The 2024 Roger Dorn Baseball League Pre-Season Top 100 Prospect List was published Sunday night with some of the games brightest young stars set to dot RDBL Active Rosters in 2024. While there are plenty of household names in the Top 50, we wanted to take a deeper dive into the back half of the group on some potential breakout candidates for the 2024 Season.
56. RHP Max Meyer, Las Vegas Aristocrats
Earlier this month during the Winter Meetings, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker namedropped a player he is looking forward to seeing in 2024: Max Meyer.
As Schumaker put it, Miami’s path to success lies in its rotation -- and in the starters on the way. Meyer, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the organization’s No. 3 prospect, was just six innings into his Major League career when he tore the UCL in his right elbow on July 23, 2022. He hasn’t pitched in a game since then while he’s been recovering from Tommy John surgery.
While Meyer might not open the season in the Marlins rotation, he figures to make an impact quickly in 2024 and could emerge as a mid-season option for a talented 'Crats roster. He still possess #2 starter upside that could quickly be realized in Miami.
64. RHP Dylan Lesko, Asti Grape Stompers
One of the more talented prep, right-handed pitchers, Dylan Lesko, was discussed as a potential top-five pick which does not happen that often for prep arms. Unfortunately, his senior season ended early due to an injury that led to Tommy John Surgery, but that did not deter the Padres from selecting Lesko at 15 overall.
Lesko returned in 2023, pitching 33 innings across three levels, reaching High-A, and posting a 5.45 ERA with 52 strikeouts. The good news is that the stuff appeared to be back, as Lesko’s arsenal looked strong. The bad news, Lesko struggled with control, throwing strikes at just a 58 percent clip.
His fastball came back to life, sitting 95 with explosive carry at the top of the zone, appearing to have a rising effect. The IVB numbers are elite for any arm, consistently checking in at over 20 inches. The changeup has always been Lesko’s bread and butter, being one of the pitches in his draft class. He sells it well with fast arm speed but has a large velocity differential and a ton of late-fading action. The pitch plays extremely well with his fastball. Lesko’s third pitch is a mid-70s curveball with a ton of downward action. It's a high spinning pitch that he does not land for strikes often, but does flash potential.
Given the mid-90s fastball and a 15 mph separation between that and the next pitch, Lesko could benefit from adding a slider or cutter to bridge the velocity gap. The upside is tremendous, though and 2024 could be a big breakout season considering it would be another year removed from Tommy John.
90. OF Josue De Paula, Maltese Falcons
De Paula has quite an interesting path to getting to professional baseball. Growing up in Brooklyn and being cousins with Stephon Marbury, De Paula moved to the Dominican Republic at 14. Just a couple of years later, he inked a $1.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers and took the Dominican Summer League by storm that summer, becoming one of the games biggest potential prospect breakouts.
Standing at 6’3”, De Paula has what many would call a projectable frame, and with solid contact skills, he set himself up for what many thought would be a huge 2023. In the DSL as a young 17-year-old, De Paula slashed .350/.448/.522 with five home runs and 16 stolen bases across 223 plate appearances. Those numbers were backed by a 91 percent zone-contact rate and an 85 percent overall clip. Jump forward to 2023, and De Paula skips the complex level entirely, beginning the Single-A season just turning 18 years old. It was an aggressive move, and for the most part, De Paula held his own, posting a .284/.396/.372 slash, but it came with just two home runs and 19 extra-base hits in 340 plate appearances. He did make improvements throughout the year, and from July forward, he posted a .306/.427/.397 slash and walked nearly as much as he struck out.
If you want to poke a hole in De Paula’s game, it would likely be that he is considered too passive, swinging at just 40 percent of pitches in his full-season debut while making contact at a 79 percent clip. The OBP looks great, but De Paula needs to tap into more power, which we have not seen yet. The projection aspect is tough, because you look at a player with this kind of body and just assume they will add good weight and strength, especially in the Dodgers org, but it has not come yet. De Paula will likely be a solid source of stolen bases, as he has swiped thirty bases in 128 games and has clocked plus run times. The contact numbers suggest plus or better contact, and De Paula’s barrel control is high-end. If and when the power comes, it is only a matter of time before De Paula soars up prospect lists.
96. OF Miguel Bleis, Alamo Short Stacks
Bleis signed for $1.5 million out of the Dominican Republic in January of 2021, and after a solid showing in the DSL that year, he created huge buzz on the complex in Fort Myers throughout 2022 because of his bat speed and power. As FanGraphs put it, who ranked Bleis inside their Top 20 entering last season, "This is one of the toolsiest prospects in all the minors and was one of the players on the overall Top 100 who entered 2023 with a chance to "Chourio," i.e. leap into the top-10 mix within the next year." Instead Bleis had a rough first month of full-season ball, strained his left shoulder during a swing at the end of May, and ended up needing season-ending surgery. Bleis slid to the back of the 55 FV tier in a small May Top 100 update before the injury occurred. The shoulder complicates things, but his evaluation really hasn't changed, even with the early 2023 struggles. Bleis has All-Star talent and just about all of his underlying indicators suggest he's a better hitter than his surface stats do, though he is more chase-prone than is ideal.
Entering 2024 healthy, Bleis has a chance to "Chourio" again this season and become a more household name for the Alamo Short Stacks.
Unranked: RHP Cade Cavalli, Mt. Diablo Devils
There has never been much doubting of Cavalli’s stuff dating back to his days at Oklahoma, but the durability is somewhat concerning. In his first pro season in 2021, Cavalli made it to Triple-A and had the most successful season of his career as he pitched 123.1 innings with a 3.36 ERA and 175 strikeouts.
His Triple-A numbers in 2022 were also strong as he struck out 104 batters across 97 innings with a 3.71 ERA. Unfortunately, Cavalli had Tommy John surgery after a strong Spring Training in 2023, pushing his return toward June of 2024.
When healthy, Cavalli has a fastball sitting near 96 and touching near triple digits while featuring a curve, slider, and changeup. The curve is his most used secondary, which sits in the mid-80s and averages nearly 50 inches of vertical break. The slider and changeup sit in a similar velocity band in the upper 80s, having over 25 inches of separation between the two.
With health, Cavalli could take off as a starting pitcher, but there are risks given Cavalli’s health track record and durability.
Five More That Could Rise: 55. RHP Edward Cabrera (Clovers), 62. RHP Jackson Jobe (Crats), 79. OF Sammy Zavala (Stacks), 63. 3B Muketaka Murakami (Goutfish), 83. RHP Chase Burns ('Crats)
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