Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2026 i Baseball America

If you are an especially attentive reader, you may have noticed that this is the January/February 2026 issue of Baseball America. That is because we have adjusted our print schedule and are going to now be producing six issues a year. Our next issue will see another change. We are adjusting to the more traditional magazine size from our current oversized format. With this change, we will have a more regular frequency. The issues will come out roughly once every two months, though we have adapted our schedule to ensure you get our tentpole items on time. We want to make sure subscribers get the College Preview by the start of the college season, as well as the MLB plus Minor League Preview/Top 100 Prospects issue by the start of…

When Jen Pawol took the field as an MLB umpire at Atlanta’s Truist Park on Aug. 9, she made history. For the first time, a woman umpired a regular season MLB game. For the first time, the dream of a number of women before her had been achieved. It was a big day for Pawol, and it was just as large for those who went before her, and for those who will come after her. For years, there have been women who have longed to umpire in MLB, and for a very long time, that dream was unattainable. When Perry Barber went to umpire school in 1981, she convinced her twin sister to come along to ensure Perry wouldn’t be the only woman at the school. Barber has umpired for…

After several years of work, the Rocket City Trash Pandas got ready to open a brand-new ballpark, bringing baseball back to the Huntsville, Ala., area for the first time in years. And then they learned that Opening Day would not happen. The coronavirus pandemic meant there was no 2020 season. So the Trash Pandas had to wait a full extra year to open Toyota Field. It wasn’t ideal, but the staff turned disappointment into an opportunity. By the time Rocket City played its first game in the Double-A Southern League, thousands from all over the region had already been to the ballpark. During the pandemic, the team held movie nights on the field, did drivethrough light shows around the Christmas holidays and a variety of other community events. “It was…

1 PAYTON TOLLE LHP FB: 70. CB: 45. SL: 50. CT: 50. CH: 45. CTL: 50. BA Grade: 60. Risk: Mild. Adj: 55.  Born: November 1, 2002. B-T: L-L. HT: 6-6. WT: 250. Drafted: Texas Christian, 2024 (2nd round). Signed by: Chris Reilly. TRACK RECORD: After two years at Wichita State as a power-hitting first baseman and lefthander, Tolle transferred to Texas Christian in 2024 and focused increasingly on the mound. A strong junior season at TCU—he went 7-4 with a 3.21 ERA and 37% strikeout rate—and evident aptitude to develop in a new program convinced the Red Sox to draft Tolle in the second round. He signed for a slightly over-slot $2 million and was Boston’s highest selection of a pitcher since 2017. Tolle combines distinct mound traits—a mountainous build…

1 KEVIN McGONIGLE SS HIT: 70. POW: 55. RUN: 55. FLD: 55. ARM: 45. BA Grade: 65. Risk: Mild. Adj: 60. Born: August 18, 2004. B-T: L-R. HT: 5-10. WT: 187. Drafted: HS—Drexel Hill, PA, 2023 (1st round supplemental). Signed by: Jim Bretz. TRACK RECORD: Coming out of the Covid-canceled 2020 season, word began circulating around the Northeast that there was a special sophomore at Monsignor Bonnier High, outside Philadelphia. McGonigle hit nearly .500 in high school and was even more impressive in summer showcases and with Team USA. The Tigers drafted him with a supplemental first-round pick in 2023 after selecting Max Clark in the first round. Three seasons later, it appears that draft could chart the path of the Tigers in the second half of the 2020s and beyond.…

1 TYLER BREMNER RHP FB: 60. SL: 50. CH: 70. CTL: 60. BA Grade: 55. Risk: Average. Adj: 45. Born: April 20, 2004. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-2. WT: 190. Drafted: UC Santa Barbara, 2025 (1st round). Signed by: Bo Hughes. TRACK RECORD: Bremner spent his first two years at UC Santa Barbara as a swingman, with strong performances as a sophomore and in the summer with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team making him one of the top arms available in the 2025 draft class. Bremner started slowly as a junior, allowing five home runs and posting a 4.24 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate through his first seven starts. He quickly turned the corner and posted a 2.91 ERA with a 44% strikeout rate with no home runs allowed over his…

1 COLT EMERSON SS HIT: 60. POW: 50. RUN: 45. FLD: 55. ARM: 50. BA Grade: 60. Risk: Average. Adj: 50. Born: July 20, 2005. B-T: L-R. HT: 6-1. WT: 195. Drafted: HS—New Concord, OH, 2023 (1st round). Signed by: Jackson Laumann. TRACK RECORD: Emerson was one of the youngest players in the 2023 draft when the Mariners selected him 22nd overall, and he quickly established himself as one of the most mature and advanced hitters in their system. He impressed in his pro debut that summer, reaching Low-A Modesto at the end of the year. In 2024 he played at three levels and slashed .263/.393/.376 with nearly as many walks (50) as strikeouts (58). Despite missing 70 games due to a foot fracture, Emerson still earned a promotion to High-A…

1 TREY YESAVAGE RHP FB: 60. SL: 55. SP: 70. CTL: 50. BA Grade: 60. Risk: Mild. Adj: 55. Born: July 28, 2003. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-4. WT: 225. Drafted: East Carolina, 2024 1st round). Signed by: Coulson Barbiche. TRACK RECORD: Over three seasons at East Carolina, Yesavage went from a reliever to a key piece of the Pirates’ rotation. As a junior in 2024, he went 11-1 with a 2.03 ERA and struck out 145 in 93.1 innings. Late in that season, Yesavage suffered a partially collapsed lung due to an off-the-field medical procedure. He returned during regionals and outpitched Wake Forest ace Chase Burns. After Yesavage ranked as the No. 11 player in the 2024 class, questions around his medicals dropped him to the Blue Jays at pick No.…

As we were wrapping another season of Top 10 Prospects rankings, it made me think about how stars are made. The Dodgers’ stars just drove them to a second consecutive World Series title. Just two years into his 10-year deal, Shohei Ohtani is already one of the best free agent signings of the 21st century. World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto went 3-0 and was the difference-maker in the second year of his 12-year deal. Considering that Yamamoto came over as a foreign professional, and that Ohtani and Freddie Freeman signed as free agents, and that trade acquisition Mookie Betts signed a massive contract extension, the Dodgers’ back-to-back World Series titles can be viewed as Los Angeles using its checkbook to build a lineup of stars. Acquiring stars who keep producing…

It’s only natural that a team called the Canadians hosted watch parties for the 2025 World Series. Considering that the Vancouver Canadians of the High-A Northwest League are the only affiliated minor league team in the entire country, and are affiliated with Canada’s lone major league club, in Toronto, the watch parties were a chance to feed off the frenzy of attention that the Blue Jays created during their first pennant-winning season since 1993. Canadians GM Allan Bailey was a child when those Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series in 1992 and ’93. He remembers the way it energized his friends and peers about the game. He recognized what was happening in the Vancouver community, so he and his staff set up watch parties for Games 1 and 3 at…

1 LEO DE VRIES SS HIT: 60. POW: 55. RUN: 50. FLD: 55. ARM: 60. BA Grade: 65. Risk: Average. Adj: 55. Born: October 11, 2006. B-T: B-T. HT: 6-1. WT: 190. Signed: Dominican Republic, 2024. Signed by: Jonathan Feliz (Padres). TRACK RECORD: A native of the Dominican Republic, De Vries grew up idolizing Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr., and for a time looked destined to join them in San Diego. The Padres signed De Vries for $4.2 million, the second-largest bonus in the 2024 international class, and aggressively pushed him to Low-A for his pro debut. In 2025, he was the youngest player to open in the High-A Midwest League at 18. His season took a shocking turn at the trade deadline when the Athletics acquired him as the…

1 NOAH SCHULTZ LHP FB: 65. SL: 70. CH: 55. CT: 50. CTL: 50. BA Grade: 65. Risk: High. Adj: 50. Born: August 5, 2003. B-T: L-L. HT: 6-10. WT: 240. Drafted: HS—Oswego, IL, 2022 (1st round). Signed by: JJ Lally. TRACK RECORD: Schultz has been one of the most celebrated pitching prospects in the game since the White Sox drafted the Chicago-area prep 26th overall in 2022. Despite flashing big-time stuff on the showcase circuit, he dropped to the late first round after missing part of his senior season with mononucleosis before getting pre-draft exposure in the Prospect League. The lanky, 6-foot-10 Schultz pitched in a just a handful of instructional league games after joining the organization and was limited to 10 starts in 2023 due to a flexor strain.…

1 JACOB MELTON OF HIT: 50. POW: 55. RUN: 60. FLD: 55. ARM: 50. BA Grade: 50. Risk: Mild. Adj: 45. Born: September 7, 2000. B-T: L-L. HT: 6-3. WT: 208. Drafted: Oregon State, 2022 (2nd round). Signed by: Tim Costic. TRACK RECORD: Melton wasn’t heavily recruited out of his Oregon high school, so he attended Linn-Benton (Ore.) JC and earned all-conference honors in his single season there. He transferred to Oregon State as a sophomore, but his season was cut short by the pandemic. Melton enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2021 by hitting .404/.466/.697 in 32 games before a shoulder injury ended his season. He went undrafted in 2021 and returned to OSU for a third year in 2022, when he hit .360/.424/.671 to earn first-team All-America honors and won…

1 BRODY HOPKINS RHP FB: 65. CB: 70. CHG: 45. SW: 55. CT: 65. CTL: 45. BA Grade: 60 Risk: Average. Adj: 50. Born: January 18, 2002. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-4. WT: 200. Drafted: Winthrop, 2023 (6th round). Signed by: Terry McClure (Mariners). TRACK RECORD: Growing up, Hopkins was always known as TJ’s little brother. TJ Hopkins was a star athlete at Summerville (S.C.) High and went on to be a four-year outfield starter at South Carolina. Eventually, he became a major leaguer by spending 25 games with the 2023 Reds. Brody, who is five years younger, quickly made a name for himself as well. He was a baseball and football star—as a big-play wide receiver—in high school before heading to the College of Charleston as an outfielder who also pitched…

In his first full season in the Giants organization, Jacob Bresnahan showcased a rare combo of bat-missing ability, weak contact and home run avoidance. PAGE 73 Torin Reaps Benefits Of Improved Physique Cristofer Torin was aware of the speculation that some in the industry thought his body might eventually force him to move off shortstop. He mostly put them to rest in 2025. After showing up to spring training with a revamped physique, Torin turned in a solid offensive season for High-A Hillsboro and played his typically strong defense. In previous years, Torin had a thicker, heavy-legged build that had evaluators concerned. If he looked like this at age 19, they wondered, how would he look in his 20s, and would that compromise his mobility? “I definitely heard the comments,” Torin…

The Pawtucket Red Sox announced in August 2018 that the Triple-A International League franchise would relocate to Worcester, Mass., after negotiations for a new park in Rhode Island fell through. According to Worcester club president Dr. Charles Steinberg, who was with the franchise in Pawtucket, 18 cities across New England made pitches for the franchise, with Worcester winning the sweepstakes. A month later, the city rolled out a literal red carpet for its new team in the commons downtown, with Red Sox luminaries such as Worcester native Rich Gedman and Pedro Martinez on hand. Afterward, the club really started working to get to know its new home. “One month after that grand civic celebration, on Oct. 16, we did the first of 21 fan plan sessions,” Steinberg said. “Each one…

1 SAMUEL BASALLO C HIT: 55. POW: 70. RUN: 40. FLD: 45. ARM: 70. BA Grade: 65. Risk: Average. Adj: 55. Born: August 13, 2004. B-T: L-R. HT: 6-4. WT: 250. Signed: Dominican Republic, 2021. Signed by: Micheal Cruz/Geraldo Cabrera. TRACK RECORD: Basallo was connected to the Yankees as a top international signee before New York lost part of its bonus pool for signing free agent Gerrit Cole. The Orioles were emerging from a period of limited participation in the international market and were scaling up their operation at the time, so they had the bonus capacity to add a top talent in Basallo for $1.3 million in January 2021. Their first major international signing turned out to be a boon. Basallo started 2023 at Low-A Delmarva and was the Carolina…

1 CARTER JENSEN C HIT: 55. POW: 60. RUN: 40. FLD: 50. ARM: 65. BA Grade: 60. Risk: Mild. Adj: 55. Born: July 3, 2003. B-T: L-R. HT: 6-1. WT: 210. Drafted: HS—Kansas City, MO, 2021 (3rd round). Signed by: Matt Price. TRACK RECORD: A Kansas City native who grew up attending Royals games and played on the organization’s scout team, Jensen fulfilled a lifelong dream when he debuted for his hometown team in September 2025. The Royals drafted the lefthanded-hitting catcher in the third round in 2021 and signed him away from an LSU commitment—where he planned to room with fellow Royals farmhand Ben Kudrna—for $1,097,500. Instead, they wound up sharing digs at the Royals’ complex in Surprise, Ariz. Jensen has slowly ascended the Royals system and broke out in 2025,…

1 SEBASTIAN WALCOTT SS/3B HIT: 50. POW: 70. RUN: 55. FLD: 50. ARM: 70. BA Grade: 65. Risk: Average. Adj: 55. Born: March 14, 2006. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-4. WT: 190. Signed: Bahamas, 2023. Signed by: Jonny Clum. TRACK RECORD: Walcott signed with the Rangers out of the Bahamas for $3.2 million in 2023 and quickly asserted himself as one of the best prospects not only in Texas’ system but in the entire sport. He hit his way from the Dominican Summer League to High-A in his debut season, then reached Double-A at the end of his second year. In 2025, Walcott returned to the Texas League, where he opened the season as the circuit’s second-youngest player. He and the Pirates’ Konnor Griffin were the only teenagers to finish the year…