Scouting MLB prospects has never been an exact science, and sometimes we get it wrong. Here are five guys hoping not to become a bust.
While projecting what MLB prospects will do in the big leagues has gotten better, we still see guys who never quite live up to the expectations put on them.
That is why MLB prospects are still considered prospects until they prove themselves at the major league level.
For the sake of this list, we are going to be looking at players who ranked in MLB.com’s top 10 MLB prospects list over the past five years.
We’ve already had great success stories over the past five years with guys like Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor, Corey Seager, Andrew Benintendi, Shohei Ohtani, Gleyber Torres, and Ronald Acuna.
But we’ve also had just as many players who either weren’t as great as some predicted, or have struggled to just stay on the major league roster period.
One of the guys I wanted to include in this list is J.P. Crawford, who ranked as the second-best prospect in 2016, but he’s not even guaranteed a starting job in 2019.
After flaming out with the Philadelphia Phillies, he’s currently listed as a back-up shortstop for the Seattle Mariners.
Alex Reyes is another guy you could put on this list, but he’s mainly be set back by injuries. Still, this will be a big year for him with the St. Louis Cardinals.
And while Joey Gallo hasn’t lived up to the hype that some predicted, I think we know what he’s going to be at the major league level having hit 41 and 40 home runs the past two seasons, but with averages of .209 and .206.
Here are five former top prospects who need to step up in 2019.