Tony Blanco Jr., Pittsburgh Pirates, Single-A, Rank: 25

Imagine a world long forgotten, one ruled by giant immortals called Titans. These Titans stand tall, above the trees, above the mountains, they stretch into the heavens, touching the cosmos itself. Their movements are like thunder, their breath the wind. Can you imagine the amount of power these Titans have flowing through their limbs? Now bring the scale back down to present day, what would that type of power look like in a baseball player? Most of us imagine Aaron Judge, a behemoth human being standing 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds. Effortless power, every swing of the bat has the potential to tear the cover off the baseball and send the ball over the fence with ease. There really are very few players like him, some have the height, but don’t match the weight and size of Judge and certainly the power isn’t the same. Every single time a new player gets compared to Judge, they usually all fade away or ultimately pivot off of those comparisons and for good reason, there were only a handful of Titans. I’m going to give you the one and only prospect that will have the best chance to buck the trends of time and join Judge as a true Titan of baseball, one which will have the power, size, height, and brute force to stand tall next to him and sit on a throne of baseballs that us mere mortals can only dream of launching past the heavens and into the stands of the cosmos. Remember the name Tony Blanco Jr. and make sure you follow his every at-bat in 2026, because it should not only be a breakout, but it could be special.

Blanco Jr. is a name that may sound familiar to you and it’s because he’s the son of the late Tony Blanco Sr., who made it to the major leagues with the Washington Nationals back in 2005 before finishing his career in Japan. Blanco Jr. was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates back in 2022 during the J15 international signing period for $900,000. He started the same year playing baseball in the Dominican Summer League (DSL). Unfortunately, he would only get into nine games that season as an injury derailed his momentum after signing. 2023 saw him play in the DSL for a second season, this time he  made it through to the end. He played in 40 games, slashed .235/.325/.397, while blistering five home runs, and adding seven doubles. He would also display what has turned out to be a giant sized boulder hanging over him, he struggled with making contact and had a lot of swing and misses while at the plate. He ended the 2023 season with a strikeout rate of 37.6%, which for an 18-year-old repeating the DSL was very concerning and the reason he remained under-the-radar. Nonetheless, he had done enough to earn a promotion stateside to take on more advanced pitchers in the Complex League for the 2024 season.

The breakout Blanco Jr. had hoped for in Rookie-ball never really had any chance to come to fruition, as he missed games after being placed on the injured list during the season. He would manage to play in 30 games that year and started to really develop into a good looking hitter. He slashed .305/.385/.505, belted four home runs, and chipped in five doubles. It was far from a power display, but his strikeout rate had fallen again, this time closer to respectable levels at 28.4%. His walk rates had even improved, going from 10.8% the year prior in the DSL to 11.0%. The much needed breakout was seemingly on the horizon for him, so close he could taste it.

What came next no one could have seen coming, just as the 2025 season was getting underway, tragedy struck his family and hundreds of others in the Dominican Republic. A roof collapsed at a night club, killing over 200 people and injuring just as many. One of those killed was his father, Blanco Sr. Having to overcome this, Blanco Jr. was handed even more turmoil, a lower leg injury that would ultimately see him miss more than three months of the season. He didn’t let the strife affect him too much and hit the ground running, well swinging, when he finally got into a rehab game in July. He tattooed a ball for a home run that game and it was the start of what was a mini coming out party for him. He would get into just 28 games down the stretch for Single-A Bradenton, but the baseballs called mercy well before the final game. He slashed .264/.368/.491, hit seven home runs, and three doubles. He ended with a 134 wRC+, but did see his swing and miss concerns creep back in with a strikeout rate of 33.6% and a contact rate of 59.5%. One of his many eye-popping stats on the year, one that I believe is only scratching the surface, was his home runs per flyball ratio (HR/FB), we will get into more later. In his 28 games, he ended with a 41.2% HR/FB rate, an absolutely unheard of number. 20% is considered the top tier, his rate was more than double that!

After the season the Pirates organization sent him to the Arizona Fall League (AFL) to get him some extra at-bats to make up for some of the ones he had lost over the years. It was a chance for him to gain some attention with more of a national spotlight there and he sure took advantage of it. How’s a 120.4 mph double! Only two players in the major leagues equaled or topped that in 2025, Oneil Cruz and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. In his 13 games in the AFL, he continued to keep producing at about the same level as he did at Single-A. He slashed .250/.377/.432, hit two home runs, two doubles, and had a strikeout rate of 30.2%. If he wasn’t blowing up social media before, he was definitely a budding star after his performance in the AFL home run derby. He not only won it with style, but one of his home runs was hit at 122.9 mph, reportedly harder than any ball that has been hit in a game or home run derby, ever, at any level!

So, outside of the absurd power he can display, you might be wondering, what makes him the one that bucks the trend of time? To go along with his crazy HR/FB rate at Single-A, he had an average exit velocity of 93.1 mph, an average launch angle of 10.1°, a hard hit rate of 53.8%, and a barrel rate of 16.9%. His BABIP has been at .360 or higher at every stop he’s made through his early minor league career. It shows that his exit velocities are really going to drive a higher batting average than normal, he just has to make contact. The real excitement I think comes from how raw he is, he’s only played 40 games in a season once and it was back in the DSL. He has a ton more developing to do and when all is said and done, he could reach past his ceiling, past the heavens, and deposit numerous balls deep into the cosmos. He might even rewrite the definition of a Titan. So when you feel the earth shake this spring, run and check the box scores, because Blanco Jr. just blazed a hole through the cosmos and shook the world!