Top fantasy baseball prospects: JJ Wetherholt crushing Triple-A pitching, Robby Snelling impressing

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2 days ago

A reminder: This is ONLY players who have Rookie of the Year MLB eligibility, and ONLY a look at potential help for 2025.
That out of the way, here's a look at the top prospects who can help your fantasy roster this season.
1. JJ Wetherholt, INF, St. Louis Cardinals
2025 stats: 73 G, .306/.421/.513, 11 HR, 14 SB, 48 BB, 48 SO at Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis.
If I listed every reason for this it would make this a 6,000 word article and absolutely no one wants that, but I'll just get this out of the way: This is the least confident I've ever been in a list this late into the year. I have no idea whether Wetherhold (see what I did there?) is going to make his debut in 2025, but it's not just about proximity, folks. Wetherholt's talent is exceptional, and the fact that he's slugged four homers with a .762 OPS since being promoted to Triple-A didn't hurt his case for ascending to the top of this list, either. Wetherholt has played more shortstop than second base in Memphis, and the latter position is obviously covered right now for St. Louis. I still think his ability to hit for average, power and steal bases -- potentially, anyway -- makes him the prospect I'd roster right now.
2. Luke Keaschall, INF/OF, Minnesota Twins
2025 stats: 22 G, .244/.358/.295, 1 HR, 8 SB, 14 BB, 17 SO at Triple-A St. Paul; 7 G, .368/.538/.526, 0 HR, 5 SB, 5 BB, 2 SO at Minnesota.
You would be forgiven if you forgot about Keaschall, but now's a good time to, well, stop forgetting. The 22-year-old missed nearly three months while dealing with a fractured right forearm, but he's returned to action and shown off his impressive speed and approach. The power is the question mark with Keaschall, but he can put the ball into the gaps and can turn on enough fastballs to suggest he won't be just a dink-and-dunk hitter. Keaschall should rejoin the Twins in the coming weeks, and fantasy managers could do worse than to give the right-handed hitter a shot once that takes place.
3. Jordan Lawlar, INF, Arizona Diamondbacks
2025 stats: 53 G, .319/.410/.583, 10 HR, 18 SB, 30 BB, 60 SO at Triple-A Reno; 8 G, .000/.136/.000, 0 HR, 0 SB, 3 BB, 9 SO at Arizona.
Ranking Lawlar is kinda impossible right now, but I'll do it anyway. The case against him is pretty simple; he's out with a hamstring injury and there's no word as to when he'll be able to return. The case for him is those stats you see above -- the minor league ones, not the small-sampled struggles in a brief cup of coffee -- and the fact that Arizona is very much in sell mode/should want to see Lawlar playing everyday. So it goes like this: If the Diamondbacks recall Lawlar, add him; he's the type of player who can contribute in every fantasy category. But don't be surprised if they take it easy and have their top prospect make his debut as a full-time starter in 2026.
4. Samuel Basallo, C/1B, Baltimore Orioles
2025 stats: 64 G, .280/.394/.615, 120 HR, 0 SB, 40 BB, 57 SO at Triple-A Norfolk.
If I absolutely knew that Basallo was going to be up in the coming weeks, he'd be the top prospects on this list. He should be up already, as he's scorching hot with a .350/.413/..775 slash over his last 10 games that was buoyed by a 5-for-5 effort with a homer against Lehigh Valley on Friday. Basallo has some of the best power in the minors right now, and the approach at the plate keeps getting better to suggest he'll get on at a solid clip with a decent average to go with it. There's just no guarantee that Baltimore is going to bring him up, so fantasy managers need to play the wait-and-see game. Unless you play in a league with two catchers. I'd probably roster him now in that case.
5. Spencer Jones, OF, New York Yankees
2025 stats: 68 G, .314/.411/.706, 29 HR, 16 SB, 42 BB, 94 SO at Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
I want you to look at that number of games played and that number of homers closely, because it still feel like that's not possible. Jones homered three times for the RailRiders on Thursday, but has been out of the lineup since because of back spasms. Obviously that injury is a potential concern, but with potential concern comes a 6-foot-7 left-handed hitter who has homered 13 times in 19 games since being promoted to Triple-A. Yes he strikes out a ton. Yes there'll likely be an adjustment period when he gets a chance to face MLB pitching. But yes, I am still rostering him if the Yankees promote him because of the potential power production.
6. Bubba Chandler, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates
2025 stats: 20 G, 82.2 IP, 3.27 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 41 BB, 104 SO at Triple-A Indianapolis.
I feel like this late in the year we have to have a pitcher on the list, and the fact of the matter is that Chandler -- with all due respect to Andrew Painter and a few other names -- is the best pitching prospects in Triple-A right now. So, I'm adding a spot for him. He's also been pitching well after a bit of a funk in the middle of the summer, and he fired back-to-back shutouts over six innings to begin July with a 5 2/3 inning effort of two-run baseball with seven strikeouts in his most recent outing. The Pirates are just as likely to shut down Chandler as they are to promote him, but if he gets a chance in the majors, his swing-and-miss stuff and ability to throw four pitches for strikes makes him relevant.
Around the minors:
There's a lot of debate as to who the best prospect in baseball is, but right now, I would argue that the best fantasy prospect in the sport is Jesús Made. Made has been solid with the bat all year, but particularly as of late with a .306 average and .836 OPS over his last 10 games. Even as a player that turned 18 in May, the switch-hitting shortstop has shown off four plus tools, and three of those are relevant to fantasy in his hit, power and speed. There's some question as to whether he'll need to move off shortstop, but the Brew Crew have a few years to find out exactly where he profiles best. If he sticks at short he has a chance to be a fantasy superstar, but if he moved to the outfield, second or third base he's still the player I'd want the most in any eligible format.
The Marlins have been a pleasant surprise in 2025 -- if only because the expectations were so incredibly low -- and they also have seen Robby Snelling develop into one of the best left-handed pitching prospects in baseball. Since being promoted to Triple-A in July, Snelling has forged an ERA of 2.30 over his three starts with a 15/4 K/BB ratio over 15 2/3 innings with the Jumbo Shrimp. Eleven of those punchouts came in his start Saturday against Triple-A Durham, and he's shown the ability to miss bats with three pitches while throwing them for strikes on a consistent enough basis to suggest good things. He could make his MLB debut in 2025, but even if he doesn't he's a name to keep a close eye on for 2026.
We talked about Jones and his impressive power display, but there's another slugger who has been bashing the ball over the fence in Triple-A as of late, and it's Mariners' first base prospect Tyler Locklear. Locklear has homered six times in his last 10 games, and in that timeframe he's slashing a robust .417/.511/.972 for Tacoma. The 2022 second-round pick really struggled in his short time with the Mariners last year, but he's a player with well above-average power and the ball jumps off his bat when he makes contact. Seattle isn't likely to give him a chance in 2025 after the trade for Josh Naylor, but he does have the skill set to be a middle-of-the-order hitter in the coming seasons. If he were to be traded before the deadline, he'd be worthy of consideration; assuming he gets promoted after that transaction, of course.