The goal of every Major League Baseball team is to draft and develop All-Stars. These players are the very best talents and will be the faces of the sport for a long time to come.
Despite having All-Star goals for every prospect drafted or, in the case of international players, signed, it’s not as simple as saying that a player who has All-Star potential will reach that ceiling.
In fact, if you look throughout the minors right now, the ratio of players with that kind of upside to those even close to reaching is wider than the Grand Canyon. It takes a special kind of athlete and person to go from raw talent to on-field performance.
Mike Trout didn’t get to be who he is out of happenstance. Most teams weren’t sold on his ability coming out of high school because he played in New Jersey, which isn’t exactly a hotbed for baseball talent. He wasn’t even the Angels’ first pick in the 2009 draft.
As we look through 2014 prospect lists in anticipation for the 2014 season, here are the seven players who have legitimate shots to become All-Stars in the next three years (2016).
This is not a ranking of the seven best prospects in baseball, because age and development curves have to be taken into consideration.
A player with incredible tools who has a lot of in-game adjustments to make, like the Chicago Cubs’ No. 1 prospect Javier Baez, might not be ready for the Midsummer Classic by the time 2016 rolls around. That doesn’t mean he won’t get there, but too many questions remain to put him on the main list right now.
Just to save any questions or comments, I don’t think prospects like Nick Castellanos or Taijuan Walker will be All-Stars in the next three years. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them, or doubt their ability, I just have lower grades on them than others might. It’s just a personal preference.
With that said, here are the prospects we anticipate seeing in baseball’s midseason showcase sooner than later.
Note: All stats courtesy of MiLB.com unless otherwise noted. Scouting reports are based on my own personal evaluations.