2024 Bowman Sterling: MLB Prospects, Rookie Cards We're Hunting

Image credit: Baseball America Illustration

Today marks the release of 2024 Bowman Sterling, which is set to debut at 12 p.m. For prospect autograph collectors, the big day couldn’t come soon enough.

While part of the allure of flagship Bowman releases—Bowman, Bowman Chrome, and Bowman Draft—is the depth of the checklists, Bowman Sterling annually trims the fat and delivers a more selective offering of the game’s most desired rookies and prospects.

While it’s important for the flagship Bowman releases to have long checklists so that no player gets missed for their Bowman First card, Bowman Sterling’s base checklist (see below) is chock-full of only the best names in prospecting. Set collectors will need only to track down 100 cards to put together a base featuring 50 prospects and 50 rookies littered with names from Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list.

Twenty-six of the 50 prospects in the set appear on our Top 100. Twenty-one of those are in the Top 50, including new number No. 1 overall prospect Roman Anthony. The 50-card base rookie checklist features all of the big 2024 names, including budding stars like Elly De La Cruz, Jackson Merrill, Jackson Chourio, Paul Skenes and more.

Let’s dig into the full breakdown of this year’s Bowman Sterling collection, including the complete set checklist.

Fun Pairings for Niche Collectors: Dual Refractor Autographs

There are some really cool cards in this year’s set that may appeal to some different niches.

LSU has some of the most diehard fans in college baseball and maybe all of college sports. They regularly sell-out the 10,000+ capacity Alex Box Stadium. On the heels of their 2023 National Championship, their two best players, Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh) and Dylan Crews (Washington), were selected first and second overall in the MLB Draft. The 13-card, Dual Refractor Autograph set features a Skenes-Crews dual autograph card in their big-league uniforms for the first time.

For any Texas Tech Red Raider fans out there, brothers Josh (Texas) and Jace Jung (Detroit) also appear in the set with a dual autograph card. It’s the second such time they’ve been featured on a dual autograph card and surely not the last.

Also in the Dual Refractor Autograph set is a Corbin Carroll (Arizona) and Gunnar Henderson (Baltimore) card. Carroll is a well-known card collector, and he’s been on record that he collects guys he’s played with and players from his draft class. Henderson was actually his roommate at the USA Baseball Tournament of Stars back in 2018, so this one may be on his list.

SEE THE CARDS

Prospect and Rookie Autographs

Autographs are the name of the game for Bowman Sterling , and the 57-card Prospect Autograph Checklist packs some serious punch. The checklist features seven Baseball America Top-20 Prospects:

Roman Anthony (No. 1, Red Sox)
Walker Jenkins (No. 6, Twins)
Colt Emerson (No. 11, Mariners)
Samuel Basallo (No. 13, Orioles)
Jacob Wilson (No. 15, Athletics)
Ethan Salas (No. 17, Padres)
Max Clark (No. 20, Tigers)

Also included is previous No. 1 overall prospects James Wood (Washington), who graduated over the summer and is now on the Nationals’ big league roster with alongside Crews.

While the Rookie Autograph Checklist is just 18 cards, it hits on most of the big names that collectors are after for the 2024 rookie class:

Elly De La Cruz (Cincinnati)
Junior Caminero (Tampa)
Jackson Chourio (Milwaukee)
Jasson Dominguez (Yankees)
Jackson Holliday (Baltimore)
Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh)
Wyatt Langford (Texas)
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers)

The only notable omission from the set is Jackson Merrill. The Padres rookie sensation can be found, however, in the Dual Refractor Autographs set mentioned above alongside Ethan Salas.

What We’re Hunting

Beyond the obvious names, here are a few interesting players we’ll be hunting in this checklist.

Back in spring training, one of the Mariners’ three 2023 first rounders, Jonny Farmelo, was a popular pick to break-out in 2024.

The high school outfielder from Virginia was billed as one of the best runners in MiLB, and he wasted no time showing off in his first taste of A-ball, going 18-for-20 in stolen bases in 46 games before an unfortunate ACL injury ended his season in June. Farmelo is more than just an 80-grade runner, as he displayed discipline (16% walk rate) and impact (four home runs, three triples and 10 doubles) in route to an .820 OPS.

I’m high on Farmelo. Without a full season to fill stat sheets, he’s not yet a household prospect name, so now’s a good time to get in.

In 2023, the Rockies took a super-utility player out of San Diego State that has done nothing but hit since he debuted last summer: Cole Carrigg.

Carrigg followed 11 extra-base hits and six stolen bases in 23 games for Low-A Fresno in 2023 with 16 HR, 11 triples, 16 doubles and 51 stolen bases for High-A Spokane in 2024. He walks, he slugs, he runs and he plays two premium defensive positions in center field and shortstop. With a hitter-friendly environment on Blake Street in Denver awaiting his arrival in the next couple of years, Carrigg is looking like a five-tool monster.

Part of not going broke in the hobby is to swim upstream when everyone else is floating down.

There’s a charismatic rookie on the North Side of Chicago who posted a Fielding Run Value of 17 in 2024, tying Jacob Young (Washington) and Daulton Varsho (Toronto) atop the Statcast leaderboard for outfield defense while appearing in just 123 games: Pete Crow-Armstrong.

We’re looking at generational defender in centerfield, and I’m a sucker for elite defense. Interest not piqued? After an abysmal stretch at the plate in the first half, the rubber met the road in the second half, and the 22-year-old broke out in August when he hit (.314), didn’t strike out much (14%), showed impact (11 extra-base hits , including four homers) and showed off his 99^th percentile sprint speed on the bases (6-of-7 stealing bases). If you extrapolate his August over a full season, he’s a slam-dunk MVP candidate. While I don’t necessarily think he’s going to do that, he proved it’s in there. I believe he’s a 20/40 offensive player with Platinum Glove defense in the tank and a future fan-favorite at Wrigley Field for years to come.

Crow-Armstrong has been on top of my target list all offseason long, and his Bowman Sterling rookie autograph should come at a palatable price point for those that don’t want to shell out for the ever-popular Bowman First or Topps Chrome autographs.

Complete Checklist

You can find the complete checklist of cards here.

Where to Buy, Formats & Pricing

Bowman Sterling is a high-end, hobby-exclusive offering featuring five packs (mini-boxes) per box with six cards per pack. Each pack has a guaranteed autograph.

Box prices are currently trending around $400 on popular hobby websites.

Unlike the other flagship Bowman releases, you will not find more accessible, alternative formats available at big box retailers like Target and Walmart. As the name implies, this product is for high-rollers only.