Top 50 International Prospects For July 2

These are Baseball America’s rankings for the top 50 international prospects eligible to sign on July 2.

Players with the best combination of tools, baseball skills and positional value rise toward the top of the list. The top three players separated themselves as the elite players in the class, with the top five all earning widespread praise for their well-rounded combination of tools and game skills.

While there are thousands of players looking to sign with teams and at least 600 or so who sign annually, every player is on this list because there were scouts who liked them. The lower you go down the list, the thinner the spread in talent becomes. Some teams prefer premium athletes with loud tools and raw skills, while others place a higher value on players with more present feel for the game, instincts and hitting ability, even if the tools don’t stand out as much. Then there are players who combine the best of both worlds but had a lower profile and managed to fly under the radar, like Victor Robles, who end up being huge bargains.

Projecting the futures of players who are 15 and 16 involves a tremendous amount of risk and failure, with significant disagreements among scouts on players who are often evaluated in private workouts and can look different from one month to the next. This year, one of the most challenging aspects in putting together this list is that many of these players reached oral agreements to sign with teams last year—some even before July 2 last year—and haven’t been seen as much recently. A player’s signing bonus is not necessarily his value on July 2, but what a team felt he was worth at the time they reached an agreement.

Due to the unique circumstances of Cuban players and how they become available to sign with major league teams, we have not included them in these rankings. We have covered those players in our rankings of the top Cuban players before they left the country, with follow-up reports elsewhere on BA about their progress since then, with many players still waiting for MLB to clear them to sign.

Rank, Player	Pos.	Country	Video
1. Kevin Maitan	ss	Venezuela	Link
2. Luis Almanzar	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
3. Luis Garcia	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
4. Gabriel Arias	ss	Venezuela	Link
5. Freudis Nova	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
6. Jeisson Rosario	of	Dominican Republic	Link
7. David Garcia	c	Venezuela	Link
8. Yunior Severino	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
9. Jose Sanchez	ss	Venezuela
10. Victor Garcia	of	Venezuela	Link
11. Yorbin Ceuta	ss	Venezuela	Link
12. Francisco Morales	rhp	Venezuela
13. Marcos Brito	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
14. Yasel Antuna	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
15. Abrahan Gutierrez	c	Venezuela	Link
16. Livan Soto	ss	Venezuela
17. Luis Noguera	lhp	Venezuela
18. Diego Infante	of	Venezuela
19. Brayan Gonzalez	ss	Venezuela	Link
20. Jean Carlos Carmona	ss	Dominican Republic
21. Yeikel Blandin	of	Dominican Republic	Link
22. Alison Quintero	c	Venezuela
23. Wencel Perez	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
24. Yerdel Vargas	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
25. Roancy Contreras	rhp	Dominican Republic
26. Yefri Del Rosario	rhp	Dominican Republic	Link
27. Marcos Gonzalez	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
28. Justin Lopez	ss	Venezuela
29. Luis Veloz	of	Dominican Republic	Link
30. Ricardo Mendez	of	Venezuela
31. Roimer Bolivar	of	Venezuela
32. Yenci Pena	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
33. Josue Guerrero	of	Dominican Republic	Link
34. Tirso Ornelas	of	Mexico	Link
35. Carlos Soler	of	Dominican Republic
36. Luis Mieses	of	Dominican Republic	Link
37. Anderson Cosma	of	Dominican Republic	Link
38. Leuri Mejia	of	Dominican Republic	Link
39. Kevin Richards	of	Dominican Republic	Link
40. Angel Macuare	rhp	Venezuela
41. Juan Contreras	rhp	Dominican Republic	Link
42. Diego Blanco	of	Venezuela
43. Nerio Rodriguez	c	Dominican Republic	Link
44. Pablo Abreu	of	Dominican Republic
45. Nicolas Torres	ss	Venezuela
46. Deurys Carrasco	ss	Dominican Republic	Link
47. Juan Aparicio	c	Venezuela
48. Michell Miliano	rhp	Dominican Republic	Link
49. Alexander Campos	ss	Venezuela	Link
50. Yordy Barley	ss	Dominican Republic	Link