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AL Central: Potential breakout prospects for 2019

By Sean O'Leary

WASHINGTON, D.C. - JULY 15: Seuly Matias #25 of the World Team reacts after hitting a home run during the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at Nationals Park on July 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, D.C. - JULY 15: Seuly Matias #25 of the World Team reacts after hitting a home run during the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at Nationals Park on July 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
(Photo by Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

Let us continue to take a look at the potential breakout prospects in the game. This time, we head to the AL Central.

In this installment of 2019 breakout prospects to watch, we’ll take a look at the AL Central. This is one of the weaker divisions all around when it comes to farm systems.

While the White Sox have six top one hundred prospects, it’s pretty bleak for every other team. The Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins each have three, the Cleveland Indians have two and the Kansas City Royals have just one.

The White Sox are in the position they’re in because of the rebuild that they began in 2017, when they traded away Chris Sale. They received Yoan Moncada, who was the number one prospect in baseball, Michael Kopech, the current number three right-handed pitching prospect, as well as Luis Alexander Basabe, the number nine prospect in the 2018 White Sox system, per MLB Pipeline.

Later in the Jose Quintana trade, they recieved Eloy Jiminez, baseball’s number three overall prospect, and Dylan Cease, the number 21 ranked prospect. When they sent Adam Eaton to Washington, they got Lucas Giolito, the top pitching prospect at the time, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning.

As for the other teams, the Royals haven’t had a great farm system since before their World Series runs, with a young Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas.

The Twins and Tigers are working on rebuilding their systems. The Tigers haven’t had a good system for a while now, but hope to change that starting with the number one overall pick Casey Mize. The Twins are off to a great start in their rebuilding process. Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff are both in MLB Pipeline’s top ten, ranked five and nine, respectively.

After trading shipping Francisco Mejia off to San Diego for Brad Hand at the deadline, and trading Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield for Andrew Miller in 2016, both of whom would be contributors at this point, Cleveland’s farm system has taken a hit. Now, only Triston McKenzie and 2016 second round pick Nolan Jones remain in the top 100.

Round two, here we go.

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