Prospect Watch: How every MLB team’s No. 1 prospect has fared so far in 2025

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Believe it or not, the midway point of Major League Baseball’s season is just around the corner. Between that and the upcoming amateur draft — CBS Sports’ coverage of which began yesterday with our top-30 ranking — this feels like the opportune time to offer a progress report on how some of the game’s best young players are faring so far in 2025.

With that in mind, below I’ve offered thoughts and analysis on each organization’s player who I ranked No. 1 in their offseason prospect lists. 

Got it? Good, let’s get down to business.

It hasn’t been a fun few years for Lawlar. He debuted late in 2023 and didn’t perform well over a 14-game cameo. He then missed most of last season because of thumb and hamstring injuries. Lawlar only recently returned to The Show, but he went 0 for 19 with nine strikeouts and he made a pair of errors in his final game before being sent back down. He remains a promising young infielder, he just needs an extended opportunity to prove it at the highest level. 

Kurtz, just back from the injured list with a strained hip flexor, debuted in late April and immediately embraced a min-max approach. He swings and misses and strikes out a ton, but he makes his contact count by hammering the ball. None of his five home runs were to his pull side, and three of them went out to left or left-center field. That’s impressive stuff. Now, if he can just get his strikeout rate on the sunny side of 30% he’ll have a stew going.

Baldwin has been one of the bright spots in an otherwise dim Braves season. He opened the year in the majors after Sean Murphy injured himself during spring training and has since managed to stick around in a timeshare thanks to his feel for contact and strength alike. Baldwin has also graded as an above-average defender, giving him serious two-way value at a premium position.

Basallo only recently started catching regularly again after dealing with elbow and hamstring injuries earlier this season. He’s hit all the same, entering the week with a .252/.365/.595 slash line and 13 home runs in his first 39 games. Basallo still whiffs and chases plenty, but he offers big-time strength from the left side and he won’t turn 21 until August. He should debut by then.

Anthony was my No. 1 overall prospect coming into the season, and he’s validated that ranking by hitting .288/.423/.491 with 10 home runs in 58 Triple-A games before earning the call to the majors on Monday. 

Shaw opened the season in the majors, but was sent back down after a rough introduction to The Show. He’s since returned and performed more like the player I thought he would be coming into the season. Our Matt Snyder recently caught up with Shaw to discuss what changes he made on the farm and how they’ve allowed him to fare better in his second go-around in the majors.

I noted in Schultz’s preseason write-up that rival evaluators had concerns about how his fastball would play versus right-handed batters. Some 11 starts into his Double-A career, he’s surrendered a .902 OPS without the platoon advantage. Schultz has ample time to figure out a solution to this problem, but that aforementioned statistic helps explain why he’s toting around a 3.71 ERA to date.

Burns was just promoted to Triple-A earlier this week after beginning the season with a 1.68 ERA and an 8.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 11 starts split between High- and Double-A. He was my top pitcher in last year’s class based on his explosive arsenal, and so far he’s lived up to the billing. There are workload considerations to keep in mind (he’s more than halfway to his personal high in innings), but I would be surprised if Burns is still in the minors in a month’s time. 

Bazzana, the No. 1 pick in last summer’s draft, is expected to miss another month with a strained oblique. Prior to the injury, he had hit .252/.362/.433 with a higher strikeout rate (26%) than I would have forecasted given the feel for contact he displayed as an amateur. 

Dollander has been part of Colorado’s big-league rotation since early in the season. There were reasons to be concerned about how his fastball-heavy approach would play in Coors Field. (Granted, I suppose there’s reason for trepidation with any pitcher tasked with surviving at that launching pad.) Sure enough, he’s sporting a 9.58 ERA in five home starts as opposed to a 4.50 mark in five road outings. The Rockies have all the reason in the world to experiment with Dollander’s home game plan the rest of the way.

Jobe had been sidelined since late May with a strained flexor tendon and will miss the rest of the season after doctors found he needed Tommy John surgery. In 10 starts prior to the injury, he averaged fewer than five innings per pop and tallied a 95 ERA+. Concerningly, he missed far fewer bats and induced far fewer chases than someone with his arsenal should based on the eye test. 

Smith, part of the return the Astros received from the Cubs for Kyle Tucker, has spent the season in the majors. He’s provided roughly league-average offense while taking well to right field. (He was primarily a third baseman before this year.) Smith has good strength and has cleared the 110-mph exit velocity threshold a handful of times already, even if that power hasn’t yet been reflected in his home-run column. 

Mitchell has appeared in just four games, all in the complex league and none since mid-May, after fracturing his broken hamate bone during spring training and then getting shut down again with lingering soreness.

Dana was the best of a weak Angels crop. He’s scuffled to date in Triple-A, issuing too many walks and failing to record even a strikeout per inning. The Angels have twice brought him to the majors to pitch in relief before sending him right back down. That’s not generally how teams operate when it comes to their best prospect, but I suppose this counts as another example of the Angels deviating from the norm in how they approach player development.

It’s rare I find myself second-guessing the Dodgers, possibly the best-managed organization in professional sports. Yet I’m confused by how they’ve handled Rushing’s introduction to the majors. They brought him up in May after jettisoning Austin Barnes, but they’ve not yet given him consecutive starts or so much as an appearance in the outfield. Granted, Rushing hasn’t hit particularly well just yet (he’s got a 61 OPS+ and 17 more strikeouts than walks in 10 games). I remain high on his bat, so I’m going to blame his early woes on his weird deployment.

White continues to miss bats and the zone with regularity through his first eight starts in High-A. He’s averaging roughly 14 strikeouts and five walks per nine innings, all the while pitching once a week as the Marlins manage his workload. 

Quero only just returned to action at the Triple-A level after being sidelined by a hamstring injury. He tore the labrum in his shoulder in his first game of last season, meaning that he’s barely played in the last 16 months. Stay tuned here, because a return to form will reaffirm his status as one of the best catching prospects in the minors. 

Jenkins is one of the best young hitters in the sport. Alas, he was limited by injury to 82 games last year, and so far he’s appeared just seven times in 2025 while dealing with an ankle issue.

I’m a sucker for a good right-handed changeup, but this one looks like a complete miss. Sproat’s strikeout rate collapsed (from 11.12 per nine innings in Double-A to 6.59) when he reached Triple-A last season. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that there’d be a rebound heading into this year. Nope. Worse yet, he’s issuing more than four walks per nine innings, giving him a crummy 1.58 strikeout-to-walk ratio. 

Domínguez has spent the season on the Yankees’ big-league roster, providing slightly above-average offense while striking out more (30%) than desired. He remains largely ineffective against left-handed pitching, and his defense is not what you would describe as a plus. 

Painter is back and making regular appearances for the first time since 2022. His fastball is sitting 96 mph and he’s showing a full arsenal, including a pair of breaking balls that have generated 40% whiffs to date. It’s to be seen how the Phillies handle his workload — again, he didn’t pitch at all in 2023 and he barely pitched last year — but he should debut before season’s end.

In Chandler’s first 12 starts this season, he’s compiled a 2.49 ERA and a 3.18 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Why hasn’t he gotten the call? Control issues. He walked a batter more than every other inning in May, suggesting he could use a little more baking time before joining the big-league rotation. I still expect Chandler to debut this summer, and for him to give Pittsburgh yet another exciting young right-hander to pin their hopes and dreams on.

Salas has played in only 10 games this season and is expected to miss several more weeks after suffering a stress reaction in his back. He celebrated his 19th birthday on June 1, meaning he now has less than a year to debut and become MLB‘s first teenage catcher since Ivan Rodriguez.

Eldridge was recently promoted to Triple-A after hectoring Double-A pitching. He’s big (6-foot-7) and strong with on-base skills to boot. The question here is how high his strikeout rate will run once he reaches the majors. The Giants might have designs on finding out sooner than later, having swapped out LaMonte Wade Jr. for Dominic Smith last week.

I was probably too high on Emerson coming into the season, but I appreciated his offensive polish relative to his age (he’ll turn 20 in July) and his ability to stick on the dirt. He’s continued to scuffle in High-A, posting a .699 OPS that is 77 points worse than the affiliate average. Emerson is having trouble both lifting the ball and hanging in there against left-handed pitchers. 

My preseason No. 1 draft prospect in 2024, Wetherholt slipped to the No. 7 pick in last summer’s draft after missing half the season with a hamstring injury. He’s making the Cardinals look like geniuses for not looking a gift horse in the mouth by hitting .313/.432/.473 with more walks than strikeouts in Double-A. The Cardinals continue to play him at shortstop, but I have to imagine he transitions back to second base by the time he reaches the majors — and, at this point, I feel confident he’s going to make his big-league debut before the summer is out.

There’s always been a caveat applied to Williams: his power and defense give him All-Star potential … provided he can keep his strikeout tendencies in check. Unfortunately, he’s having a rough go at it in Triple-A. He entered Monday with a 35% strikeout rate to date, the byproduct of a 60% contact rate — which includes a 58% whiff rate on changeups. He’s young (he’ll turn 22 at the end of the month) and he has a big ceiling, but it’s only fair to have more concerns about his likelihood of making this work than you may have had entering the season.

Walcott won’t celebrate his 20th birthday until next March, but he’s more than holding his own at Double-A. Through his first 53 games there, he’s batting .248/.349/.437 with a 12.4% walk rate and a 21.2% strikeout rate that represents an improvement over his previous years. There’s star upside here and he stands a great chance of entering next year ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the game.

Yesavage didn’t pitch after being drafted last season. He’s made up for that lost time in a hurry, posting a 2.13 ERA and a 4.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio through his first 11 starts. He’s worth keeping tabs on, in part because he should continue to move quickly, and in part because he has an unusual profile. The short version goes like this: Yesavage releases the ball from a high slot (his average release height is over seven feet) and all three of his pitches move to the arm side. His workload might prevent him from debuting this season, but provided he stays hearty and hale he should be part of the Blue Jays’ rotation by this time next year.

It’s hard to remember now, but Crews was considered to be the best prospect heading into the 2023 draft. Two years later, he’s been surpassed by Paul Skenes and Wyatt Langford, among others. That wouldn’t be a big deal on its own. Unfortunately, Crews’ career big-league OPS remains on the shady side of .650 as he nears his 100th career appearance. He still has plenty of bat speed and strength; he just doesn’t pull anything in the air and is more prone to whiffing than expected. He’s currently sidelined with a strained oblique. Here’s hoping it helps him reset.

This news was originally published on this post .

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