After a week long hiatus, we have returned to a healthy collection of baseball games that count both in MLB as well as the minor leagues. Down in the minors, Nick Kurtz and Travis Bazzana have been going wild while the Rockies have seemingly decided to accelerate their rebuild by promoting two of their top prospects Chase Dollander and Zac Veen. In short, it has been a fun start to the 2025 season for those that follow the minor leagues.
One of the better metrics to see how a prospect is viewed by experts is Baseball America's Top 100 ($) rankings which were very recently updated for the start of the 2025 season. No rankings are perfect as each have their minor biases based on who is making them, but BA generally does a tremendous job at incorporating insights from scouts and executives along with their own analysis.
On this year's rankings, a number of notable prospects have made significant jumps that should be getting your attention.
3 MLB prospects who stocks are soaring early in 2025
The goal here isn't to highlight EVERY player that has seen a noticeable jump in their stock. For example, it is pretty difficult to evaluate guys who are making their ranking debuts because we don't really know where BA had them beforehand.
Instead, this is a look at some of the prospects who were previously ranked in the top 100 who saw their rankings jump in this year's list with notes on each one.
George Lombard Jr.
After landing in the 80s on Baseball America's 2024 list, the Yankees' 2023 first round pick jumped all the way to No. 38 in this year's rankings. His numbers from last season don't really support that jump, but scouts love this kid thanks to his defensive ability and ability to get on base, providing a high floor. If his power develops, there is All-Star shortstop potential here, and he is off to a great start (.929 OPS through three games). However, it would be nice if he displayed a standout tool at the plate consistently before he climbs any higher than this.
Kevin McGonigle
While McGonigle only rose five spots to No. 17 in BA's rankings, his spot here is a recognition of how quickly his stock rose last season when the experts adjusted their rankings at midseason. His hit tool is what is going to carry him to the big leagues, but McGonigle showed better power and defense in 2024 as well. He progressed last season to the point where many thought he could force his way into the Tigers' plans by 2026.
Unfortunately, McGonigle is currently being slowed by an ankle injury. If the issue is a minor one, it won't impact his timeline to the big leagues much. If he misses extended time, his ascent could be slowed enough that a 2026 debut might be an ambitious guess.
Konnor Griffin
When the Pirates drafted Griffin ninth overall in the 2024 draft, they knew they were getting arguably the best high school player in the draft class. However, they probably didn't think that his impressive tool set would translate to such loud results so quickly. Thanks to a great spring, there are some that think Pittsburgh could put Griffin on the fast track to the big leagues.
Griffin already jumped 24 spots to No. 50 on BA's Top 100, but expect that ranking to climb even higher if he performs in the first half of 2025. BA's own Geoff Pontes loves Griffin and considers him to be the prospect with the most potential in this year's grouping. If he continues to show his five-tool potential in the minors, he is absolutely the type of player that could be a top 25 or better prospect in a hurry.