This year’s MLB Draft class has a clear No. 1 prospect, Roch Cholowsky, the strongest preseason 1-1 name we’ve had since Adley Rutschman in 2019 (who, in hindsight, should not have been at the top — the best player was Bobby Witt Jr.). Cholowsky does have competition from at least one other college hitter and one college pitcher for the top spot.
The strength of the draft might actually be high school pitchers, which would benefit teams with extra picks, and could encourage some teams wary of that demographic’s poor history to select a teenaged arm earlier than they would in a different class. We’ll also see how some of the better college bats fare when conference play begins in two weeks.
This is my first ranking of the year, so I’m only going through 30 picks, the normal number for the first round; this year’s true first round has 25 picks, with five teams seeing their first selections pushed back 10 spots because they offended the owners who don’t want to spend on payroll. (The affected teams: the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Blue Jays and Phillies. I feel like they all have something in common.)
My next ranking will go to 50 names, and then around early May, I’ll go to 100. I compiled this list based on my own evaluations, video and data work, and most importantly on conversations with scouts and executives about who they’ve seen and where they think players might slot in.
(Notes: Scouting grades are on the traditional 20-80 scouting scale. EV = exit velocity.)
Player Type Pitcher Position Player
School Type 4-Year College High School
Position 2B 3B C LHP OF RHP SS
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Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Cholowsky is the consensus No. 1 prospect in the draft and has been since at least the fall, the strongest preseason 1-1 candidate since Adley Rutschman in 2019. He’s a definite shortstop who has a very strong track record of production, surging to 23 homers last year with a .353/.480/.710 line, along with more walks (45) than strikeouts (30). His profile is not explosive, more steady and predictable, so while he does have the potential to be a star, his appeal is more in the certainty that he’ll at least be an everyday player.
Position Player
4-Year College
SS
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
The No. 2 starter for the Gauchos last year behind 2025 No. 2 pick Tyler Bremner, Flora has been up to 100 mph this year, sitting 96-98 with an easily plus changeup and at least a 55 slider. He’s also a big strike-thrower, with a 5.4 percent walk rate through three starts this year and 5.5 percent last year. He is by far the top pitching prospect in the class, college or high school.
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
The strongest competition to Cholowsky at 1-1 is Lebron, who is an outstanding athlete at a level we seldom see in college position players. He’s a plus shortstop and plus runner who has pull power, but he did strike out nearly a quarter of the time last year. If he cuts that down this year through SEC play, he’ll give Roch a run for his money.
Position Player
4-Year College
SS
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: R
Emerson came out of the summer and fall as the top high school position-player prospect, in part because he had a solid showing against the best pitching on the showcase circuit … and in part because the rest of the class has been disappointing. He has an excellent swing for contact and future power. Defensively, he has a chance to stay at shortstop. He’s not facing much competition this spring, so some of the questions about his ability to hit offspeed stuff will probably remain unanswered.
Position Player
High School
SS
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: R
Becker is the boy who stayed — many of his fellow Cavaliers followed their former head coach to Mississippi State, along with several Virginia recruits. Becker has a simple approach with excellent bat speed, showing he can really turn on a fastball and generally has strong pitch recognition. He could stay at shortstop but will have to tighten up his throwing, while his arm and just average foot speed could push him over to second base.
Position Player
4-Year College
SS
Scouting Report
Bats: B, Throws: R
There was quite a bit of buzz around Bell coming out of the summer/early fall, but he injured his non-throwing shoulder in the first game of the 2026 season and could be out for the spring — although there’s word he may try to play through it. The upside here is a switch-hitting shortstop with above-average power, maybe needing to tighten up his swing decisions. He’s age-eligible for the draft as a sophomore, so he could return to college next year if he has to miss the season.
Position Player
4-Year College
SS
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Flukey was nails Week 1, missed Week 2 with what the Chanticleers — not gonna lie, that’s one of the best team nicknames in sports anywhere — called an intercostal muscle strain, and now is out for two months or more with a stress fracture in a rib. When healthy, he’s 95-97 mph with a plus 12-6 curveball and a slider that’s plus when he lands it. It’s coming from a high three-quarters slot that gets depth on the breaking pitches but makes it hard for him to throw a changeup, so he had a moderate platoon split last year. He’s in the mix to be the second starting pitcher taken if he can pitch again before the year is out.
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Townsend is a draft-eligible sophomore who had a lousy freshman year in Oxford, then came out hot this spring, throwing more strikes with even better stuff. He’s been sitting 95-96 with at least a 60 slider, mixing in a cutter, a hard curveball that might be as good as the slider when he lands it, and a changeup that has very sharp fading action. He’s had just three starts, none against SEC opponents, but if he keeps this up all year, he might be the No. 2 starter prospect in the class.
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Burress would be an easy top five pick if he were taller. He’s a very strong hitter in multiple senses, crushing fastballs, making contact at high rates, and showing plus raw and in-game power, with 46 homers in 130 games for the Ramblin Wreck so far. He’s also had more walks than strikeouts in each collegiate season. He’s a 55 runner and may not stick in center, which does hurt his stock a little, as does his 5-foot-9 stature.
Position Player
4-Year College
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: L
Grindlinger threw a bomb into the draft class with his announcement in February that he was reclassifying from 2027, a class for which he would have been young anyway, to 2026, in which he’ll be one of the youngest draft-eligible players ever and second-youngest in the class behind Rocco Maniscalco. Grindlinger is also a legitimate two-way prospect. As a pitcher, he’s showing advanced feel and command, along with a fastball up to 96 and at least a 55 slider and changeup. As a hitter, he’s put up hilarious contact rates — he whiffed on just 4 percent of his 82 swings at events tracked by Synergy last summer and fall. He shows some in-game power already and has the potential to stick in center field with, obviously, a plus arm. I get the sense right now that teams are looking at him more on the mound, but he might be too good a hitting prospect to take on that risk. He’s going to break some teams’ draft models if they weigh age at the draft heavily.
Position Player
Pitcher
High School
LHP
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Rembert missed almost two weeks with an ankle injury, returning to the field last weekend against Nebraska. He has incredible bat speed and posts high contact rates, especially against fastballs, with fringy power, in part, because the swing is a little flat. He’s limited to second base by his speed and arm. He turns 21 about a week before the draft, making him draft-eligible as a sophomore.
Position Player
4-Year College
2B
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: L
Strosnider has a beautiful left-handed swing that produces hard contact. He’s defensively challenged and probably ends up in left field, putting more pressure on his bat. The draft-eligible sophomore is off to a huge start, even as TCU has struggled, with almost as many walks this year (16) as he drew in all of his freshman year (20).
Position Player
4-Year College
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: R
Spangler is a toolsy shortstop with excellent hand acceleration and a strong approach at the plate that puts the ball in play, mostly towards the middle of the field, although there’s at least average pull power in there already. He rarely missed a fastball on the showcase circuit last summer/fall, even connecting with better velocity. He’s an average runner who could stick at shortstop, with third base being the worst case scenario for him. He’s committed to Stanford.
Position Player
High School
SS
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Lackey’s a very athletic catcher who makes a lot of hard contact, with a 90th percentile EV last year of 105.2 mph, although it hasn’t translated into many home runs because his swing is a little flat for that. He has the arm to catch but needs to work on the rest of his game, and some teams might also want to take more advantage of his athleticism and speed by moving him to another position.
Position Player
4-Year College
C
Scouting Report
Bats: B, Throws: R
Kuhns is a draft-eligible sophomore who has picked up additional velocity this year, sitting 94-97 now with big vertical break and a hammer curveball that has some two-plane break. He also has a harder breaking ball that’s probably supposed to be a slider but is more of a slurve, while he seldom uses a changeup. He can miss bats, though his command holds him back from the top tier of college starters.
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Bowen comes from the relatively new baseball powerhouse of JSerra, which produced Royce Lewis, Austin Hedges and top Athletics prospect Gage Jump. Bowen has plus power to the pull side already, even showing he can square up offspeed stuff at a good enough rate to mitigate some swing and miss, while he expands the zone too easily, especially with two strikes. He has enough speed to possibly stick in center and has the arm for right.
Position Player
High School
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Peterson has been up to 99 already this year, sitting 95-96 with a plus slider and a changeup that has generated 13 whiffs on 14 swings. His main issue has always been command and control; he had neither in his first outing this season but has been in the zone more the last two outings, with more contact off the fastball than you’d expect.
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: L
Curiel was a well-known prospect in high school, hitting well pretty much everywhere, including at NHSI, but the consistent knock was that he had too small of a build to buy him out of a commitment to LSU. Then he went to Baton Rouge and hit .345/.470/.519 as a 20-year-old freshman, with a 17.3 percent strikeout rate, and now he’s suddenly big enough to be a first rounder? I think the physicality issue was overblown two years ago, especially given how advanced a hitter he is (he whiffed on just 5.1 percent of pitches in the zone last year!), but also that there’s a hard cap on his ceiling because he doesn’t hit the ball hard enough for power and probably never will. I’m saying he is a first rounder, obviously, since he’s here, because he should hit enough to be an everyday left fielder, but I don’t think the concerns about what his frame might mean about his power potential with wood are entirely answered, either.
Position Player
4-Year College
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: L
Johnson walked 25 in 21 innings last year for the Sooners, but he’s dropped his arm slot this year so now he’s truly low three-quarters with his release point and is filling up the strike zone, with three walks in 16 innings over three outings so far. He’s been up to 98, sitting 93-96, and works primarily with the fastball, even though the slider is a wipeout pitch for lefties. He has a good enough changeup to keep him a starter, but hasn’t used it enough this year and he has some platoon splits. He’s the better of the two Cam Johnsons on Oklahoma — the other is an infielder.
Photo:
University of Oklahoma
Scouting Report
Bats: B, Throws: R
Maniscalco is the youngest prospect in the class, turning 17 in May, as he, like Jared Grindlinger, was originally scheduled to graduate in 2027. He’s a switch-hitting shortstop with fast hands, definitely staying up the middle, with average speed and a good bit of projection left even after he got stronger this past offseason.
Position Player
High School
SS
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Hacopian can really hit, and he’s done so while dealing with a lower back injury that has marred the beginning of his draft year. He hit .375/.502/.656 last spring for Maryland, with 40 walks and just 19 strikeouts. It’s unclear what his eventual position will be, as he’s not going to stick at shortstop, playing more third base and first base in the Cape Cod League last summer. He’s played just two games in the field so far this year, both at second base.
Position Player
4-Year College
SS
3B
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
The younger brother of Yankees prospect George Lombard Jr., Jacob is slightly bigger and definitely more explosive than George, but less advanced as a hitter. He’s got the power and speed to potentially be a 20/20 guy at shortstop, where he’s very likely to stick in the long term, but he swung and missed too often against better quality stuff last summer and has been inconsistent early this spring for his Miami-area high school.
Position Player
High School
SS
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: L
Gracia followed his head coach from Duke to UVA this year, coming off a year where he hit just .293 but drew 57 walks — apparently a Duke record — and hit 15 homers. He’s a high-contact hitter with power, and he has kind of a strange setup and a swing that gets fairly uphill, which may be why he hasn’t hit for average, despite a whiff rate of just 12 percent since the start of 2025. He’s not a runner and may move out of center field.
Position Player
4-Year College
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: L
Sorrell missed most of the 2025 season with a hamstring injury but still managed to hit 12 homers in 26 games, which he’s carried over to this year with six more homers in his first 10 games — four of them against Lamar and Tennessee Tech. He’s played some center field but profiles best in right field, for which he has the power and needs to show better contact rates, even on fastballs. Both of his grandfathers, Billy Sorrell and Tom Griffin, played in the majors.
Position Player
4-Year College
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: L
One of two top high school outfielders in Mississippi, along with Kevin Roberts (who is at Konnor Griffin High School, also known as Jackson Prep), Booth is extremely fast, beating four seconds out of the box. He hit quite well on the showcase circuit last year, especially for a prep product out of Mississippi. It’s a quick but very slashy swing that produces contact without much power, even though he looks like he should be strong enough for above-average power already.
Position Player
High School
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Yes, that’s Doug’s kid. Kaden is the top high school right-hander in the class right now, sitting 93-96 with a good delivery and excellent command for a teenager, while his upper 80s slider is a potential plus pitch, and he’s shown success against good competition in the summer and in Florida. He’ll be the star attraction at USA Baseball’s National High School Invitational later this month.
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Man, if you could smush Sawyer Strosnider’s bat with Brunson’s glove and arm together, you might have a challenger for 1-1. Brunson is a true center fielder with a plus arm. His bat isn’t as advanced as Strosnider’s right now, with some inconsistency in the swing that he’ll need to work out. He’s more of a tools play, offering more upside without the certainty of his teammate’s hit tool.
Position Player
4-Year College
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
A catcher in high school, Rose moved to the outfield during his freshman year and has shown that his bat will likely make him a regular or better out there. There’s always the chance someone tries to put him back behind the plate, although the Cardinals switched his position because he wasn’t receiving well enough to stick. Rose has yet to play this year due to a bone bruise in his ankle.
Position Player
4-Year College
OF
Scouting Report
Bats: R, Throws: R
Grahovac has big power and generally good feel to hit, easily a first-rounder if you believe he’ll stick at third base. He’s played a lot of first base this year for the Aggies, as he’s returned from missing nearly all of the 2025 season due to a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder; he played third for the Aggies as a freshman and was completely fine there. He did strike out 95 times that spring, the most of any SEC hitter in 2024, as pitchers ate him up with any offspeed stuff. So far this year in a limited sample, he’s killing fastballs but still having trouble with breaking stuff.
Position Player
4-Year College
3B
Scouting Report
Bats: L, Throws: R
Bogenpohl is a big power bat with more speed than you’d expect from someone 6-foot-6, showing athleticism and bat speed, and the swing and miss you might expect from someone his size. He’s a big upside play, as it’s 30+ homer power if he hits enough to get to it and he might stay in center. He has to improve his production over his last two years, cutting the strikeouts and at least getting to more singles and doubles, since he’s facing inferior competition compared to ACC and SEC hitters.
Position Player
4-Year College
OF
Mar 3, 2026
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