2026 Baseball America Top 100 Prospects
- Greg Shelley
- 51 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The 2026 Baseball America Top 100 Prospect list reinforces a familiar truth in the RDBL: elite talent concentration matters, and a handful of organizations continue to separate themselves from the pack. At the very top, Baseball America leans heavily into premium shortstops and athletic position players, with Konnor Griffin, Kevin McGonigle, JJ Wetherholt, Jesus Made, and Walker Jenkins forming an elite tier that blends ceiling with long-term fantasy relevance. These are not merely “best prospects” — they are potential franchise-definers whose presence reshapes trade markets, draft strategies, and competitive windows across the league.
Several teams clearly dominate this list, beginning with the San Mateo Oppo Tacos. Griffin, Jenkins, Samuel Basallo, Josuar Gonzalez, Zyhir Hope, Jarlin Susana, Jett Williams, and Hagen Smith give San Mateo one of the most star-heavy prospect portfolios in the RDBL. It’s a system built around premium athleticism and positional value, particularly up the middle, and it gives the Oppo Tacos enormous flexibility: they can wait, consolidate via trade, or selectively activate when the competitive window demands it. Few teams can absorb misses the way San Mateo can — because the depth simply doesn’t run out.
The Honolulu Hammerheads and Lake Merced Goutfish follow closely behind, but with very different identities. The Hammerheads are defined by middle-infield certainty, led by McGonigle and Wetherholt and supported by Franklin Arias and Trey Yesavage. It’s a system that prioritizes floor as much as upside — players likely to play, produce, and stick. Lake Merced, meanwhile, boasts the deepest complete system in the league. Colt Emerson, Sebastian Walcott, Cooper Pratt, Lazaro Montes, Bubba Chandler, and Ryan Sloan give the Goutfish impact talent at nearly every developmental stage, blending explosive upside with real pitching depth. This is less a collection of prospects than a fully stocked pipeline.
Pitching is where Baseball America’s list subtly reshapes RDBL draft expectations. Thomas White anchors Nashville’s continued emphasis on elite left-handed arms, while Noah Schultz and Robby Snelling give the Lunatic Fringe one of the most intriguing long-term pitching duos in the league. Importantly, several of the highest-ranked arms — Nolan McLean, Payton Tolle, Rhett Lowder, Brody Hopkins — are currently free agents, but their proximity complicates matters. McLean, in particular, stands out as the top available name on the list, yet his likelihood of opening 2026 in a major-league rotation makes him far more likely to be won in the Auction Draft than stashed in the Reserve Draft. In contrast, arms like Andrew Painter (Meinert Hops) and Bubba Chandler (Lake Merced) are already rostered, shifting their value firmly into trade currency rather than draft capital.
The sheer volume of Free Agents on the Baseball America list makes this one of the deepest draftable prospect pools the RDBL has seen in years. Roughly half of the Top 100 remains unrostered, spanning near-MLB contributors and long-horizon teenagers alike. That distinction is critical. Players expected to break camp or force early call-ups — McLean, Lowder, Beavers, Tolle — may never reach the Reserve Draft, while names like Caleb Bonemer, Kaelen Culpepper, Arjun Nimmala, and JoJo Parker are far more likely to be available once reserve selections begin. GMs who fail to separate availability from ranking risk misallocating both dollars and draft capital.
When compared briefly to MLB Pipeline, the top of the list shows strong consensus, but Baseball America leans more heavily into long-term offensive upside and developmental certainty. Pipeline is quicker to elevate arms with clearer 2026 roles, while Baseball America shows more patience with high school and international bats such as Walcott, Ethan Holliday, and Bryce Eldridge. For RDBL decision-makers, the takeaway is simple: Baseball America offers the better long-range roadmap, while Pipeline helps identify who may matter sooner. Understanding where those philosophies intersect — and where they don’t — is where draft-day edges are created.
2026 Baseball America Top 100 Prospect List
SS Konnor Griffin (San Mateo Oppo Tacos)
SS Kevin McGonigle (Honolulu Hammerheads)
SS JJ Wetherholt (Honolulu Hammerheads)
SS Jesus Made (Asti Grape Stompers)
OF Walker Jenkins (San Mateo Oppo Tacos)
OF Max Clark (Mission Viejo Maulers)
SS Colt Emerson (Lake Merced Goutfish)
RHP Nolan McLean (Free Agent)
C Samuel Basallo (San Mateo Oppo Tacos)
RHP Trey Yesavage (Honolulu Hammerheads)
C Carter Jensen (Free Agent)
SS Leo De Vries (Alamo Short Stacks)
LHP Thomas White (Nashville Aristocrats)
SS Aidan Miller (Alamo Short Stacks)
RHP Bubba Chandler (Lake Merced Goutfish)
SS Sebastian Walcott (Lake Merced Goutfish)
LHP Payton Tolle (Free Agent)
1B Bryce Eldridge (Meinert Hops)
OF Carson Benge (Free Agent)
OF Eduardo Quintero (Free Agent)
OF Dylan Beavers (Free Agent)
2B Travis Bazzana (Spokane Fightin' Fish)
3B Sal Stewart (Cloverdale Clovers)
OF Josue De Paula (Maltese Falcons)
LHP Kade Anderson (Free Agent)
LHP Noah Schultz (Lunatic Fringe)
SS Caleb Bonemer (Free Agent)
OF Edward Florentino (Free Agent)
SS Bryce Rainer (Mount Diablo Devils)
SS Josuar Gonzalez (San Mateo Oppo Tacos)
SS Eli Willits (Free Agent)
RHP Andrew Painter (Meinert Hops)
LHP Liam Doyle (Nashville Aristocrats)
OF Chase DeLauter (Meinert Hops)
C Rainiel Rodriguez (Free Agent)
C Moises Ballesteros (Free Agent)
RHP Brody Hopkins (Free Agent)
RHP Seth Hernandez (Mission Viejo Maulers)
LHP Jamie Arnold (Alamo Short Stacks)
LHP Gage Jump (Free Agent)
LHP Robby Snelling (Lunatic Fringe)
SS Aiva Arquette (Burlingame Blue Ducks)
OF Owen Caissie (Maltese Falcons)
RHP Jonah Tong (Cloverdale Clovers)
OF Mike Sirota (Free Agent)
SS George Lombard (Mission Viejo Maulers)
SS Luis Pena (Free Agent)
OF Ryan Waldschmidt (Free Agent)
SS Franklin Arias (Honolulu Hammerheads)
SS Cooper Pratt (Lake Merced Goutfish)
RHP Tyler Bremner (Asti Grape Stompers)
LHP Connelly Early (Free Agent)
LHP Cam Caminiti (Free Agent)
OF Joshua Baez (Free Agent)
C Joe Mack (Free Agent)
1B Ralphy Velazquez (Free Agent)
OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (Asti Grape Stompers)
OF Lazaro Montes (Lake Merced Goutfish)
RHP Elmer Rodriguez (Free Agent)
RHP Ryan Sloan (Lake Merced Goutfish)
SS Dax Kilby (Free Agent)
SS Arjun Nimmala (Free Agent)
OF Zyhir Hope (San Mateo Oppo Tacos)
OF Theo Gillen (Free Agent)
RHP Caden Scarborough (Free Agent)
SS JoJo Parker (Free Agent)
SS Angel Genao (Maltese Falcons)
RHP Jarlin Susana (San Mateo Oppo Tacos)
RHP Kyson Witherspoon (Nashville Aristocrats)
OF Jacob Melton (Free Agent)
SS Jett Williams (San Mateo Oppo Tacos)
RHP Trey Gibson (Free Agent)
OF Braden Montgomery (Mission Viejo Maulers)
SS Kaelen Culpepper (Free Agent)
OF Justin Crawford (Mount Diablo Devils)
C Josue Briceno (Free Agent)
C Alfredo Duno (Asti Grape Stompers)
RHP Jaxon Wiggins (Free Agent)
RHP Rhett Lowder (Free Agent)
SS Ethan Holliday (Asti Grape Stompers)
RHP Brandon Sproat (Mount Diablo Devils)
RHP Kendry Chourio (Free Agent)
OF A.J. Ewing (Free Agent)
RHP JR Ritchie (Free Agent)
SS Carson Williams (Lunatic Fringe)
OF Nate George (Free Agent)
OF Bo Davidson (Free Agent)
LHP Parker Messick (Free Agent)
RHP Braylon Doughty (Free Agent)
C Ethan Salas (Asti Grape Stompers)
LHP Hagen Smith (San Mateo Oppo Tacos)
SS Billy Carlson (Free Agent)
RHP Carlos Lagrange (Free Agent)
LHP Connor Prielipp (Free Agent)
LHP Luis De Leon (Free Agent)
RHP Logan Henderson (Free Agent)
SS Kayson Cunningham (Free Agent)
SS Jhonny Level (Free Agent)
C Harry Ford (Lunatic Fringe)
RHP Tanner McDougal (Free Agent)
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