2 The Bigs

By Sal Corso: Feb 28, 2024

Here are our Top-10 Shortstop Prospects in baseball! Most of these kids have already been highlighted by 2 The Bigs (highlighted in red). To see our write-ups on each, click their name! Let’s cover this list by tier:

Tier 1:

Rank	Name	Team	2TB Potential Score
1	Jackson Holliday	Baltimore Orioles	86
2	Jordan Lawlar	Arizona Diamondbacks	85

Holliday and Lawlar lead the pack by a wide margin. Why? Most know already for Jackson Holliday. He’s almost guaranteed to make the Opening Day Orioles roster and has .300 25 HR upside right out the gate.

Seems like many are forgetting about Jordan Lawlar. Maybe because of his early struggles in his quick stint in the majors last season? Prospectors love brushing off players after their debut. Lawlar’s ceiling is still a .275 30 HR everyday shortstop in the pros. However, his floor is why I have him so high. I see him being a consistent .260 20 HR shortstop at a minimum once he gets acclimated to pro-level pitching.

Tier 2:

Rank	Name	Team	Potential Score
3	Adael Amador	Colorado Rockies	78
4	Brooks Lee	Minnesota Twins	78
5	Jackson Merrill	San Diego Padres	77
6	Colt Emerson	Seattle Mariners	75
7	Matt Shaw	Chicago Cubs	75
8	Cole Young	Seattle Mariners	75

Adael Amador, Brooks Lee & Jackson Merrill lead the next tier of prospects who are on the verge of their major league call-ups. All are solid average, line-drive hitters with low K-rates. Amador flashes a higher upside than the previous two. This is because he has slightly better plate discipline (1-1 BB-K rate in 2023), and higher speed and power upside. Also why I’ve jumped my Potential Score on him since my initial write-up (78, +2).

There’s a Slew of Shortstops in Seattle (say that ten-times fast). I like Emerson and Young equally. Emerson had an elite .549 SLG / .969 OPS in 113 PA in 2023, which led all shortstops on this list. Meanwhile, Young had an equal 14%-14% BB-K rate in 2023, a 143 wRC+ (100 is average), and jumped his line-drive rate to 25% (from 11% YoY). Cole Young is a sleeper of mine that I think can take HUGE strides in 2024.

Matt Shaw is showing flash early. 7 HR in 35 Games in his debut season; that’s a 162-game average of 33 HR (1^st Round Pick in 2023). He’s a power hitter, yet he’s keeping the swings and misses down to start (15%-K rate). His Isolated Power (ISO) is great; 8 of his 19 hits at Double-A were for extra bases. We would not be surprised to see Shaw in the majors as early as this summer.

Tier 3:

Rank	Name	Team	Potential Score
9	Luisangel Acuna	New York Mets	74
10	Marcelo Mayer	Boston Red Sox	73

We round out the list with our 3^rd tier. Acuna is a bit lower for me as I don’t see the power developing in his career so far. He hit’s a lot of ground balls and the years that he did see more power (2021-2022), his K-rate increased as well. Before he was traded to the Mets, he showed fans what he can be at the plate. In 84 games he hit .315 with 7 HR, 51 RBI and 42 SB. A 15-15 type shortstop (who will most likely move to 2B with the Mets) is enough to keep him in the top-10.

Finally, Marcelo Mayer. I full admit I am keeping him here because of his potential and not his performance. However, he did perform pretty well in A+ before getting called up to Double-A and getting hit with a season-ending injury (.290/.366/.524 in 35 games prior to both of the latter events). The problem? He keeps getting injured. Hopefully for his and the Red Sox sake, he’s not just “one of those guys” that can’t stay healthy. One more injury-filled year and that potential may dwindle more substantially.