OTTAWA – With the annual Major League Baseball Draft and trade deadline now in the rearview mirror, it’s that time where the prospect gurus of the world rejig their top prospect lists given the injection of talent into organizations via the draft, prospects switching clubs through trade and others graduating from prospect status to the big leagues.
MLB.com and Baseball America have both released updated Top 30 prospects lists for each of the 30 MLB clubs and have also unveiled new Top 100 prospect lists giving fans a preview of the next wave of MLB stars and who could be impacting their favourite team’s lineup in the not too distant future.
For Canadian baseball fans, these lists offer a glimpse into which players from north of the border are ones to keep an eye on as they chase their big league dreams.
As far as the Top 100 prospects in baseball there is consensus that Junior National Team grad and Minnesota Twins prospect Jordan Balazovic (Mississauga, ON) is among the group. He has been just inside the Top 100 for over a year now with Baseball America currently having him at #89 while MLB Pipeline ranks him notch higher at #88.
The right-handed pitcher didn’t make his season debut until June 5th but since then he’s put up solid numbers at Double-A Wichita to the tune of a 4-2 record with a 3.42 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and 78 strikeouts over 15 starts and 71 innings pitched.
The 2019 Futures Game participant and Lima 2019 Pan Am Games silver medalist is coming off a start on August 21 where he threw six scoreless innings with six strikeouts.
Balazovic is the lone Canadian on a Top 100 list but there are plenty of Canucks on their respective clubs’ Top 30 list from both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. Here is a rundown:
Atlanta Braves
Baltimore Orioles
Chicago Cubs
Cleveland
Detroit Tigers
Los Angeles Angles
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Oakland A’s
Seattle Mariners
Toronto Blue Jays
*Born in Canada, raised in United States
