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MLB 26-and-under power rankings, Nos. 20-16: Can Anthony Volpe, James Wood and Munetaka Murakami deliver on their potential?
Yahoo Sports’ 26-and-under power rankings are a remix on the traditional farm system rankings that assess the strength of MLB organizations’ talent base among rookie-eligible and MiLB players. By evaluating all players in an organization entering their age-26 seasons or younger, this project aims to paint a more complete picture of each team’s young core. Our rankings value productive young major leaguers more heavily than prospects who have yet to prove it at the highest level, and most prospects included in teams’ evaluations have already reached the upper levels of the minors.
To compile these rankings, each MLB organization was given a score in four categories:
Young MLB hitters: scored 0-10; 26-and-under position players and rookie-eligible hitters projected to be on Opening Day rosters
Young MLB pitchers: scored 0-10; 26-and-under pitchers and rookie-eligible pitchers projected to be on Opening Day rosters
Prospect hitters: scored 0-5; prospect-eligible position players projected to reach MLB in the next 1-2 years
Prospect pitchers: scored 0-5; prospect-eligible pitchers projected to reach MLB in the next 1-2 years
We’re counting down all 30 organizations’ 26-and-under talent bases from weakest to strongest, diving into five teams at a time. In addition to the scores for each team in each category, we’ll highlight the key players who fall into each bucket and contributed most to their organization's place in the rankings. Below, we dig into Nos. 20-16.
Read more: 26-and-under rankings Nos. 30-26 | Nos. 25-21
20. Atlanta Braves (total score: 14/30) | 2025 rank: 7
Young MLB hitters (6/10): C Drake Baldwin, OF Michael Harris II
Young MLB pitchers (5/10): RHP Spencer Schwellenbach, RHP Hurston Waldrep, RHP AJ Smith-Shawver
Prospect hitters (0/5): 1B/3B David McCabe, SS John Gil, SS Alex Lodise, OF Pat Clohisy
Prospect pitchers (3/5): RHP Didier Fuentes, RHP J.R. Ritchie, RHP Owen Murphy, LHP Cam Caminiti, RHP Lucas Braun, RHP Ian Mejia
Few teams have tumbled further down our rankings over the past few seasons than the Braves, who have seen the Spencer Strider/Ronald Acuña Jr./Austin Riley core graduate from eligibility. What’s left is a much less certain future. The Braves have struggled to develop and promote minor-league reinforcements, particularly on the position-player front, which has hurt them in recent seasons.
But it’s not all bleak. DrakeBaldwin is the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, for Pete’s sake. The 24-year-old backstop was magnificent at the plate last season and offered more from a defensive perspective than some prognosticators expected. He’s probably never going to win a Gold Glove, but Baldwin absolutely rakes and should settle as one of the better catchers in baseball over the next decade. Sean Murphy’s injury and Atlanta’s decision to move on from longtime DH Marcell Ozuna should provide Baldwin ample playing time going forward.
Michael Harris II is coming off one of the weirdest campaigns in recent memory. The fleet-footed outfielder was his typically excellent self defensively but battled through an all-time awful first half in 2025. His .559 OPS at the end of June was dead last among qualified hitters. But he rebounded enough in the second half (.789 OPS) to finish the year with a respectable statline. Harris’ elite defensive chops mean he has more leeway to struggle at the plate, but he’s always going to be a streaky hitter due to his swing-happy approach. As a whole, that probably makes him more of a great complementary piece than a cornerstone.
In an earlier draft of these rankings, before the spring training injury bug came a’biting, we had the Braves slotted in a few spots higher. Then news broke that both Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep are to undergo surgery to remove loose bodies in their elbows. That procedure is not nearly as concerning as Tommy John, but it’s certainly not good news. And Schwellenbach’s issue comes on the heels of an elbow fracture that derailed the second half of his 2025 season. Both guys could still contribute in 2026, but we were inclined to round down based on their recent injuries.
Down on the farm, Atlanta has a handful of arms primed to climb up the ladder. J.R.Ritchie, a 2022 first-rounder, is the likeliest to make a significant impact this season. He experienced a nice velocity bump last year and now projects as a solid No. 4 starter type. DidierFuentes, still just 20 years old,was unfairly thrust into the rotation as an emergency option last season and got absolutely obliterated. More minor-league seasoning could turn him into a usable big-league starter. CamCaminiti is much further away — he hasn’t pitched above Low-A — but the long-limbed lefty might have the highest ceiling of any arm in this system. It’s a strong group.
That’s not the case on the position-player front, where the Braves’ hitting prospects were the only group in all of baseball that received a zero. Atlanta was one of three organizations, alongside Houston and Anaheim, that didn’t have a single position-player prospect on any of the major prospect sites’ top-100 lists. And unlike the Astros and Angels, the Braves didn’t even have a hitter honorably mentioned. It’s a bleak situation. Their second-rounder last year, Alex Lodise, has real juice but tons of chase. Diego Tornes, their top signing from the 2025 international class, is 17 years old. Pat Clohisy stole 99 bases last season but might not have the impact power necessary to be more than a fourth or fifth outfielder.
Some of this drought is defensible. Atlanta’s run of contention has relegated it to the back of the draft’s first round for much of the past decade. The Braves have also used six straight first-round picks (2020-2024) on pitchers. And Baldwin (a third-rounder) turning into what he has turned into almost evens the equation. Still, the team’s issues with hitting development are striking, as are its failures in Latin America. — J.M.
19. New York Yankees (total score: 15/30) | 2025 rank: 26
Young MLB hitters (5/10): OF Jasson Domínguez, C Austin Wells, SS Anthony Volpe
Young MLB pitchers (5/10): RHP Cam Schlittler, LHP Ryan Weathers, RHP Cade Winquest
Prospect hitters (2/5): OF Spencer Jones, SS George Lombard Jr.
Prospect pitchers (3/5): RHP Ben Hess, RHP Bryce Cunningham, RHP Carlos Lagrange, LHP Elmer Rodriguez, RHP Chase Hampton
All three of New York’s young big-league hitters had 2025 seasons to forget. JassonDomínguez failed to capitalize on a batch of early-season playing time and eventually ceded his job to an ascending Trent Grisham. He’s likely to spend much of this year in Scranton or the Yankee Stadium dugout. AustinWells regressed after a breakout 2024, finishing his campaign with a putrid .275 on-base percentage, the ninth-worst mark among players with 400 PAs. He still cranked 21 long balls and remains an elite pitch-framer/game-caller.
Then there’s AnthonyVolpe, the local boy, the prospect prince that was promised. Three years into his big-league career, the offensive impact he showcased in the minors has yet to emerge on a consistent basis. Most concerningly, Volpe’s defensive numbers backed up big-time in 2025. That’s mostly due to a batch of errors on routine plays and not necessarily a decline in his physical abilities, but it’s worrying nonetheless. Offseason surgery to repair a shoulder issue that reportedly dogged him for much of last season could help Volpe get back on track, but the gap between what he is and what he was supposed to be remains enormous. This might be his last year to prove that he’s the Yankees’ shortstop of the future.
Cam Schlittler’s emergence was a major story of New York’s 2025 season, culminating in a historically dominant Game 3 shutout against Boston in the wild-card series, in which he sat 100 mph and punched out 12. His more forgettable outing against Toronto in the ALDS was a reminder that Schlittler, like many other arms, can be a bit too reliant on his high-octane fastball. When that heat is a bit frostier (95-97), Schlittler is hitable, particularly when he can’t find the zone. Whether he can maintain his velocity deeper into starts or find more consistent secondaries will determine whether he’s a midrotation piece or a frontline arm moving forward. Either way, this is a massive win for a seventh-rounder out of Northeastern.
As is often the case with Yankees prospects, GeorgeLombard Jr. and SpencerJones have gotten a ton of press relative to their small-market counterparts. Both are immensely talented but come with unavoidable concerns. For Lombard, it’s all about his ability to hit for average. Few evaluators doubt the raw juice or his defensive skills at short, but he hit just .215 last year across 469 Double-A plate appearances. Even if it clicks for him, he’s going to be a Trevor Story, Willy Adames, Cubs-era Dansby Swanson type of shortstop. If it doesn’t click, he’ll look like a less extreme version of Gabriel Arias.
Speaking of extreme, let’s pivot to Jones, one of the most polarizing hitters of the decade. The 24-year-old clocked 35 homers and posted a .274 average across 116 minor-league games last season. He also struck out at a preposterous 35.4% clip. It is very, very difficult to be an impact big leaguer with that much swing-and-miss, especially if you aren’t a sensational defender. Jones isn’t a butcher in center, but he’s not Pete Crow-Armstrong. The range of outcomes here is cavernous. Jones could be a lefty Aaron Judge clone. Or he could also be in the KBO in two years. It all depends on how he fares against big-league pitching. Evaluators are almost universally skeptical, but we can’t wait to see how it goes.
As always, the Yankees have a handful of pop-up arms down on the farm. Few organizations are consistently better at minor-league pitching development than the Yanks, who frequently flip their pitching prospect depth at the deadline to supplement the big-league club. Elmer Rodriguez was drafted out of a Puerto Rican high school by Boston in the fourth round in 2021 and dealt to the Yankees for Carlos Narváez last winter. He has a nasty, bowling ball sinker that pushed him to a 54.5% ground-ball rate last year (the seventh-highest mark among minor leaguers with at least 100 innings). He probably won’t win any Cy Youngs, but Rodriguez should pitch in the bigs for a long time.
Carlos Lagrange is a different story. The 22-year-old is a mountain of a man, officially listed at 6-foot-7, 248 pounds. His fastball regularly touches triple digits, and his slider is a true bat-misser. He also doesn’t always know where the ball is going. That’s why, despite having thrown 120 innings last year, Lagrange is probably a reliever when it’s all done and dusted. If it plays out that way, he could become one of the best back-end arms in the league, in a Dellin Betances mold. His stuff is that good. There’s a non-zero chance he contributes to the Yankees’ bullpen this season. — J.M.
18. Chicago White Sox (total score: 15/30) | 2025 rank: 28
Young MLB hitters (6/10): SS Colson Montgomery, INF Chase Meidroth, C Kyle Teel, INF Miguel Vargas, 1B Munetaka Murakami, C Edgar Quero, UTIL Luisangel Acuña, UTIL Brooks Baldwin, INF Lenyn Sosa, OF Everson Pereira, INF Curtis Mead
Young MLB pitchers (3/10): RHP Shane Smith, RHP Sean Burke, RHP Jonathan Cannon, RHP Grant Taylor, RHP Mike Vasil, RHP Wikelman González, RHP Alexander Alberto, RHP Jedixson Paez
Prospect hitters (2/5): OF Braden Montgomery, 2B Sam Antonacci, INF Caleb Bonemer, INF William Bergolla Jr.
Prospect pitchers (4/5): LHP Hagen Smith, LHP Noah Schultz, RHP David Sandlin, RHP Tanner McDougal, LHP Christian Oppor
Few teams, if any, can match the White Sox in terms of the sheer quantity of 26-and-under players expected to contribute at the major-league level in 2026, a predictable product of Chicago’s rebuild. It’s rare for a team coming off 102 losses to be burgeoning with hope and anticipation for the season ahead, but Chicago has assembled several promising building blocks and is now far enough removed from the catastrophe that was 2024 that vibes on the South Side are surprisingly good. While there’s still ample work to be done (and money to be spent) before this team will be considered a viable contender, the White Sox can no longer be shrugged off as years away from relevance.
A position-player group bereft of talent not long ago has experienced an infusion of upside via all three avenues of acquisition: the draft and development of a potential homegrown star in Colson Montgomery, the hefty Garrett Crochet trade return including Kyle Teel, Chase Meidroth and Braden Montgomery, and the shocking free-agent addition of Munetaka Murakami. Let’s start with the franchise shortstop Montgomery, whose climb to the majors was a slow burn but whose arrival was well worth the wait. His power has long been his calling card, and that was immediately on display, with 21 home runs in 71 games as a rookie, but it was Montgomery’s huge strides with the glove — he rated as a plus defender at shortstop after years of evaluators pegging him as a soon-to-be third baseman — that amplified his star potential. The strikeouts might always be an issue, but shortstops with his kind of pop don’t grow on trees.
Teel and Edgar Quero (also acquired via trade) project as above-average bats for their position, but both catchers will need to improve as defenders for the White Sox to feel comfortable with them as the no-doubt backstop tandem of the future. Meidroth’s elite contact skills and defensive versatility make him one of several useful role players (Brooks Baldwin, Luisangel Acuña, eventually Sam Antonacci) for manager Will Venable to deploy. Miguel Vargas and Lenyn Sosa have notably more offensive upside than the aforementioned role players, but their defensive deficiencies could squeeze them off the roster soon unless they really start to rake.
Then there’s Murakami, arriving from Japan with a legendary NPB résumé and enormous questions about how his skill set will translate against MLB arms. That skepticism surrounding Murakami makes his value within this project far different than, say, that of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whose proven ace status significantly boosted the Dodgers’ young MLB pitchers score the past two years. That said, Murakami’s upside is unrivaled in this org outside of Montgomery, so his presence still bolstered Chicago’s case for a strong score in the young MLB hitters category.
While the bats are in a much better place compared to a year ago, progress on the mound was more uneven for Chicago in 2025. Rule 5 pick turned All-Star Shane Smith was an undeniable win for the front office and coaching staff, but he still projects more as a midrotation or back-end arm than a frontline force; the same can be said about Jonathan Cannon and Sean Burke. Grant Taylor can be an impact reliever if he can stay healthy, but that has proven to be quite a big if.
There’s enviable depth at the upper levels of Chicago’s system, but the most prominent prospect arms turned in a mixed bag of results last season. It seemed likely that at least one of Hagen Smith or Noah Schultz would debut for Chicago in 2025, but Smith’s command struggles and Schultz’s recurring injury interruptions determined otherwise. Getting those two talented southpaws back on track is pivotal for Chicago’s long-term outlook on the mound. On a more positive note, the less-heralded and later-drafted duo of Tanner McDougal (fifth round, 2021) and Christian Oppor (fifth round, 2023) turned in terrific campaigns and have put themselves on the prospect radar. — J.S.
17. Washington Nationals (total score: 15/30) | 2025 rank: 10
Young MLB hitters (7/10): OF James Wood, SS CJ Abrams, OF Daylen Lile, OF Dylan Crews, INF Luis García Jr., 3B Brady House, INF Nasim Nuñez, INF José Tena, CF Jacob Young, OF Robert Hassell III
Young MLB pitchers (2/10): RHP Brad Lord, RHP Cole Henry, LHP DJ Herz, LHP Mitchell Parker
Prospect hitters (3/5): C Harry Ford, 1B Yohandy Morales, SS Seaver King, OF Christian Franklin, OF Andrew Pinckney, SS Eli Willits, INF Gavin Fien, 1B Abimelec Ortiz
Prospect pitchers (3/5): RHP Jarlin Susana, RHP Travis Sykora, RHP Luis Perales, LHP Alex Clemmey, LHP Jackson Kent
It’s a time of substantial change in the nation’s capital, with a new leadership group helmed by 36-year-old president of baseball operations Paul Toboni taking the reins in October. The forward-thinking exec has already begun the long process of modernizing this organization’s processes. That bodes well for the long run, even if this turns out to be a rough year at the big-league level.
But even if the 2026 Nats have no chance to win the World Series, the club can still take meaningful steps forward. That starts and ends with this core of young hitters. James Wood earned an All-Star nod in 2025 but looked exhausted throughout a statistically poor second half. A player this tall and long-limbed is always going to run a high K rate, but his 32.1% mark from 2025 needs to tick down if he’s going to evolve into an MVP candidate.
Trade rumors have swirled around CJAbrams all winter, but he looks primed to begin the year in D.C. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares with a new, upgraded coaching staff. Abrams hasn’t quite reached his offensive ceiling and remains a very flawed defensive player. Still, there aren’t many 25-year-old shortstops who can hit at an above-average clip. DaylenLile (.845 OPS) was one of the few pleasant surprises of Washington’s abysmal 2025. His bat looks legit, but his defensive numbers were dreadful. Improvement on that front could make him a real difference-maker.
Dylan Crews, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft behind Paul Skenes, has had a start-and-stop first few years to his MLB career, mostly due to injuries. The talent hasn’t gone anywhere, though, and we think Crews will have a breakout 2026. The rest of this impressively deep group has more warts, as we have big questions about BradyHouse’s hit tool, RobertHassell III’s power and LuisGarcía Jr.’s glove.
A total dearth of young MLB pitching is part of why most prognosticators have the Nats pegged for the NL East cellar. MitchellParker was the second-worst qualified starter by ERA last season. BradLord could develop into a back-end rotation piece but needs to upgrade his secondaries. ColeHenry will start the year as Washington’s closer but is probably more of a seventh- or eighth-inning arm on a contender.
This farm system has taken a big step forward over the past 12 months, thanks to a strong 2025 draft and a handful of big-leaguer-for-prospect trades. HarryFord, acquired this winter for reliever Jose Ferrer, might finish this season as Washington’s primary catcher. He’s tracking like a capable every-day option, with a patience-over-power profile. EliWillits was the No. 1 overall pick last summer, but he only just turned 18 and, despite his immense promise, is years away from big-league impact. The same is true for GavinFien, a 2025 first-rounder acquired in the Gore deal.
Jarlin Susana might have the highest ceiling of any pitcher in the minor leagues, with a triple digit heater and a soul-snatching slider. He’ll miss the first few months due to an injury and might end up in the bullpen. TravisSykora, also injured,is built like an oak tree. He was tracking like a potential No. 2 starter before he hit the shelf.
We believe in this new leadership group and some of the interesting player development hires they’ve made. There’s a chance this system, bolstered by another big draft and maybe an Abrams trade, looks even more stacked a year from now. — J.M.
16. Chicago Cubs (total score: 15/30) | 2025 rank: 17
Young MLB hitters (6/10): OF Pete Crow-Armstrong, INF/OF Matt Shaw, C/DH Moisés Ballesteros
Young MLB pitchers (5/10): RHPCade Horton, RHP Daniel Palencia
Prospect hitters (2/5): OF Kevin Alcántara, 1B Jonathon Long, 3B Pedro Ramirez, 2B James Triantos, INFJefferson Rojas, OF Ethan Conrad
Prospect pitchers (2/5): RHP Jaxon Wiggins, RHP Brandon Birdsell
Fresh off one of the more hot-and-cold offensive seasons in recent memory — 27 homers and 29 steals with a .868 OPS through the end of July; just four homers and six steals with a .533 OPS over the final two months — Pete Crow-Armstrong is a difficult player to forecast. 2025 was an exaggerated manifestation of his immense raw talent being undermined by his swing-at-everything approach. PCA’s game-changing defense in center field and havoc wreaked on the basepaths afford him multiple ways to make the Cubs a better ballclub no matter what he’s doing at the plate. But for the soon-to-be 24-year-old to become more valuable than volatile, he’ll need to dial in a more dependable offensive game plan.
Matt Shaw finished his rookie year strong at the plate but is transitioning to a superutility role in the wake of Alex Bregman’s arrival at the hot corner. Can manager Craig Counsell find Shaw enough at-bats for him to remain a key cog moving forward, or will he ultimately become a trade chip sent to flourish elsewhere? Moisés Ballesteros’ bat is even more promising than Shaw’s, but his defensive polish as a backstop lags far behind, which could limit him to DH duty in the short term, capping his overall value. On the farm, Kevin Alcántara’s physical tools continue to tantalize, but his production has yet to demand at-bats in the majors. Conversely, all Jonathon Long has done in the minors is rake, including a full season of mashing at Triple-A in 2025, but his corner-only glove makes his path to playing time in Chicago rather narrow.
It’s hard to put too much stock into any reliever because of their inherent volatility, but Daniel Palencia finally translating his elite velocity into reliable high-leverage results was an encouraging development last season; now let’s see if he can do it again. Cade Horton’s 2.67 ERA across 118 innings earned him a narrow runner-up finish to Drake Baldwin in the NL Rookie of the Year race. The run-prevention speaks for itself, but the shape of Horton’s effectiveness, featuring a sharp decrease in strikeout rate from what he demonstrated in college and the minors, was an odd quirk of his introduction to the majors and is worth monitoring entering Year 2. Horton’s season also ended on a sour note, with a rib fracture that rendered him unavailable for October. A healthy Horton should be a fixture in Chicago’s rotation for years to come, but his ability to find more swing-and-miss could determine whether we underrated him in this exercise or properly assessed him as more of a midrotation starter than a frontline one.
The upside of hard-throwing and near-ready right-hander Jaxon Wiggins helps Chicago avoid an especially low score in the prospect pitching category, but beyond him, there’s a severe lack of impressive arms in this system. Wiggins dominated High-A and Double-A hitters last summer before a brief taste of Triple-A in September. Chicago’s rotation looks set with veterans for now, but Wiggins could be a factor later in 2026 — if injuries don’t necessitate his arrival even sooner. — J.S.
