Few things get baseball fans more excited than the prospect of, well, prospects.
Last season gave us Kris Bryant. Carlos Correa. Francisco Lindor, Miguel Sano and Noah Syndergaard. Two years ago, it was Jose Abreu, Dellin Betances, Jacob deGrom and Masahiro Tanaka. Three years ago? Try Chris Archer, Nolan Arenado, Jose Fernandez, Shelby Miller and Wil Myers.
Year after year, Major League Baseball is flooded with rookies, and the 2016 season will be no different.
Hundreds of rookies will take the field this season, some more notable and talented than others. Take 2015, for example, when 254 players with rookie eligibility appeared in at least one game. Yet there are only a handful that stand out as truly exciting players.
In order to whittle down such a huge field of candidates, we’re going to limit our selections here to players who are either expected to start the season in the majors or have an estimated time of arrival right around the All-Star break. Past performance, potential and available playing time were taken into account as well.
Keep in mind that this is not a ranking of baseball’s best prospects. I cannot emphasize that enough. These rankings are truly subjective, as the list of rookies we’re most excited to watch in 2016 could be completely different from your list. There are no right or wrong answers here.
So take a deep breath, count to three, and let’s take a look at the 15 rookies we can’t wait to see do their thing.