Prospect Podcast: The Top Prospects In The Dominican Summer League

0:00Hello everybody, Jay J. Cooper, Josh Norris, baseball America prospect podcast and we've got a good one for you today Checked out over at baseballamerica.com. You have seen that we have the top 35 Dominicans summer league prospects up on the site Josh Norris did all the reporting for that Josh Norris went to the Dominican for that as the video you'll be watching on the YouTube during this show We'll illustrate Josh great to see you and Just kind of jumping in You've been doing the DSL top prospects list for us for several years now and I think there's a pretty clear answer when you say well, why would you rank the DSL's prospects? It's kind of hard Jesus but day being number one on the number on the first one of those you did I think it's a pretty good example of it But I kind of did want to ask a more nuanced question that Matt which is How like how much more difficult is it to rank DSL prospect when you compare to Even like the complex leagues, but especially when we get to like top 30s and prospects who are in full season ball

1:03I mean, it's it's fairly difficult just because the league is massive It's essentially the size of both low a and high a combined It's like 50 one 52 teams 1500 some odd players So my line always is if you think I missed a guy you might be right I ranked 35 dudes out of 1500 or so So you know there's some room for error there, but why do it is because these guys do become our top prospects? You know the number one prospect in Our top 100 right now two years ago was the number one prospect in DSL. He's used my day Renny O'Ride reggae is ranked somewhere on that same list and he's way up there and honestly has a case for number one overall in my mind Joe SQUARGONZALAS was number one last year and Wouldn't shock me if he's the number one prospect at some point next year too as a matter of fact I predicted that very thing earlier in the season You know once my day graduates he has a case and you know basically his California league performance Certainly warrants it These guys do become prospect. They've become bigger prospects. They become stars

2:08They there's a reason to rank them their prospects. There's a reason they get you know however much money on them and if they were if we were to You know mix up these guys and the amateur drafty the domestic amateur drafties It'd be really interesting to see who would go in the first round instead of some other guys I think there would be some of these guys who would be first rounders To just kind of give you an example of this so 2024 first year you did this Jesus Badei won gyro padea to Emil Morales 3 Luis Pena 4 Three of those four guys are top 100 prospects roast right now as Josh noted He's used to be a is number one on the top 100 right now 2025 list joss war Gonzalez Kendrick Turoo Kevin De Frank Diego Tornez won Sanchez Kevin Alvarez were your top six Again from that list joss war is Kendrick Turoo and Kevin Alvarez are all top 100 prospects right now Kevin De Frank basically came off a very injury-plagged year and that that kind of both of those guys list kind of give you an example of it which is

3:10I would say if you're reading that list if you're listening to the podcast here Understand that This is both the chance the reason we do this is is that the reason we devote the space resources to it is It allows you to get a sneak peak at what's going to be coming kind of more Wides in widespread knowledge a year or two from now But just understand when you do that the same way that if you said right now hey We're predicting the 2027 Top draft rankings compared to the 28 or the 29 your 27 ranks gonna have you know a little bit more Fidelity to it than the 28 so the 29's because there's more things that can happen these players are 17 18 in some cases 19 years old and And the hit rate on this is actually pretty remarkable when you consider how many more levels there are how many more steps there are

4:13between here and The big leagues but when you look at back at it also it's like I think that the other key thing why you do 35 of these is like you look at last year's list I would imagine when you started doing your reporting last year Franklin Primera was you know kind of was that a guy who kind of moves his way onto the list I'm here to ask you remember my reporting from two years ago The reason he was on there is because he makes such a strong impression in the DSL all-star game and then when you did talk the Boston group had A bunch of guys and people said hey look, you know he Has some stuff like nobody knows him yet, but there's some some tools there There's power I mean the home running it in the DSL all-star game was technically not his first pro home run, but it was like it just didn't count on his ledger But you know he blew up. I mean I didn't expect him to kind of blow up like he did But he has and he was the number one prospect in the FCL this year So I'm pretty proud that I got him in the DSL last year

5:16Yeah, that was kind of a surprise, but that's the fun. There are some guys on this list Like I knew coming into this at some point that on Hayville Gomez was gonna be number one. I mean he's already on our top 100 So kind of had to be right There were some guys I didn't know about this and there'll be a supplemental piece coming Thursday Some guys who Qualt didn't qualify for this list, but I'll sneak peek it and say The there's two guys on that list. There's a guy on that list who I think would have beaten Gomez or at least challenged him for number one If he had more at bats because the reviews on him were silly and There's a picture on this list who would have challenged the top pitching spot if he had more than five and a third innings I think I gave people a hit there by go to search DSL arm five and a third innings Who who would have challenged the top pitching spot if he had more innings, but just based on I can't believe I found multiple scouts You saw both those guys considering that there are only so many scouts in the league and there are so many teams But I did so that looked for that on Thursday

6:17No, the thing I will say for Josh here is is that having seen the notes that he has from this to get to 35 Basically means talking to people where you got notes probably on But 110 120 I don't know if it's that much, but I mean I've got 24 25 pages of notes a lot of them are the same guy, but you got a reinforced You know some some guys are lower on some guys if I were to do this On one guy's opinion there be certain guys were way higher and certain guys who did start way higher I'll If you want to transition here, I could just yeah, yeah, we'll get to there We'll get to the details of the players exactly themselves But what we are going to do right after this quick break is we're going to talk about how this class compares to past classes and then dive into some of the top prospects What does that right after this quick break? The postseason run is heating up for major league baseball teams Kratzi You can go see all these games all the important games. Whatever your team is

7:18They have a great chance almost all of them at being alive for the postseason So you can go on Seeky and find whatever team you want whatever game you want whatever match up you want to try to help cheer your team on to the postseason Yeah, look ahead of your schedule go on to Seeky Essentially your teams either in the playoffs or the team they're playing as a chance in the playoffs So all these games in September you got to get on there get your green dot Figure out where you're going to sit do it ahead of time and Use the codes and of course I have a code for y'all you can use code territory 10 for 10% off your next set of MLB tickets as Seeky that's 10% off MLB tickets with promo code territory 10 Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically add it to your account so you can use it later Get ready for MLB postseason by getting the perfect ticket on Seeky And we're back and so Josh before we dive into the prospects some of the prospects at the top of this list I do kind of want to ask you

8:18Looking at this 26 class compared to 25 compared to 24 Better worse Similar different. How would you describe it? I think it's kind of similar. It's not you know a Class that I expect to be you know taking up 10% of the top 100 or something like that 15% or whatever it may be But it was an easy slam dunk at the top with on Hable Gomez that was Really not in doubt there was some there were some guys who have other prospects as number one But I didn't think there was much of a chit-chat chance for anybody but him There's a lot of good position talent Not so much with the pitching as usual the pitching on On the DR is usually not very good save for a few guys which is why again You know you can look at stats all you want but context matters and some of these guys they are facing are not going to be Professionals in a year or two or in a month maybe so You got to that's when you talk to scouts man

9:20That's why you talk to scouts you see the tools and and can tell you things that you don't see in the in the Stap lines and I was so it's that also like and who kind of have context of oh this guy had a monster week But he never faced a guy who's actually any good or oh I saw this guy against a good pitcher And he really showed his ability to handle Velo to adjust a break about things like that Because also one other thing about this league you said like it's it's so massive But the discrepancies between the talent just from one club to another like the Padres have two teams down there One of them won the title and the other was by far the worst team in the league So if you say oh we're facing the Padres today Very quick follow-up questions which one because for example another example is you know On the a C-head and got with the meds got a you know a pretty big outlet on reward was it top my head I'll say five million or something like that the entire other meds club I don't think got that much money now there is a prospect who will be featured in Thursday's article on that list but

10:23Yeah, there's a discrepancy there So okay along those lines you said I want to explain a little bit further the pitching one of the reasons that we see like I And this is kind of a just a reality One of the reasons we see so much less pitching coming out of you know in the DSL than we see in You know in any pretty much any other minor league I would say is that We know like this is again. This is not a draft. This is a system where you know players are signed You have a fixed amount of money you can spend and then you sign your players out of that Pictures don't make money in the DSL I can sorry You're entering the club you know international amateur pitchers, especially in the DSL as well. I'll Don't Command the same kind of bonuses as position players do so I'll use that moment to repeat my favorite staff in the the Phillies Astros World Series of a few years ago the first three pitchers who were winning pitchers in that series

11:27We're all you know of foreign born and their signing bonus was it I believe a combined 40 grand and So because of that if you have like players who are two way players here, right? The way I would explain it to just put it in blunt terms if Paul schemes was coming up through the International amateur system Paul schemes would probably have signed as a catcher Not as a pitcher. He was a two-way player at Air Force before he transferred to LSU and it's like hey You're a Friday night starter ace. You're no longer gonna hit yet real power But he would command a much higher price tag if he was in Dominican if he was in Venezuela He was in Columbia as a position player who with the idea that always you could end up moving down the road to pitcher But the DSL is where this is kind of the initial intake point of all of this and with it being the initial intake point So you see like this year as you saw last year last year. I believe you had two pitchers in the top 10 this year

12:33You have Zero you know, so With that it's a very position player heavy group. It is kind of but at the same time Pitchers who are really good do really stand out there because that partly I would say we like a Ken Returio last year that we saw Yeah, and Ken Returio was unique in the fact that he had he started the year in the DSL and was there for about 10 minutes and Finished in the low-way So that doesn't happen very often with anybody a little sneak peek also the royals have the top-rank pitching prospect again this year Two years and a top-ranked position prospect. Yes, so speaking of let's dive in with that so on Helbo Gomez is the number one prospect royals outfielder Was that an easy call was that a tough decision? Well, it wasn't a tough decision. It was it was easy. There were some contenders I mean obviously two through yeah, we're gonna get into all those but like yeah, so yeah feel two two through four head cases

13:36But there were more hikis on those guys then Gomez is a very well-rounded player who's got you know probably 55s are better across his card and I'll you know say this Multiple scouts said they believe this is the best Latin American prospects the royals have draft or have been drafted have had since Carlos Beltrone So yeah, it's a big that's a big number to put on a guy who's a hall of favor But he can also tell you how long it's been when the other guy was inducted into the hall of fame this year Yeah, this is it mean he can hit he can hit per power. He does it easy. He can throw he can run He can feel he there's it's a five-tool player It might not be a seven anywhere on the card and it might not be a true You know face of the sport type of player like an Aaron Judger record on Alva Res or anything like that But you know, I say that having just said you know Carlos Beltrone But it's a really really good player for a very long time and he was very clearly the focus of the royals

14:39Then tour a team when teams got to face him so that was it was not much of a Stretch to read him number one and like I said He's already in like the 55 I want to say on our top 100 right now. So you know that was there would have to do a lot to dethrone him So but with that I would say two through four Was fascinating and how you line that up. I would say coming into it if you were someone who follows this closely But again who's looking at the stats a lot because you know again, there's not hey, there's a lot more information if you really are Interest in this like me you can watch DSL games now that just not be the case But with that I would say that if you are a pretty hardcore fan you may have thought Francisco Renteria whose number four on the list the Phillies out there would be number two let's say because the performance was so loud He kind of had the the standout season. He was a I believe you won MVP of the league

15:42But what again you said two through four all had cases But what is it as you're lining it up? Yostin Pania who's number two on this list the Yankees out there a little bit older But also obviously advanced out of the league and then kind of did it at upper levels as well But let's talk about Renteria for a minute because he's I think the second most famous guy on this list probably What was it about Renteria that while still he's among the absolute top prospects on this list? There was at least some hesitation There were hesitations just because They might Evaluators believe he's probably going to move to a corner. He's already big in physical The extreme ground ball profile is a problem. It's like 51% ground balls, which is not great at any level And you it's a problem that's going to need to be fixed You know to be able to do what he did while still having that profile is Pretty interesting, but it also they scouts also pointed to the fact that his hands take a little bit

16:45Longer to trigger than you might like and he might get beat by a pretty good velocity and Located velocity once he reaches the states and full season ball and all things like that So there are these you know these minor hikis across the card that really kind of like okay He's not number one, but he's really good But I'm a little wary. I think the the biggest key was that ground ball profile that it scares me a little bit And it's gonna if he doesn't make some changes is gonna hurt him once he gets to a more advanced pitching defense, right? so To kind of tie with that the other big slugger I would say in the league was Pania, Yostin Pania for the Yankees was a little bit older, but What was it about his profile that really jumped out that ended up having him at number two? Well, first of all he hits the ball ridiculously hard like this is if you've remembered you remember Justin Gonzalez Everybody who was watching this podcast knows who Justin Gonzalez is Well, he does that thing that Justin Gonzalez does, but he also

17:45Can hit a little bit better. He's worlds better defender. He's got a 70 arm I would not believe the 106 mile an hour throw that stat cast says he He uncourt, but he throws the ball hard. He's athletic the the makeup seems really good based on you know evaluators I've talked to and then yeah, he proved it at low a I'd be very curious how I would have lined him up had he not proved it low a But he went to low, you know, went to Tampa and you know Context here matters too. You went to Tampa at a time when the FCL was done So you're getting the the cream of the FCL, which is not very creamy, but He still continues to do it under the lights Which which matters and when you talk to evaluators they Absolutely Gushed over this guy there was the one Hickey on the card is I'm saying Hickey a lot is Swing decisions and that's to be understand you know, that's understandable This is a player who ate Josh why didn't you rank him in your Yankees top 30

18:48In the handbook this year. Well, he signed on December 1st. So there's a good chance That I already turned in the list by that time and if that you know if you'd gotten some bat signal that hey We just signed this monster you can rewrite it, but that's what happened This is his first pro season. It's not like he's repeating the league or anything like that But the combination of tools skills makeup and Performance at a level higher than Any complex ball really put him over the top for me I would say it is a little bit unusual for the DSL that three of the top four prospects are all outfielders You know usually it's kind of a shortstop heavy list the one short stop and that's why some scouts when I asked them you know what How does this class compare they said well, it's really light on position players are in such places It's not really light on middle diamond players Which is you know, I think you want to see those are the guys that really do jump up you would talk about his use my day

19:48Joe Swarkins all of those are your number ones the last two years. They're both short stops But the one shortstop among the top four that group is Albert for mean The Astros top signing this year. So with for mean What about him really jumped out? Yeah, it's hit ability. It's power. It's athleticism. They're at switch hitter for now There are some scouts who kind of believe He's probably gonna have to give up the the bright-handed hitting because the swings look wildly different I caught him on I was able to pair him up with unhable Gomez on my last day the DR unfortunately his timing was a little bit off That day, but you know, you could see the potential there. It's it's it the body is really really good It needs to not I would worry if he gets any more physical he has to move off that position But there's a there's the potential therefore, you know, a really offensively gifted third-basement or shortstop if you can hack it there And stay there so there was There's some stuff there that like is a little bit, you know, puts him down a little bit

20:50I could have easily put it at two he wasn't getting to one But you know, he's a really interesting player and he I you know talked to some Astros people After the list came out or you know, after the list came out and they were like we have him way up our board on our personal you break of our own prospects The other thing I feel like I would remiss if I don't ask you about it by the way if you're enjoying this Please go over to baseballamerica.com and you know, we're not gonna give you everything from the full 35 That's over there and Josh mentioned here. Yeah, and Josh mentioned there's gonna be more coming as well but It would be crazy not to ask you about the brewer simply for the fact that I feel like That If you said not who has the top prospect, but who has the most significant prospects Where the brewer's number one on that. Oh, yeah, they just keep doing it um, I only saw a little bit of Ricky Moneys, but people maybe like we want it back people gushed over him people gushed over Leander Matoes

21:50Leander's Matoes. I'm sorry Diego frontado was his reviews were a little cooler than I would have expected Um, but I kind of gave him the benefit of the doubt based on he did despite those reviews. He did really Produce he was one of I think it was seven players with double digit home runs in the league and uh the other one There two of them were on the brewers um, it was two and then you know mercenies The left-hander is a cheese ball of my own. I happen to see him just by accident. I picked the brewers to see uh Brewer's pirate Game my first day there and he came in at the back of it for like three or four innings. It's like okay You've got to loose Athletic left-hander who's poppin loaded mid-90s he can spin it and that's kind of all you want to see at that age You're not expecting multiple, you know three pitches. You're just you're kind of As much as scouting is dreaming. That's that's what you have to do out there You see you can see some hallmarks that are hard to describe Out there, but it's just you know what when you see it. It's loose. It's easy. It's twitchy. It's projectable

22:54There's present stuff. There's possibility for more It's a lot so you want to see and then you do give the benefit of the doubt to a brewer's player development System that has gotten the best out of nearly everybody for the last I don't know half a decade It's it is something where but I think that's an important note that you made there which is just that You're also looking with these players You're realizing like it's not what they're doing right now You want to see the tools you want to see the skills, but you also are looking at With the understanding that you're talking about players who Are going to be looked very different than they do right now If they do make the majors because that's going to be four or five, you know Sometimes six or seven years down the road for some of these players and People change pretty physically pretty significantly between ages 18 and 25 right and so When you see someone loose and athletic live arm Who's already demonstrating some aspects of it

23:56If you said like you're going to go into the DSL and you're going to throw out any pitcher who doesn't demonstrate for you three present quality pitches You you might be you know kind of running out of pictures if you find a guy with three pitches period You're kind of you've you've found a lot of for leave clover So that's where this is again That's where this is fun. This is where this is fascinating, but also that's where If you want to look at this list in a few years and you say oh you missed on someone so it's like yeah You're going to miss on some on this you can't like we're going to we miss on the top hundred on guys when you're talking about the DSL It's a long ways away, but well the track record does show like There are the guys who rise to the cream that rises to the top like you know use the cream burlary as an analogy More often than not are the players who are going to end up being impactful players as we say this You know Jackson Trio was that guy you know that we were talking about

24:56As a teenager not that many years ago and now we're watching him kind of impact the pennant race again for a you know for what is a you know But been multiple seasons now These are the players who end up being big league stars and I can feel very comfortable in telling you that there are going to be players on this top 35 that we look back on years for now and say oh Remember when that player was in the DSL By along those lines that's the top four on the list. There's a full top 35, but I don't want to cut it off there We come back from this break Josh going to give a couple more names that really jumped out to him. We'll do that right after this So Josh, I don't want to end it at four, but I also don't want to give away the full list So I'll kind of ask you who are two three four more players who Jumped out to you that you wanted to talk about well first. I won't go down super far, but I'm gonna go to seven Sebastian Rojas captured with the Cardinals shocker the Cardinals have another catcher

25:58They've got ready all Rodriguez who like I said earlier has it case if we were to just Shake the hatches catch a little bit on the top 100 He might be he would have a strong case for number one overall right now Um then they've got Leo Bernal they've got Jimmy Crookes It's got those guys and then Sebastian Rojas everybody sank his praises We're talking about a true catcher with above average to plus defense who can throw any knows it It's a you know 1.83. I think was the lowest pop time I heard on him and you know up to 1.95 from his knees And there's above there's average to above average offensive skills across the board And you know I had him when I initially did this I had them way down there But I got two or three calls late and everybody everybody So there's not a whole lot of holes in this kids game and You put him out of premium position and you say okay. This is This guy has to keep rising it it was a matter of just how far I could put him up there I would be really excited about this kid Cardinals fans

26:59A little bit down the list. We'll talk about I talked about um the idea that you have to be creative with some of these These players and that's where a guy like brainer figure rail with the the rangers comes in Who is actually pitching in 20 minutes or so in the bridge league um But he is a left hit last year at this time. He was oh if you've been released yet by the cubs, but he was an outfielder Um who did not hit but had a strong arm and the ranger snapped him up and said okay You're left handed and can throw the living snot out of the ball And he was the second man up in the all-star game And yes, he was a little jerry, but you know left-hander up to 100 miles an hour with when he hit when he hits it. It's a nasty slider. I mean those two pitches are You know they flash really big numbers if you can get him To be consistent in his delivery You're gonna have at the very least a special reliever and I've said this a few places But I don't think I've said it on a podcast yet. So

28:01There's not a lot of left handers that throw a hundred miles an hour in this game right JJ Well, even now there's more there's more than it's ever been but not still even now. That's rare Okay, two-year flash forward two years from now. Let's go to hickory north carolina You can have three of them in the same rotation Anya Lopez with the with the rangers throws he's up to 99 and he'll probably Wouldn't be surprised if he can get to 100 figure rail and then by then Brodie Bumila might be back So if you have to say nothing if I think geo-rohoss might be Past hickory at that point But you could have three left handers throwing a hundred miles an hour in the same manner the rotation which if that comes to fruition I can't imagine that's ever happened I'll just put it in perspective for all the hundred mile an hour. They seem the big leagues this year I count ten Hunt lefties who throw in a hundred this year. So yeah, it's not that many But again, this also works perfectly what we talked about earlier big role was initially signed as a position player

29:03And then when that didn't work out he ends up as a pitcher That's kind of a track record a path we see a lot because what we talked about that the economic dynamics of this Which is you get paid as an outfielder and if it doesn't work out and you got a great arm Oh, well, let's see then what you can do as a picture Antonio Gomez in the Yankee system got a million dollars as a catcher and could not hit But he has the million dollar arm and now he's throwing a hundred miles an hour with a ton of vert as a reliever in Florida and Anderson novice same idea with the Phillies a couple years ago signed could not hit Convert him he's you know in Florida doing the same thing Let's say that was two guys. I'll give you one more. We talked about Louise Garciss earlier though Then I think we we hinted at him. We didn't say by name The starter for the all-star game that's the two years in a row the royals about the AL starter But This one was a little bit more successful than Fredic and Travis was but it's a smooth delivery it was weird This was the the one guy it sounds like his Vila was slightly down in a one inning burst because he was

30:0892 94 from the left side with a pretty good feel to spin Clean delivery athletic people said you know ceiling is kind of like a number three starter But he's been up to like 96 before Everybody said that this was probably the number one pitching prospect who qualified In the in the league So he was an easy call to move to you know to be the number one pitching prospect in the league Not that there are a whole lot of them on that list Not that there are a whole lot but as you said do check out over at baseball America this Thursday We will have four or you can just read today's hot sheet Or you read hot sheet because we did have him as a helium Yeah, so check that out over at baseballamerica.com That is our look at the Dominican Summer League's top prospects A league that like several minor leagues now is done for the year Said the DSL the Padres winning the DSL title do check out over I've got obviously a link in the show notes as well to the top 35

31:10But on top of that we have links in that you can then find last year's list as well and Scan through names and go oh Okay, yeah, Josh walk his all is Kendrick Churro and you go down the list I love how you just kind of as you're going down the list You'll find some guys you're like oh, I haven't heard about that guy at all this year And then you'll have you'll just be kind of rolling along and then you're like oh okay, and there's you know There's a Sebastian dos Santos at number 30 or you know, there's Franklin Primera at 33 And it's like yep, there are guys who very much have become much more prominent In the in the most Receiver and then stay tuned to my twitter feed. I guess I'm going From here. I'm going to Richmond tonight. I'm going to see you in the next four days. These aren't Dominican Somalian guys, but I'm gonna see in order with the Chesapeaks Caden Hunter Anthony Ionson Joseph, Jerva JT Quinn and on the Richmond side there's gonna be Miguel Mendes and Jacob Brezenhan So that's six pretty interesting arms in the next four days to say nothing of Dakota Jordan

32:12um Aaron Estrada guys like that on both sides. What's gonna be four fun days in squirrelsville Fun days indeed so four Josh. I'm JJ so long everybody