret, a 14th-round pick in the 2023 Draft who has turned into one of the organization's best pitching prospects in the past year. The 21-year-old righty took a big jump, stuff-wise, in his pro debut and was off to a great start at High-A Aberdeen. He's currently on the injured list with a back issue.
Mayo's take: He'd been very, very good in his first four starts: 1.66 ERA, .118 batting average against, 0.69 WHIP, 29 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings. He's interesting. He just turned 21 at the beginning of April. The fastball is just OK, averages about 91, but he misses bats with it. He's got a full complement of secondary stuff that so far has been really effective. The slider and the changeup are both missing bats at around a 45-percent clip. Hopefully the back thing is just a minor blip. This is a team that has made a lot of waves and created a lot of buzz with their offensive prospects. They haven't done as good of a job developing pitching prospects. But what Forret has done in his first year of pro ball is very encouraging that they might have found something on Day 3 of last year's Draft.
Yankees: RHPs Ben Hess (NYY No. 3), Bryce Cunningham (NYY No. 4)
The skinny: Hess (1st round, Alabama) and Cunningham (2nd, Vanderbilt) were New York's top two picks in the 2024 Draft, and both are thriving in their debuts as part of High-A Hudson Valley's excellent rotation. Combined, the two right-handers have pitched to a 2.49 ERA and a 77/20 K/BB ratio across 61 1/3 innings this season.
Callis' take: I'm going to get grief for breaking the rules because I'm going with a dual entry. But these guys were adjoined at the hip in the Draft last year and are both at Hudson Valley ... they're now the top two pitching prospects in the organization. Hess has battled command a little this year, but has struck out [39] in [25] innings in his debut. Cunningham, we kept hearing during the Draft last year that he had some of the best pitch metrics in college metrics. The Yankees are a pitch metrics team. They do a really good job developing pitchers. They took him in the second round, signed him for well over-slot, almost $2 million. He has one of the best changeups in the Yankees system, a sweeping slider that is probably his third pitch. You're looking at potentially three plus pitches when all is said and done.
Rays: 2B/3B Cooper Kinney (TB No. 23)
The skinny: Kinney was one of the better hitters in the 2021 Draft, when Tampa Bay made him a supplemental first-round pick out of the Tennessee prep ranks. He's been slowed by a litany of injuries but has seemingly put those issues behind him and is off to an excellent start at Double-A this season.
Callis' take: He's missed time to injuries. But the one thing Cooper Kinney could always do is hit. He's off to a great start in Double-A. Despite having less than 1,000 at-bats in the Minors, he's in Double-A at age 22 this year, hitting [.304] ... his OPS is [.907], seven homers in 27 games, and that's just what he does ... it's a lefty hitter with a really nice swing, a good approach, uses all the fields, high contact, high exit velocities. Our scouting report describes him as a hit-over-power player, but he might really be both.
Blue Jays: RHP Trey Yesavage (TOR No. 2/MLB No. 71)
The skinny: Stuff-wise, Yesavage was one of the top arms in the 2024 Draft but struggled through injuries for most of the year before the Blue Jays selected him 20th overall, and he didn't pitch competitively after signing last season. Yesavage made his pro debut this spring in High-A and has dominated, pitching to a 2.22 ERA and 43-8 K-BB ratio over his first six starts.
Mayo's take: I think we were all very curious to see what Yesavage would do because he didn't pitch last year, unlike most college guys. They're slow-rolling him, understandably, because they've had bad luck with injuries in their system. So he's still at High-A, but I can't imagine he'll be there much longer. The stuff is very, very good. The fastball averages around 94 but is missing bats at a good rate. He throws a very, very good splitter and an excellent slider with cutter-type action to it. Both of them miss a lot of bats. It's almost unfair because he's in the Florida State League. I think he needs a challenge and needs to move up to the Midwest League soon.
Bonus: LHP Brandon Clarke (BOS No. 29), LHP Griffin Herring (NYY No. 25)
The skinny: A fifth-round pick in 2024, Clarke has been excellent in his pro debut, pitching to a 1.62 ERA in five starts across Single-A and High-A. The Yankees took Herring in the sixth round out of LSU and watched him pitch to a 1.04 ERA in his first six starts at Single-A Tampa.
Callis' take: Brandon Clarke is definitely going to move up. ... He was, I believe, the best high school pitching prospect in Virginia in 2021. He'd had Tommy John surgery, and then had thoracic issues when he was coming back from the elbow reconstruction. ... Last year, he was the highest-ranked JUCO prospect on our list. ... He just hadn't pitched a whole lot ... the stuff has been dynamite. He's sitting 96, 97 with the fastball and throwing his slider in the upper 80s.
LSU used Herring kind of as a trouble-shooter. They didn't use him as a starter. They used him as a reliever when they needed a guy to go multiple innings. He pitched a lot of key innings. Scouts really thought he could start ... he's a three-pitch lefty without a lot of mileage on his arm. I think he has a chance to be really good.