2019 Top 100 MLB Draft Prospect Rankings

Image credit: Bobby Witt Jr. (Photo by Stacy Jo Grant)

SEE THE TOP 100

Baseball America’s MLB Draft Prospect rankings are compiled in consultation with scouts and evaluators from major league clubs. These rankings are an attempt to capture the industry’s current consensus on the talent, track record and experience of the 2019 class as it stands in January. As always, while we are concerned with reporting how the draft will unfold, these rankings do not reflect where we believe these players will be taken, but how the industry values each player’s major league potential and the risks that coincide.

While the draft is still six months away, here at Baseball America we can’t help but to get excited. With that, we are happy to release our first combined 2019 draft list, which includes four-year college, junior college and high school prospects.

We’ll continue to gather information throughout the high school and college seasons, and much is sure to change as we get closer and closer to June 3. By the time the final version of the BA 500 is released in May, many players on this list will have moved thanks to performance, injuries and the fact that BA will have much more information from scouts, evaluators and coaches.

However, we still believe it’s valuable to get a snapshot of how the draft class looks before scouts start heading out to ballparks en masse.

Unsurprisingly, the class is led by Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman, who remains the consensus top prospect in the class, followed by Colleyville (Texas) High shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who is safely the top prep prospect in the class.

Six hitters follow Rutschman and Witt on the list before a pitcher makes an appearance, with Duke lefthander Graeme Stinson ranked No. 9 and IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) righthander Brennan Malone rounding out the top 10.

As the first ten players illustrate, the 2019 class is heavy on hitters.

Position players comprise 57 percent of the top 100 at this point, which is a significantly higher share than the 2018 draft class, which was hailed for its strong pitching depth on both the high school and college sides.

Pitchers made up 51 percent of the top 100 of the final BA 500 last year.

Coincidentally, the breakdown of four-year, junior college and high school prospects is identical from year to year, with 50 players coming out of four-year universities, 48 from the high school ranks and two junior college prospects.

Here’s a complete breakdown of the class demographics at this point, compared with the top 100 prospects from the final 2018 BA 500: