The Boston Red Sox seem to be doing all right for themselves in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft.
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel on Tuesday released his Top 100 MLB Prospects rankings ahead of the 2022 season, and three Red Sox minor leaguers cracked the list: Marcelo Mayer (No. 22), Triston Casas (No. 46) and Nick Yorke (No. 47).
Mayer (2021, fourth overall), Casas (2018, 26th) and Yorke (2020, 17th) all were picked in the first round by Boston, with two of those selections coming since Chaim Bloom took over as Red Sox chief baseball officer in October 2019. (The Red Sox didn’t own a first-round pick in 2019, prior to Bloom’s arrival, due to luxury-tax penalties from 2018.)
McDaniel described Mayer’s “type” as an “incredibly gifted hitter with above-average tools.”
As for who the 19-year-old shortstop reminds him of? “Shades of Corey Seager and Christian Yelich, but it’s early,” McDaniel wrote.
McDaniel also provided a “type” for both Casas and Yorke, calling the former a “potential offensive machine” and lauding the latter for his “elite hit tool” despite being “average otherwise.”
McDaniel did not include Brayan Bello in his rankings. This isn’t a huge surprise, even though Bello’s stock is rising, but it’s notable after The Athletic’s Keith Law recently included the Red Sox’s 2021 Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year on his own top-100 list, at No. 86.
Law ranked Mayer and Yorke a bit higher than McDaniel, at No. 18 and No. 37, respectively. Casas checked in at No. 56 on Law’s 2022 preseason rankings.
