The Cleveland Guardians quietly have one of the deepest farm systems in baseball. They have solid position players on the verge of making their MLB debut, while also possessing young arms who have the potential of being top options in the starting rotation down the line.
Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter recently named his pick for every team’s most likely prospect to breakout during the 2026 season, and chose right-hand pitcher Braylon Doughty out of the Guardians’ organization.
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“After posting a 3.48 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 99 strikeouts in 85.1 innings at Single-A to kick off his career, he has the potential to emerge as a consensus Top 100 prospect in 2026,” wrote Reuter.
The Guardians initially drafted Doughty with the 36th overall pick in the 2024 draft. It was a somewhat shocking selection at the time, coinciding Cleveland doesn’t typically take high schoolers this high in the draft, with the fear they could return to school, but the Guardians couldn’t pass on the opportunity of bringing Doughty into the system.
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Doughty was assigned to Cleveland’s Arizona Complex League after being drafted, and he finally made his affiliate ball debut at the start of 2025. He spent all season at High-A with the Lynchburg Hillcats, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see Doughty be promoted to the High-A Lake County Captains next year.
Apr 15, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; A detail of the uniform of Cleveland Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan during the game between the Cleveland Guardians and the San Francisco Giants at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Doughty is great selection by Reuter, and it’s hard to agree with anything he writes about the 20-year-old pitcher.
The right-hander is still so young, and has already logged some uncredible stats in the minor leagues.
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Perhaps what Doughty needs to do to get some more of that national recognition is to increase his swing-and0miss strikeout rate, which was only at 12.7 last season. He also needs to limit some of the hard contact that he allowed throughout the 2025 minor league season.
If the 20-year-old accomplishes this in 2026, he could quickly start flying up outlet’s top prospect lists, by the time the 2026 minor league season is over, or perhaps even sooner.