It's a clean sweep.
Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager has been named the top prospect in baseball for the 2016 season by all four major scouting publications, including Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, and MLB.com. Baseball America released their annual top-100 list Friday, completing Seager's sweep.
Seager, 21, hit .293/.344/.487 with 37 doubles and 18 homers in 125 games split between Double-A and Triple-A last year. He then put up a .337/.425/.561 (173 OPS+) batting line in 27 games with Los Angeles as a September call-up. Seager hit third in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Mets.
In their free scouting report, MLB.com said Seager "has a higher offensive ceiling than any big league shortstop except for Carlos Correa." They note he's big for a shortstop (listed at 6-foot-4 and 215 lbs.), but that's not considered a huge problem. "Eventually moving to third base wouldn't prevent Seager from being a star, because his bat will play big at any position."
Here are the consensus top 15 prospects in baseball using the rankings from the four scouting publications. I simply averaged out each player's rank.
- SS Corey Seager, Dodgers - Average Rank: 1
- OF Byron Buxton, Twins - 2
- RHP Lucas Giolito, Nationals - 3.5
- LHP Julio Urias, Dodgers - 4.75
- SS J.P. Crawford, Phillies - 4.75
- 2B Yoan Moncada, Red Sox - 8.5
- SS Orlando Arcia, Brewers - 9
- RHP Alex Reyes, Cardinals - 9.5
- 3B/OF Joey Gallo, Rangers - 9.75
- RHP Tyler Glasnow, Pirates - 10.25
- OF Nomar Mazara, Rangers - 13.25
- SS Trea Turner, Nationals - 15.25
- LHP Blake Snell, Rays - 15.25
- SS Dansby Swanson, Braves - 16.25
- LHP Steven Matz, Mets - 18.5
So not only do the Dodgers have the best overall prospect in baseball, they also have another consensus top-four prospect in Urias, arguably the best pitching prospect in the game. The Rangers (Gallo, Mazara) and Nationals (Giolito, Turner) also have a pair of top-12 prospects heading into 2016.
The 2015 rookie class was historically great. I'm not sure we'll see anything like that again, at least not anytime soon. The 2016 rookie class should be very good though, thanks in large part to Seager.
