Top 100 Fantasy MLB Prospects for 2024

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Nationals top prospect James Wood (Photo by Tom DiPace)

Following our updated Fantasy Top 500, Dylan White and Geoff Pontes have also reworked our Fantasy Top 100 Prospects list. The update reflects the new rankings and adjustments in prospect value.

Baseball America subscribers will note that these rankings may conflict with our standard Top 100 Prospects list. Below we’ve highlighted some philosophical differences to help explain why.

How Fantasy Values ​​Defense: Baseball America’s goal with the Top 100 Prospects rankings is to identify the 100 most valuable professional players who currently have fewer than 130 plate appearances and 50 innings pitched in the major leagues. Our fantasy Top 100 hopes to identify the top 100 future Major League players in a similar manner. But the difference lies in the way that value is measured.

On a standard prospect rankings, the difference between a 70-rated defenseman and a 50- or 55-rated defenseman at shortstop is often significant from a future value perspective.

For fantasy lists, that perspective shifts. A prospect’s ability to earn playing time based on defensive ability is important to some extent.

Fantasy managers want to know if a player’s defensive skills (or lack thereof) will reduce playing time. There is little difference between the best defensive shortstop in baseball and a 60-level defenseman.

Baserunning: The value of stolen bases in fantasy can often skew the difference between what WAR or wRC+ values ​​as above-average offensive seasons and how it is valued in fantasy. The standard score in fantasy usually consists of a combination of runs, RBIs, home runs, stolen bases and batting average (or on-base percentage). So the combination of runs, RBIs, home runs and stolen bases is the real target. In this state of mind, players with the ability to hit 20 or more home runs with 20 or more stolen bases are of greater importance.

To catch: Strong defensive catchers with above-average or better hitting skills are often rated as the best players in the game on our Top 100 Prospects list. Catcher is perhaps the most important defensive position on the field. Those who can reach the bar of above-average major league hitter are highly regarded and rightly so.

In fantasy baseball, the opposite is true. Catchers tend to deal with some unique challenges that other position players do not. They tend to experience more wear and tear over the course of the season, which in turn leads to more days off than, say, an outfielder. This combination of factors influences our value of catchers in fantasy. Not only do they have a more limited hitting field than other position players, they also often have to deal with more wear and tear on their hands, which affects their shots. Most standard fantasy formats feature one catcher per team, meaning they are often in lower demand.

Close proximity: The value of prospects in fantasy is often fixed over a two- or three-year period. This means that prospects who are three or more years away will see their value drop slightly from their true potential. In the same vein, players with prospects for Major League playing time will see an increase in value in the coming year. Depending on the depth of your league (the depth equals the number of players or prospects), prospects with an expected expected date beyond 2025 may be on the waiting list outside of the most elite talent. In contrast to the standard Top 100 list, we attach more value to the ability to contribute in the short term.

Below are the Top 100 prospects to target in fantasy in 2024.