The prospect mavens have been working hard over the past few months here at the TDG offices to bring you some of the best consensus at least in our opinion rankings of the top and not-so-top prospects in the game that will hopefully give you a leg up on your competition that just looks at the MLB.com rankings (with all due respect of course.) If you`ve been with us for a while you will generally see the same rollout as past years, one week will focus on outfielders, the next on shortstops, so and so forth.

This year however we decided to break down our rankings into tiers and provide commentary for each tier as a whole with multiple Gurus chiming in where they see fit. This will provide more than just a single voice to the readers while letting the authors offer their opinions on players they deem worthy enough to write about. Hopefully, it will be a fun, informative read and you will come away with an idea of how a certain player is looked at by the industry.

As always, our rankings are geared towards a 15-team OBP roto league with a three to five-year view on our team.

This week we`ll be looking at the outfield position.

Tier 5

A player in this tier I like a lot is Alan Roden. He is a contact-hitting machine in the minors for the Blue Jays. At Double-A in 2023, he had a stellar 84% contact rate in the strike zone. As an older prospect in a system lacking outfielders, he could be one call away from making his debut in the big leagues. If he can get to more in-game power his stock could rise higher on his march up this list (Daniel Labude).

I’ve planted a flag at the top of the Jhonkensy Noel mountain, check out the Prospect Spotlight on him for more. Someone who could have a similar impact once in the big leagues is Carlos De La Cruz. He is one of the tallest position players in baseball at 6’8” and as such, he has taken longer to develop and hone his swing to remove the large swing-and-miss aspect of it. Each season since 2021, he has decreased his strikeout rate and got it down to 27.5% at Double-A in 2023. If he continues this improvement he could become an older prospect to debut much in the mold of someone like Rhys Hoskins (Brian Labude).

So many names in this tier that I am trying to roster. Miguel Bleis got overhyped, then injured, and now is potentially a great buy-low. His tools should still be there so watch out for a quick return to the form everyone got enamored with a year ago. John Cruz, Rayner Arias, and Eduardo Quintero are all three low-level (DSL and/or Complex levels) talents that should be rostered in almost all fantasy leagues. They all flashed great results (BB% in the upper teens and SLGs hovering at .500) as 17-year-olds last year! These are the lotto names that when they start producing stateside, your league mates get jealous of (Chris Knock).

I was able to watch Justice Bigbie a lot this year when he played for the Tiger`s Double-A affiliate and even before his name started to pop up in fantasy circles my eyes were drawn to his at-bats. If you`ve ever been to a minor league game you can appreciate the fact that some at-bats, well your eyes may wander to something more interesting than watching a 25-year-old backup catcher at Double-A flail at breaking balls in the dirt. Bigbie`s at-bats were nothing of the sort, he may be a little old for the levels he`s played at but has produced at each stop. Bigbie shows a knack for getting his barrel onto the ball and exhibits a low chase rate and a good sense of the strike zone. He should start in Triple-A this year, but he could be the next man up if one of the myriad of outfield options falters in Detroit (Ryan).

Tier 6

This tier might be my favorite of them all. It won’t get the attention like the others, but it holds so much potential waiting to break to the surface. Enmanuel Bonilla might be my 2nd favorite prospect in baseball and just oozes power-hitting star outfielder. One prospect that has been lost in the shuffle this year is Yasser Mercedes. He struggled through a bad stateside debut that lasted only 25 games. He still has the tools to be special, it just might take him a bit longer to see it come to fruition. I’m definitely not giving up on him (Daniel Labude).

Finding great value this deep in the rankings is usually a tough task. This year, however, George Wolkow is a diamond glistening in the sand. He was geared up to be a first-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft before he reclassified, graduated early, and joined the 2023 MLB Draft. He fell to the 7th round and many people still sleep on him because of this. He has monster size standing at 6’7” and huge power potential. Joining Wolkow as a long-term prospects with a big upside is a fellow White Sox, Abraham Nunez. He showed great plate discipline while playing in the Dominican Summer League, with a walk rate of 17.8% and a strikeout rate of 11.9%. He also displayed a smooth power stroke with 13 extra-base hits and some speed on the basepaths, stealing 12 bases (Brian Labude).