Still, there’s plenty to glean. Star Georgia Tech freshman Drew Burress headlines the list following his scorching-hot start to the season. Arkansas leads all schools with four players. LSU, Stanford and Vanderbilt follow with three players each.

Below, find the Top 50 prospects in the class, plus individual reports and brief biographical information for each player. You can find all of our rankings here.

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It’s a strong high school class with a lot of talent in the middle of the field, especially at shortstop. Some of those shortstops will eventually move off the position in pro ball after the 2026 MLB Draft, but eight of the top 15 prospects in the class are shortstops.

Now that Aug. 1 has arrived, college coaches are able to contact and make offers to recruits in the 2026 class. The NCAA rule changes implemented last year prevent coaches from speaking with players prior to Aug. 1 of their junior year, so it will be a busy time for both players and college coaches.

Prior to the rule changes in 2023, several of the top 100 players in the country had already made their college commitments. While there’s a lot of talent still on the board, Stanford is leading the way with seven recruits ranked in the top 100, the most of any school.

Below are our rankings and scouting reports of the top 100 high school prospects in the 2026 MLB Draft class.

Related rankings

• 2025 Top 100 High School Prospects
• 2025 Top 100 College Prospects

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There’s a new No. 1 to lead off the list. Texas A&M slugger Jace LaViolette assumes the top spot after a sterling 2024 season for the Aggies en route to a berth in the College World Series final. Former No. 1 Cam Cannarella isn’t far behind, and both players comprise a deep outfield crop in the 2025 class.

Tennessee leads all programs with seven players. Florida State and LSU follow with five each. Baseball America subscribers can see scouting reports for each player in the Top 100 below.

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While the 2024 high school class was down, the 2025 class is stronger. Shortstop Ethan Holliday holds on as the No. 1 player in the country thanks to his sweet lefthanded swing, eye for the strike zone and big power. There are three players high up the list from Corona High in California, with all three having a chance to be first-round picks next year.

Among colleges, LSU has 10 commits ranked in the Top 100, the most of any school. Vanderbilt has seven, including three of the top 15 prospects, followed by Texas with six after the summer addition of shortstop Kayson Cunningham, previously a Texas Tech commit.

Five of the top 100 prospects remain uncommitted, the most prominent being Kruz Schoolcraft, a 6-foot-8 lefthander/first baseman who reclassified from the 2026 class and has the upside to become a first-round pick.

California high schools have 18 players ranked in the Top 100, the highest among any state, followed by Texas (13) and Florida (10).

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The 2025 MLB Draft class appears stronger than 2024, especially at the high school level. Shortstop Ethan Holliday ranks No. 1 entering the prep season. The top of the list also features several recognizable stars at the college ranks who enjoyed loud starts to the season.

Florida State leads all colleges with four players on the list. Ole Miss follows suit with three players. High school baseball fans should keep an eye on Corona (Calif.) High School’s junior class this season, too. Corona has three players on the list, the most of any high school.

LSU fans will surely cross their fingers and hope at least some of this class makes it to campus in two years. The Tigers have the most commits (six) of any program in the country. Vanderbilt is next up with four commits. Only two high schoolers on the list remain uncommitted entering the 2024 spring season.

Check out our updated Top 100 below, complete with new scouting reports. You can also find the Top 100 College Prospects here and the Top 100 High School Prospects here.

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This year’s class has less clear-cut consensus at the top to begin the year and features several candidates who could emerge as the potential No. 1 overall pick in the draft. That sets us up for a potentially very intriguing spring depending on how some of the top names fare.

LSU leads all schools with seven players ranked in the Top 100, headlined by star 3B Tommy White. Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Tennessee are also well-represented on the list.

See the Top 100 players plus full scouting reports below. You can find our overall 2024 MLB Draft Top 200 here.

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By Carlos Collazo

Well, it’s finally here—the 2021 BA 500!

No, we’re not late, but this is the deepest into the calendar year we have ever released the BA 500, as the 2021 draft is the first to be moved into July and tied to the MLB All-Star Break.

Baseball has largely put Covid-19 behind it this spring, but the 2021 draft class has still felt the ripple effects of the pandemic. While it won’t be remembered as the Covid draft in the same way the five-round 2020 draft last year will be, there’s an argument to be made that the 2021 draft class is equally impacted by the virus—if not more so. 

Scouts wondered if that would be the case a year ago, as Covid largely blew up the summer evaluation period for scouts and players alike, especially amongst the college ranks. No Collegiate National Team. No Cape Cod League. No 18U National Team. While many high school events took place in the South, players from the West Coast were more limited in their options and scouts themselves had to miss events entirely due to personnel restrictions (and in some cases layoffs) and further step into the world of video scouting by writing reports remotely. 

That dynamic has led to plenty of volatility during the season as players who previously didn’t have a chance to establish a track record or baseline of performance stood out, and others with some history struggled. Teams are now left to try and sort out the signal from the noise by more heavily relying on area scouts and their history and/or adjusting their models to incorporate a much smaller sample of college stats. 

Those factors—on top of the exceptional depth of the 2021 class thanks to the five-round draft last year that brought back many players who would have been drafted in a typical year—have led to less consensus on the class than ever.

“This year I have no expectations because it is so wide open,” said one scouting director. “When I walk into that draft room the night of the draft I wouldn’t be surprised if it was completely all over the place in terms of where guys go. Just not a lot of consensus.”

There’s not a consensus No. 1 player in the class and instead a group of five players are generally seen as the top tier of talent. That group includes toolsy prep shortstops Jordan Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer, renowned Vanderbilt righthanders Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker and Louisville catcher Henry Davis, who was one of the best performers of the season.

After a full spring, the high school class looks more impressive than the college group. The 2021 class has a chance to be one of the best prep shortstop classes we’ve ever seen, with four potential top-10 picks at the position and a slew of intriguing depth options as well. Outside of the shortstops there is a bounty of up-the-middle position players with unusually impressive athleticism and tools. 

The high school pitching group, led by righthanders Jackson Jobe and Andrew Painter, seems close to average, with several legitimate first-round talents and perhaps more lefthanded pitching depth than in an average class.

Scouting departments were worried about the college hitting class entering the year, but there was hope that throughout the spring players would step forward and make it at least average. That doesn’t appear to have been the case. Most evaluators see the college hitters as the weakest demographic of the group—with a notable absence of shortstops and corner profiles with power—and it’s a solidly below-average college hitting class overall.

The college pitching saw attrition during the season as potential top-10 players like Gunnar Hoglund and Jaden Hill suffered season-ending injuries, but the group seems solid or a tick above-average on talent—but significantly below-average in terms of innings and established track record.

Overall, the 2021 class seems weaker than teams would prefer at the very top, but with elite depth that might leave organizations more excited with their draftees on Days Two and Three than in a typical year.

We will continue to make tweaks and adjust the BA 500 as necessary as we get closer to draft day. 

*BA Grades and Tool Grades — We’re excited to roll out BA Grades and tool grades for the top 200 players in the class for the first time. BA readers familiar with the Prospect Handbook should be familiar with these grades, which are based on the 20-80 scouting scale. Our attempt is to provide a deeper understanding of the class in a quantifiable manner and to also make it easier for readers to have a rough estimate of where a player might rank within a team’s Top 30 once they are drafted. Please note that all player grades and tool grades are future grades, not present grades.

**Rapscores — 85% of Baseball America’s Top 500 MLB prospects use Rapsodo data for player development and evaluation. In collaboration with Driveline Baseball, Rapsodo developed RapScore as a standard scale for scouting and recruiting. Utilizing the principles of the 20-80 scale and the verified data collected by Rapsodo’s technology, RapScore provides a quantifiable way to compare athletes of all ages. Players that complete a Rapsodo Certified Assessment receive a RapScore and are listed on the Rapsodo National Player Database.

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Baseball America’s draft rankings are an attempt to capture the industry’s consensus on the talent of the 2024 draft class. The list is compiled in consultation with MLB scouts, front office executives, scouting directors, college coaches and other professional evaluators.

The 2024 draft class is led by a solid group of 10 players that have become a near-consensus top tier of talent.

Georgia outfielder and third baseman Charlie Condon, this year’s college player of the year, tops the group after putting together one of the most memorable offensive seasons in college baseball. Oregon State second baseman and hitting machine Travis Bazzana follows closely behind.

While most scouts consider Condon and Bazzana the clear 1-2 of the class, the next eight players are difficult to line up and separate, with differing orders depending on the scouts and teams you talk to. 

The group includes four college hitters: West Virginia shortstop JJ Wetherholt, Florida slugger Jac Caglianone, Texas A&M outfielder Braden Montgomery and Wake Forest first baseman Nick Kurtz; two college pitchers who dominated in an offense-friendly environment: Wake Forest righthander Chase Burns and Arkansas lefthander Hagen Smith; and the top two high school hitters in the class: Mississippi shortstop and outfield Konnor Griffin and California shortstop Bryce Rainer.

While the top of the 2024 class is solid, the class as a whole falls short of an exceptional 2023 draft class. There’s a distinct fall off beyond the top tier. 

“It’s definitely a below-average (class),” said one scout. “I guess if you cut the draft off after the top 10 picks it would be a good draft.”

Teams picking outside of the first 10 picks have a huge cluster of players that have been difficult to sort through and separate all spring, which could lead to plenty of chaos on draft day with boards that diverge sooner than is typical. 

The 2024 class is one of the weaker high school draft classes in recent memory which combined with a second tier of college pitchers that have plenty of question marks should lead to a first round that’s heavy on college bats.

While the strength of the class is college hitting, there are more corner profiles among that demographic than a year ago and no-doubt shortstop profiles from both the college and high school ranks could be more difficult to find than usual at the top of the draft. 

Below BA subscribers can see the full top 500 with scouting reports for each player and BA Grades and tools grades for the top 200 players in the class.

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Plenty could change between now and the MLB draft in July, especially considering this year’s crop of talent is relatively down compared to year’s past. Still, there’s a certain amount of predictability to what will unfold over the next several months.

Max Clark and Walker Jenkins were our top two prospects, respectively, at this time a year ago in our 2023 high school rankings. Both went on to become top-five picks and now rank among baseball’s 20 best prospects.

The first 13 high school players drafted, from Clark at No. 1 to shortstop Tai Peete at 30th overall to the Mariners, ranked among the top 35 high school players in our rankings a year out from the draft.

We can feel confident that the first-round picks from the 2024 high school class will mostly come from the top 50 players on this list, and that most of the Day 1 picks will already be ranked on our Top 100.

There’s work to be done, though. This year’s crop of high school talent lacks an abundance of premium up-the-middle profiles with hitting chops. There’s also no clear frontline pitching prospect like Noble Meyer or Andrew Painter in recent classes, although the pitching depth is enticing.

LSU has the most commits (11) of any program in the Top 100. Tennessee follows suit with nine commits.

You can find the updated high school rankings below complete with scouting reports. You can see our Top 200 draft rankings folding in college prospects here.

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The Baseball America Top 100 Prospects rankings are our 35th edition of our flagship prospect ranking, which means the players included below are part of a fraternity of the best prospects in baseball that stretches from 1990 (which included Hall of Famer Frank Thomas) through the 2000s (where 2004-2005 No. 1 prospect Joe Mauer just became a Hall of Famer as well) and now into the 2020s, where No. 1 prospects like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson have become stars.

To report the list, we have discussions with MLB scouts, coaches, analysts and front office officials. We also see players in person and utilize as much data as we can get our hands on. It also relies on all the reporting we did to produce our Top 30 Prospects rankings online as well as the Baseball America Prospect Handbook.

Players are eligible if they have not exceeded 130 MLB at-bats, 50 innings pitched or 30 pitching appearances. Service time does not play a role in whether players are eligible for this ranking.

With the trade deadline near and the draft complete, we have a full July update that now includes 2024 draftees. For first rounders, we are adding them even if they have not yet signed. Only one first-round pick has not signed since 2019. If a player ends up not signing by the signing deadline, we will remove them at that point. If you want to get more information about why players moved up or down, you can track the movement here.

Players in the Top 100 Prospects list are ranked for their long-term MLB impact, with allowances for the risk that they will fall short of that ceiling. The tools grades listed for each player are all future grades of what we project them to be in the best stretch of their big league careers.

Additional Top 100 Content

• 15 players who just missed the preseason list
• Who could be the No. 1 prospect in 2025?
• Top 30 prospects in every MLB season
• Track the Top 100 in-season movement here

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