FanGraphs on Wednesday became the latest outlet to release its Top 100 MLB Prospects rankings for the 2022 Major League Baseball season. The Boston Red Sox are well represented on the list.
Three Red Sox minor leaguers made the cut: Triston Casas (No. 16), Marcelo Mayer (No. 19) and Nick Yorke (No. 29).
The names aren’t surprising. All three also appeared among Keith Law’s Top 100 for The Athletic and Kiley McDaniel’s Top 100 for ESPN. Their respective rankings are somewhat notable, though, as FanGraphs is the only outlet with Casas, Mayer and Yorke among its top 30 prospects.
Below is FanGraphs’ summation of each:
On Casas: Casas hits with his eyes as much as his hands. His plate discipline, breaking ball recognition, and feel for all-fields contact are all excellent complements to his above-average raw power. He’s Boston’s first baseman of the future.
On Mayer: Mayer is a slick shortstop defender with a broad-shouldered, projectable frame, and a solid feel-to-hit foundation on which to layer strength and power. He has All-Star ceiling.
On Yorke: Yorke may end up as a 40-grade infield defender, but he can really hit, and (FanGraphs’ Eric) Longenhagen was wrong about him being overdrafted.
For comparison, Law had Mayer at No. 18, Yorke at No. 37 and Casas at No. 56. He also included pitcher Brayan Bello at No. 86, an interesting development for a prospect whose stock is on the rise.
McDaniel listed Mayer at No. 22, Casas at No. 46 and Yorke at No. 47.
Obviously, prospect rankings are an inexact science, and FanGraphs even specified that its Future Value (FV) grades are more important than each player’s ordinal ranking. But this all speaks to how far the Red Sox’s farm system has come since Chaim Bloom took over as Boston’s chief baseball officer in October 2019.
Casas, Mayer and Yorke each received a 55 FV grade from FanGraphs, which projects them as above-average major leaguers.
