Where Will Top 2024 MLB Draft Picks Rank As Top 100 Prospects?
Today Baseball America subscriber John Finley asked the following question:
“Which of the 2024 draft prospects would be in Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list after being selected?”
That’s a great question, and one that we as a staff have discussed as the draft has approached and as we have continued to update our in-season top 100 prospects list.
At the moment, each of the top 11 players on the BA 500 have compelling cases for immediate consideration on the list—which is in dire need of a talent infusion thanks to injuries and graduations in the first part of the season.
Those players, in order, are:
1. Charlie Condon, OF, Georgia (60/High)
2. Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State (60/High)
3. JJ Wetherholt, SS, West Virginia (55/High)
4. Chase Burns, RHP, Wake Forest (60/Extreme)
5. Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Florida (60/Extreme)
6. Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas (60/Extreme)
7. Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M (55/High)
8. Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest (55/High)
9. Konnor Griffin, OF/SS, Jackson Prep, Flowood, Miss. (60/Extreme)
10. Bryce Rainer, SS/RHP, Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif. (60/Extreme)
11. Trey Yesavage, RHP, ECU (55/High)
The addition of BA Grades to our top draft prospects in each class is a useful tool when trying to gauge where these prospects will fit once they are with big league teams. You can see full BA Grades for the top 200 prospects on our big board, but each of the top 11 players here are in a tier of their own with BA Grades of 55/High or 60/Extreme or better.
That means each player could slide right into the top 100 right away.
Condon and Bazzana are the highest-graded players and seemingly the consensus top two players in the draft class. They are both graded as 60/Highs, and I could see them both immediately fitting inside the top 30 on the top 100, likely ahead of White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery. But anywhere in the 10-30 range feels reasonable at the moment and I could see cases for them to crack the back of the top 10 as well, where players such as Walker Jenkins, Jasson Dominguez and Noah Schultz, for example, all have the same 60/High grade.
The next nine players are difficult to separate and various scouts have lined them up in all sorts of different orders, but they should all have cases to fit in the 30-100 range right away. If you’re looking for more information on tool grades, J.J. Cooper has a good explainer here.
Draft capital is informative, but barring a significant piece of news about a player that materially changes their profile, they should line up in roughly that order when they inevitably land on the top 100 list.
