2020 Prospect Position Rankings: Lefthanded Pitchers

Image credit: MacKenzie Gore (Photo by Larry Goren/Four Seam)

Each year, following the release of our Top 100 prospects, Baseball America ranks the top prospects in baseball by position. You can find our position-by-position rankings here.

Here are the top lefthanded pitching prospects for 2020.

Best Fastball: Brailyn Marquez, Cubs. Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of excellent fastballs among this group. A.J. Puk, Jesus Luzardo, Tarik Skubal and Daniel Lynch each can light up a radar gun. Nobody, however, can do so quite as often as Marquez. He is the only southpaw who earns an 80-grade for his heater, which regularly touches triple-digits every time he takes the mound. He averaged 97 mph with his fastball in 2019.

Best Changeup: Jesus Luzardo, Athletics. Luzardo made his big league debut in 2019 and boasts one of the most explosive arsenals in the position group. His double-plus changeup is the best among minor league lefthanders and helped him strike out 73 hitters in 55 innings between the majors and minors. The mid-80s pitch is effective against both lefties and righties.

Best Breaking Ball: A.J. Puk, Athletics. Puk earns double-plus grades for his slider, which was his signature pitch in college and helped him strike out 13 hitters in 11.1 innings in his big league debut after recovering from Tommy John surgery. The pitch is effective against both righthanders and lefthanders and, when grouped with his upper-90s fastball and average changeup, should help him become a key part of Oakland’s rotation in 2020.

Sleeper: Kris Bubic, Royals. Bubic might not have the same knockout stuff as the players in the Top 20, but he gets plenty of results. The Stanford alum tore through both Class A levels in his first full pro season and struck out 185 hitters in 149.1 innings along the way. That figure topped the minor leagues in strikeouts and set him up nicely for his big league spring training in 2020.