Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
In a reveal that shouldn’t be a surprise by now, the Dodgers have landed seven prospects on Baseball America‘s recently released list of the top 100 prospects in baseball.
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Corey Seager – #1
Julio Urias – #4
Jose De Leon – #23
Kenta Maeda – #50
Cody Bellinger – #54
Grant Holmes – #72
Alex Verdugo – #100
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Of the seven prospects, only Maeda has not been listed before as a top prospect by either Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, or MLB, and that’s only due to other publications not considering him a true prospect given his stellar career in Japan.
Seager, Urias, De Leon, and Holmes are all now consensus top 100 prospects, and both Bellinger and Verdugo have made appearances on a pair of the lists. Yusniel Diaz was the other Dodgers prospect to appear on two lists, but he did not make the cut for Baseball America.
In related news, Baseball America also named the Dodgers the top farm system in baseball, which includes a clear trend upwards once the new ownership took over and actually started spending in the domestic draft and on international prospects.
State of the System: Incredibly impressive. Los Angeles’ ownership group never balks at cutting a big check and the Dodgers’ farm system is deeper for it. Not every big-money international signing has paid off–Erisbel Arruebarrena’s $25 million deal was a nearly immediate bust–but Los Angeles’ spending spree has added significant depth to a system that was already outstanding especially with Kenta Maeda stepping into the rotation. Righthander Yasiel Sierra and outfielder Yusniel Diaz couldn’t crack the Dodgers’ Top 10 but would be cornerstone prospects in some other systems. No other team can match Los Angeles’ 1-2 punch of Corey Seager and Julio Urias and the Dodgers have an excellent mix of big league-ready impact talent, role players and promising prospects at the lower levels of the system.
As I’ve been saying, the future isn’t just bright for the Dodgers because of the three or four prospects that could impact the MLB club this year, but also because even after they graduate, the Dodgers still have a bunch of prospects hovering just off the lists that could be included next year.
A lot of fans, of course, are miserable about all this. Cause … yup.
