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Having a breakout season is a challenge for most players. Pulling it off in the postseason, when playing time is limited and every next play could potentially determine the season, is another story.

However, every year there are players who do just that, as they go from little-known prospects or under-appreciated veterans to playoff heroes and household names seemingly overnight.

With the playoff games set to begin Tuesday night, it’s time to preview some of the players who appear primed for a breakout performance this October.

Here’s a look at the biggest potential breakout stars for the 2014 postseason.

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The 2014 MLB postseason begins Tuesday, with the Kanas City Royals set to host the Oakland Athletics in the American League Wild Card Game (8:07 p.m. ET, TV: TBS).

Kansas City captured the top AL Wild Card spot to secure its first postseason berth in 29 years, and came within one game of the division-winning Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.

Oakland is returning to the playoffs for the third straight year after finishing one game back of Royals in the Wild Card.

The Royals won the regular-season series against the A’s, 5-2, taking two of three games in Oakland during their first meeting (Aug. 1-3), and then winning three of four at Kauffman Stadium (Aug. 11-14).

Both teams will send their respective aces to the mound Tuesday, with James Shields starting for the Royals and Jon Lester for the A’s in what could be an epic pitcher’s duel.

But which club is best prepared to move on to the ALDS?

Here’s an in-depth look at the AL Wild Card Game matchup between the Royals and A’s.

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With the regular season coming to an end in a matter of days and the postseason set to begin next week, every playoff team will soon be forced to make difficult decisions regarding its roster.

The number of players a team can roster will drop from the 40 previously allowed in September back to the standard 25 next month. As a result, teams will craft their postseason rosters based on their own strengths as well as the perceived weaknesses of their upcoming opponent.

Many of baseball’s top rookies have a realistic chance of cracking their team’s postseason roster this year, though there will be even more players denied the opportunity to play in October.

Here are five rookies who could carve out huge roles in the 2014 postseason.

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When things get tight at the end of the MLB season, some players show up and guide their teams into the playoffs.

Last season, it was right-hander Michael Wacha, who joined the St. Louis Cardinals starting rotation in early September and subsequently became one of the biggest stories of the postseason, as the rookie took home NLCS MVP honors and pitched his team into the World Series.

Meanwhile, right-hander Gerrit Cole was just as dominant for the Pittsburgh Pirates last season, as the flame-throwing rookie solidified the starting rotation down the stretch and played a major role in his club’s long-overdue postseason berth.

But those are just a couple of unique examples. The reality is that every team fighting for a playoff spot likely has its share of heroes.

As we head into the final weekend of the regular season, here’s a look at the 12 biggest heroes of the 2014 MLB pennant races.

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It will be several years until most of the 2014 draft picks are ready for the major leagues, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get excited about the professional debuts of some of baseball’s brightest young players.

Thanks to an accelerated signing deadline in mid-July that was ushered in in 2012 as part of the new collective bargaining agreement—it used to be mid-August—draft picks are now encouraged to quickly begin their professional careers.

For some prospects, signing early gives them a head start on their development as well as the potential to debut in the major leagues ahead of schedule. At the very least, the half-season of experience this summer should improve their chances of receiving aggressive promotions to begin the following season.

Here’s a look at 2014 draft picks who already turned heads in their professional debuts.

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The Chicago Cubs are ticketed for another last-place finish in the National League Central this year, but there won’t be a more exciting team to watch over the final month of the season.

The Cubs have played .500 ball (22-22) since the All-Star break thanks to an electric offense that is pacing the National League with 56 home runs during that span.

In general, things have been looking up for the North Siders since the beginning of July, when they began infusing the big league lineup with some of their prized prospects.

Now, a little less than two months since the process began, it’s easy to see why the Chicago Cubs’ future is so bright.

But how long will it be until the Cubs emerge as playoff contenders?

While it’s difficult to predict a specific year with any sense of certainty, the team’s performance during the second half of the season and its untapped potential on the farm suggest that time could come sooner rather than later.

While the debut of the Cubs’ top prospects this summer has been the major storyline, it’s doubtful that the opportunity would have presented itself without the respective successes of shortstop Starlin Castro and first baseman Anthony Rizzo—the team’s only cost-effective players worth building around.

Though he’s been sidelined with back stiffness of late, Rizzo has put together a breakout season worthy of MVP consideration. Through 129 games this season, the 24-year-old is batting .278/.375/.514 with 30 home runs, 23 doubles, 71 RBI and a 106-65 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Castro, meanwhile, has seemingly reversed the trajectory of his career with a much-needed bounce-back campaign, batting .290/.338/.436 with 14 home runs, 33 doubles and 65 RBI through 133 games. The 24-year-old has been especially hot since the All-Star break, with a .325/.367/.429 batting line and 50 hits in 39 games.

The ongoing success of Castro and Rizzo surely has made it easier for the front office to promote its top prospects during the second half of the season. Specifically, their respective performances highlighted the Cubs’ open window for success moving forward, and therefore encouraged them to have their core players, both prospects and big leaguers, finish the season together at the highest level.

While the Cubs have a deep farm system featuring a slew of top-ranked position prospects, it goes without saying that middle infielder Javier Baez, third baseman Kris Bryant, shortstop Addison Russell and outfielder Jorge Soler represent the team’s top young talents.

Baez was the first to arrive of the quartet, making his major league debut on Aug. 5 against the Rockies at Coors Field. The 21-year-old slugger announced his arrival in a big way, launching a go-ahead solo home run to the opposite field in the top of the 12th inning.

Since then, Baez has added six more home runs to his season total, giving him seven in 28 games. Though it was expected, the right-handed hitter has been feast-or-famine at the dish since the promotion, with 50 strikeouts in 120 plate appearances (41.7 percent strikeout rate). And even though Baez is batting just .181/.208/.397 during his short time in the major leagues, the Cubs still have a winning record of 15-13 with him in the lineup.

The Cubs’ most recent call-up was Soler, promoted from Triple-A Iowa on Aug. 27. He didn’t come with the same hype as Baez after missing most of the first half with hamstring injuries.

However, the 22-year-old Cuban quickly made up for the lost time after returning, as he batted .341/.435/.710 with 15 home runs, 16 doubles and 50 RBI over 55 games across three levels. More importantly, his overwhelming success in the minor leagues forced the Cubs to promote him late last month.

Soler has been nothing short of amazing since arriving in the major leagues, batting .526 (10-for-19) with three home runs—each of which has been very, very impressive—four doubles and seven RBI through his first 20 plate appearances. On Monday, he became the seventh player in MLB history with an extra-base hit in each of his first five games.

Manager Rick Renteria spoke after the game about his right fielder’s impressive showing at the plate, via MLB.com:

“He’s got bat lag — he stays inside of pitches really, really well, and then he stays through it and really gets extension,” Renteria said. “He’s what you call short to the ball and long through it.”

Renteria also acknowledged the excitement that’s come with Soler’s arrival, stating via MLB.com, “He’s done a nice job since he’s been here and impacted us in a positive way. It’ll be exciting for the fans here in Chicago to see him and put their eyes on him.”

That brings us to the Cubs’ two other big-name prospects, Bryant and Russell.

Bryant has done nothing but mash since the Cubs selected him No. 2 overall in the 2013 draft, but the front office has already made it known that he won’t be promoted to the major leagues in September.

The 22-year-old third baseman has posted video game numbers this season between Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa, batting .325/.438/.661 (1.098 OPS) with a minor league-leading 43 home runs to go along with 34 doubles, 110 RBI and 15 stolen bases in 138 games.

Russell, the No. 11 overall pick in the 2012 draft, was acquired in early July from the A’s in the deal for right-handers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel. Like Soler, the 20-year-old missed most of the first half with a hamstring injury but has quickly made up for the lost time with a hot start with his new organization, batting .294/.369/.495 with 12 home runs, 11 doubles and 36 RBI through 50 games.

Based on the state of the Cubs’ current offense and the hitters they have on the way, such as Bryant, Russell and even 2014 first-rounder Kyle Schwarber, I think this is a team that can rake its way into the playoff conversation by 2016. However, that’s assuming that all or most of the organization’s top offensive assets continue down their current developmental paths.

As the Cubs’ potent offense takes form over the next season-plus, there will come a time when the organization is forced to trade prospect depth for pitching. The good news is that every top potential trade chip, whether its Castro, Baez or Russell, is probably good enough to return a high-end starting pitcher in a straight-up deal. Plus, the Cubs should still boast a potentially league-best offense even if they lose one of the aforementioned talents.

One thing is certain: With Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Jorge Soler, three guys capable of hitting the ball over 400 feet each time up, in the everyday lineup for the next month, the Chicago Cubs are officially must-watch television.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The door to The Show opened for some of baseball’s top prospects Monday with the expansion of the active roster from 25 to 40 players.

The Los Angeles Dodgers wasted no time promoting outfielder Joc Pederson, as the team purchased his contract from Triple-A Albuquerque before Monday’s game.

The Blue Jays and Royals took advantage of the expanded rosters by each calling up a pair of non-roster prospects.

The Royals added game-changing speed to their bench for the stretch run in outfielder Terrance Gore, and they also called up 2014 first-round left-hander Brandon Finnegan, who is expected to work out of the bullpen down the stretch.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays purchased the contracts of their two top prospects, left-hander Daniel Norris and center fielder Dalton Pompey. The major leagues represent the fourth and final level of the year for both players, and it’s doubtful they’re coming up to ride the bench.

There inevitably will be even more prospects called up as the month unfolds, as the minor league playoffs are just starting at the Double- and Triple-A levels.

Before that happens, though, it’s time to take a look at the top prospects that were promoted to the major leagues on Sept. 1, with the rankings based on the original order of our top 25 call-up candidates.

Be sure to check out Prospect Pipeline’s up-to-date tracker for stats, scouting reports and predictions for every notable September call-up once the transaction information is made available.

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The 2014 season has seen a number of notable prospects receive call-ups to the major leagues. With the final month and the corresponding roster expansion approaching, there will be more to come—and soon.

September brings with it 40-man rosters, so Monday should be filled with prospects getting promoted.

During the past week or so, Jorge Soler and Daniel Corcino debuted, among a handful of others.

Soler, as you might’ve heard or seen or read, hit a homer in his very first plate appearance with the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. Corcino, a right-hander in the Cincinnati Reds’ system, hurled a perfect inning on Aug. 26—which just so happened to be his 24th birthday.

Meanwhile, outfielder Randal Grichuk and reliever Heath Hembree returned to contribute yet again to the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox, respectively.

Highly regarded youngsters such as Marcus Stroman, Jonathan Singleton, Oscar Taveras, Ken Giles and Javier Baez have been seeing regular time for their respective clubs for quite some time now. Others, such as Mookie Betts and Taijuan Walker, have been shuttling up and down between the minors and majors for much of the year.

More young impact talent will be joining the mix too. Who will be the next to reach the major leagues? In order to predict estimated times of arrival this season, we’ve classified the prospects on this list using the following color-coded scale:

• Red: September call-up, at best.
• Green: Call-up within a week/call-up is imminent.

Here’s a look at the top prospect call-up report for Week 22 of the 2014 MLB season.

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The final month of Major League Baseball’s regular season is just around the corner. For many teams, that means help is on the way.

Starting Monday, Sept. 1, teams are allowed to carry as many as 40 players on their active roster. And after playing the first five months of the season with a strict 25-man squad, the chance to bolster a roster with upward of 15 additional players, whether it be in the form of serviceable depth or young, talented prospects, can be the deciding factor for teams still in the playoff hunt.  

At face value, the expansion of rosters in September makes for an exciting end to the season—especially after the implementation of a second wild-card spot. However, MLB teams will never be fully on board with the idea until the system itself is reformed to favor all 30 clubs equally.

Outrage over September call-ups is nothing new. Back in 2009, Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin blasted the notion of expanded rosters in a conversation with MLB.com:

You play 80 percent of your season with even rosters, and then all of a sudden, you throw that out. It’s like playing three-on-six in basketball or 11-on-18 in football. I don’t know of any sport in the world that does it like ours, with this kind of imbalance of rosters. I’d like to find out if there’s any other sport that does that at the most important time of the year.

Roughly five years have passed since Melvin issued those remarks, but, as you might have guessed, the system is still the same. That hasn’t caused Melvin to back off his stance or stop seeking reform, however, as he told Joel Sherman of the New York Post in 2012 that he still hadn’t received a logical answer from MLB as to why it continues to support the September roster expansions.

About this time last year, Melvin further expressed his frustration with the system, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today:

There is no other competitive team sport that allows uneven rosters any time in the year. Any time in the year! And now, in the most important month, we’re doing that.

How does that make any sense?

[…]

We’ve adopted rules to make sure you can’t play a game with a one-guy disadvantage, and then we go into the most important month of the year, and we don’t care if there’s a five-player difference.

As someone who lives and breathes prospects, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this time of the year.

Specifically, September roster expansions offer fans a glimpse of some of baseball’s top prospects, many of whom are attempting to open eyes over the season’s final month and earn a spot on the Opening Day roster the following year.

In recent seasons, for example, the roster-expansion rule has given us an early look at highly touted youngsters such as Jurickson Profar, Julio Teheran, Shelby Miller, Billy Hamilton and Yordano Ventura.

Yet, while expanded rosters cater to the interests of baseball fans, critics of the system such as Melvin have every right to take issue with the lack of regulations.

As Sherman argued:

Once rosters expand, however, one team literally can operate with 15 more players than its opponent. Think about that, a game could begin in which one manager has 40 players at his disposal and another has 25. But even if it is 33 vs. 29, how is that fair?

With a spot in the postseason potentially on the line, no one team should be able to gain an unfair competitive advantage via roster expansion.

But, unfortunately, teams do.

Each team’s call-ups usually are based on its outlook for the remainder of the season, as clubs vying for a playoff berth are more likely to promote players who can directly influence their overall success. Therefore, a team with more players at its disposal is, at least in theory, better prepared to endure a potentially grueling final month.

So, how can Major League Baseball reform the roster-expansion system so as to encourage a level playing field for all teams?

Sherman’s desire to completely do away with September call-ups is one idea, albeit an extreme one. However, with the uptick in injuries in recent years—especially in regards to pitchers—it could be a dangerous practice for teams to rely on a firm 25-man roster for a full season.

But if roster expansion is going to continue, there will need to be universal restrictions on the number of players teams can use during that defined period.

Melvin has lobbied for something similar in the past, suggesting that teams should be limited to a 30-player roster in September comprised of 15 pitchers and 15 position players.

In that scenario, every team would have five additional roster spots rather than the 15 permitted under the current system.

Meanwhile, B/R MLB Lead Writer Zach Rymer took Melvin’s idea a step further by proposing that teams should only be allowed to call up six different types of players:

One lefty reliever, one righty reliever, one long man/spot starter, one outfielder, one infielder and one catcher.

Such a system would prevent teams from loading up on southpaw pitchers as part of an effort to gain an edge on a rival with a predominantly lefty-hitting lineup, and it would also force teams to get creative with their call-ups. A team may want to call up two outfielders, but they’ll only be able to call up one. A team may want two lefty hitters, but may be restricted to one because one’s an outfielder and the other’s an infielder. And so on.

Rymer’s intriguing suggestion would have a larger impact on the game, as the option to call up predetermined player types in September would almost definitely impact how teams acquire, develop and sign players. Basically, clubs would know exactly what they’ll need and therefore make more concerted efforts to make that happen.

Major League Baseball’s September call-up system is broken, clearly. For an entity that preaches collective balance and has checks and balances in place for virtually all aspects of player development, it’s shocking that it continues to ignore the unfair advantages associated with the use of a full 40-man roster in the season’s final month.

That being said, MLB clearly means well with the current system. Injuries are always a major concern during the second half of the season, let alone down the stretch, so the ability to call up relatively fresh players is crucial. It also gives non-contenders a chance to evaluate their young players at the highest level without worrying about service time or the displacement of active big leaguers.

While MLB has made significant progress this year with instant replay and home plate collisions, the swelling criticism of the roster-expansion system is a strong sign that it needs to be changed.

Let’s just hope it’s next on MLB’s to-do list.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With rosters set to expand from 25 to 40 players on Monday, September call-up fever is officially in the air.

In the last week we’ve looked this year’s potential call-ups in a variety of ways, including an overall ranking, position-by-position breakdown and, more recently, a deeper look at prospects capable of improving their teams’ playoff chances.

And with roster expansion still a long weekend away, we’ll be rolling out even more call-up-related content in the coming days.

The rankings for this article were based on those released earlier in the week in our look at the top 25 call-up candidates. However, instead of simply identifying the best prospects, this article strives to focus on players who have been rumored to be in the mix for a call-up as well as those facing an imminent promotion thanks to a spot on the 40-man roster.

With all that being said, here are our predictions for the potential impacts of baseball’s top 10 prospects next month.

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