A Look at Baseball’s Top 25 Prospects
And, for fun, we’ll go back 20 years and look at the top 25 from 2004.
OK, it looks like some new top-prospect lists dropped in the last week or two, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at the top 25… as well as Baseball America’s Top 25 prospects from 20 years ago. Let me know if you like this kind of thing; I always love reading about the top baseball prospects.
No. 1
Baseball America: James Wood, Nationals
ESPN: Jackson Holliday, Orioles
MLB.com: Jackson Holliday, Orioles
2004: Joe Mauer, Twins
Wood and Holliday are both in the majors; neither will likely be rookie-eligible in 2025 (MLB.com already took Wood off its prospect list). Wood is 21 years old and raw—he’s striking out 31% of the time so far, and he’s run into a fair share of outs on the bases. But he’s also hitting .275 with extra-base power, and when his home run swing comes in, look out.
Holliday, after a traumatic first shot at the big leagues, is slugging .522 since his call-up on Aug. 1. He’ll be fine.
As for 2004, well, how about that—a Hall of Famer right off the bat! That bodes well. “Mauer combines a picture-perfect lefthanded stroke with impeccable strike-zone judgment to generate high batting averages and on-base percentages.” Nailed it, Baseball America!
No. 2
BA: Jackson Holliday, Orioles
ESPN: James Wood, Nationals
MLB.com: Junior Caminero, Rays
2004: B.J. Upton, Rays
Unfortunately, Caminero has missed a lot of this season with a quad injury. But the immense power potential still has scouts salivating. He was just called up to the big leagues, and everybody seems to think he’s going to hit 30 or 40 home runs per season right away, and Cleveland fans will be left wondering: What happened to Tobias Myers, the guy they got in the Caminero trade in 2021.*
As for Upton, he might not have become the five-tool superstar that scouts saw going into the 2004 season, but he played 12 years in the big leagues, hit .300 one year, stole 44 bases one year and hit 28 home runs one year, so it was certainly a fine big-league career.
*Here’s what happened: Cleveland sold Myers to the Giants six months later. San Francisco promptly released him. The White Sox got him and released him quickly. He then signed with Milwaukee, where the pitcher whisperers got ahold of him, and he’s now 6-5 with a 2.79 ERA as a rookie with the Brewers.
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No. 3
BA: Junior Caminero, Rays
ESPN: Carson Williams, Rays
MLB.com: Dylan Crews, Nationals
2004: Delmon Young, Rays