How Five Top 100 Prospects Coped With Lost Development Time In 2020

How did minor league prospects make up for a year without games to play in?

The answers, as we’ve come to learn, varied widely. 

As players return to spring training and the sport casts a cautiously optimistic eye toward a 2021 season that maintains some semblance of a more traditional schedule, Baseball America spoke to five prospects ranked in our Top 100. Each player hails from a different country and had a markedly difference experience. 

Each story is below. 

Francisco Alvarez

The Mets’ top prospect expected to have his parents join him throughout the 2020 season. But with the border to Venezuela closed amid the pandemic, Alvarez instead spent the year learning to live alone, first in a hotel in St. Lucie, then near the Mets’ alternate training site in 2020. Read more…

Jasson Dominguez

Still just 18, Dominguez spent nearly five months living with his aunt in New Jersey before being allowed to return home to the Dominican Republic in July. There, he worked on his conditioning, pitch recognition and more. Read more…

Alejandro Kirk

Despite having just 71 career games at the high-A level, the Blue Jays sent Kirk to their alternate training site in Rochester, N.Y. and fast-tracked the 21-year-old to the big leagues in 2020. Was that impressive showing enough to speed up his development timetable? Read more…

Quinn Priester

Priester arguably boosted his stock as much as any prospect in baseball last year, despite not playing in an official game and receiving a late invitation to Pittsburgh’s alternate training site. Read more…

Kristian Robinson

Robinson might perfectly represent the sort of demographic most hurt by a lack of meaningful game reps. But the immensely talented D-backs prospect isn’t calling 2020 a throwaway year. Read more…