MLB Top 125 Minor League Prospects: 100-76
100. Domingo Acevedo, RHP, New York Yankees, Yankees #7
Acevedo had a very good 2016, and many have pushed him forward significantly due to that, and the simple fact that a baseball leaving his hand has been known to be clocked at 103 MPH, which is absolutely ridiculous. He does have some typical issues of a guy standing 6’7 in repeating his delivery, and that’s a big reason why he was still in low-A to start 2016 at 22 years old. Acevedo will be a guy the Yankees will handle cautiously, but his fastball/slider combo may only be rivaled in professional baseball by Noah Syndergaard. If he’s forced to a relief role, he’d be the equivalent of Aroldis Chapman from the right side.
99. A.J. Puk, LHP, Oakland Athletics, Athletics #2
Widely considered the best collegiate arm coming into the 2016 draft season, Puk had a stagnant season in 2016 in that he didn’t perform badly, but he didn’t really take strides forward that teams were hoping to see. Puk is a big (6’7) lefty, but he has none of the major issues with inconsistent delivery that typically plague a guy of his height. Puk had back issues during his college season, and that does scare some evaluators in his future as back stuff can linger, especially in taller guys. Puk’s stuff is tremendous and truly front line material when he’s healthy, so the A’s could have a true ace here if Puk can show he’s past the back stuff.
98. Ariel Jurado, RHP, Texas Rangers, Rangers #4
While Texas is often known for their all-or-nothing prospects, Jurado is an exception to that, as he’s always been a pitchability sort of guy who was more command and control of his arsenal than velocity and movement creating strikeouts until he added nearly two full grades of velocity as he added strength. The added strength also added bite to his breaking pitch, allowing it to miss bats better rather than just being a “weak contact” sort of slurvy breaker. He’ll likely be at AAA as a 21 y/o in 2017, so it is not surprising that some have him quite high on their lists, but I did hear some concerns around scouting circles that Jurado’s velocity spike reads strongly like the type of spike a pitcher would get just before seeing his elbow pop for Tommy John surgery, which is why I did take some caution in ranking him overall.
97. Nick Neidert, RHP, Seattle Mariners, Mariners #4
Neidert scared away some teams with elbow tendinitis his senior year, but the Mariners grabbed him in the 2nd round, and they’ve been very pleased every since. He has a very solid pitch combination, including the slider that the Mariners introduced to Neidert after drafting him, which could quickly become his most effective secondary pitch, though it’s more of a pitch to generate weak contact rather than swing and miss. Neidert is physically mature at a size that isn’t ideal for a front line guy, but he has all the makings of that sort of a starter if things can continue to progress for him as he works up to high-A in 2017 and upper minors in 2018 most likely.
96. Touki Toussaint, RHP, Atlanta Braves, Braves #10
Toussaint is one of those guys who is known nearly as well for the GIFs of his wicked curve ball as he is for his actual pitching on the field. Of course, having an ERA that was cut in half in 2015 from his 2014 number and was still nearly 5 is not exactly going to inspire a lot of confidence from evaluators. The Braves did some heavy work with the mechanics of Toussaint early in 2016, and his early season numbers were not good, to say the least, but as he got into that and worked with the Braves’ program of leading with location of the fastball/change, he really took off and showed his dominant self, posting a final closing line from June 1st through Rome’s time in the playoffs of 97 1/3 innings, a 2.59 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, and a 43/110 BB/K ratio from a guy who didn’t turn 20 until June 20th. He’s still definitely got ace upside.
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