4 hours ago
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I should probably take a minute to address Luis Lara.
Don't know him? Well, he's a rising prospect in the Brewers system -- rising so fast, in fact, that he's now laying waste to Triple-A as a 21-year-old. Here's what that looks like:
So does he belong in my Five on the Verge, by which I mean, is he one of the top five prospects to stash? Maaaaybe. Look, there are some countervailing factors here. Baseball America and MLB Pipeline both gave Lara low grades for power coming into the year. His pull-air rate is poor and his exit velocities middling, without much hope for improvement at 5-feet-7. But the home runs have been there, and every other part of his profile seems pretty stellar, from the contact skills to the overall plate discipline (35 walks to 28 strikeouts) to the base-stealing to, most especially, the defense. The Brewers could call him up right now just for the defense.
And that's my fear in leaving Lara out of my Five on the Verge for another week. Sure, Garrett Mitchell and Sal Frelick are still occupying spots in the Brewers outfield, as was the plan coming in, but do they still need to be? Yes, Lara, at 21, was aggressively assigned to Triple-A at the start of the year, but does he have anything more to accomplish there?
I'm betting his arrival isn't imminent, but the possibility is making me nervous. I suppose leading with Lara here is my way of having my cake and eating it too. I've at least braced everyone for the possibility of a promotion without necessarily predicting it.
Stash him if you want. It's your life.
FIVE ON THE VERGE
(Here are the prospects most worth stashing in redraft leagues.)
Kade Anderson, SP, Mariners
2026 minors: 3-0, 1.63 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 38 2/3 IP, 7 BB, 58 K
Kade Anderson rebounded from his one bad start with a brilliant one Friday, striking out seven over 4 2/3 innings. That's another box the Mariners can check off in his development: resilience. They don't have enough spots in their rotation right now to accommodate both Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo, so it's not like Anderson is coming up tomorrow. But pitching depth can evaporate in the blink of an eye, and when that second hurler goes down for the Mariners, it may well be Anderson who takes his place. I'm not even sure they'd telegraph it beforehand. I've been pointing out that Chase Burns, who also debuted in the middle of his first minor league season, made only two starts at Triple-A before being promoted, but since the Mariners' Triple-A affiliate is in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, they've had a tendency to promote pitchers straight from Double-A, doing so with Bryan Woo, George Kirby, and Miller himself.
Noelvi Marte, OF, Reds
2025 majors: .263 BA (339 AB), 14 HR, 10 SB, .748 OPS, 16 BB, 85 K
2026 majors: .138 BA (29 AB), 0 HR, 1 SB, .331 OPS, 2 BB, 10 K
2026 minors: .368 BA (136 AB), 7 HR, 9 SB, .994 OPS, 12 BB, 24 K
Quick update for our favorite non-prospect to stash: Noelvi Marte continues to rake while the Reds' center and right fielders .... don't. Manager Terry Francona has at least moved a bit closer to pulling the plug on TJ Friedl and Will Benson, mixing in more of Blake Dunn, who has done fine so far. Still, he's just one player for two spots, and as players go, he's not nearly as talented as Marte. The Reds front office has kept its thoughts on Marte's progress to themselves, but we can all see that the production is downright comical. He's also now started 12 straight games in center field, so they're giving him as many fly balls as he can handle. It seems like only a matter of time.
Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Twins
2025 minors: .289 BA (454 AB), 20 HR, 25 SB, .844 OPS, 50 BB, 90 K
2026 minors: .247 BA (186 AB), 11 HR, 11 SB, .822 OPS, 26 BB, 42 K
The calls for Kaelen Culpepper's promotion have been growing louder, possibly because Brooks Lee has vacated shortstop with the demotion of Royce Lewis. A couple of journeymen, Ryan Kreidler and Orlando Arcia, have stepped in at shortstop for the Twins, but neither is more than a stopgap measure. Of course, Lewis himself has hit the ground running at Triple-A, and a shift back to shortstop for Lee would obviously complicate Culpepper's path to the majors.
There's also the question of whether the 23-year-old is actually ready for a big league opportunity. He did homer Tuesday but is just 5 for 24 (.208) in his past seven games, bringing his May batting average down to .266. Still, there's power. There's speed. There's pretty good plate discipline. There are reasons why Fantasy Baseballers should be invested in, whether Culpepper gets the call.
Cole Carrigg, OF, Rockies
2025 minors: .237 BA (477 AB), 15 HR, 46 SB, .710 OPS, 45 BB, 145 K
2026 minors: .356 BA (191 AB), 5 HR, 27 SB, .966 OPS, 20 BB, 32 K
Another week, same story for Cole Carrigg. He's still sporting a batting average over .350 and swiping bases at a ridiculous rate. He still projects to be a doubles and triples machine in cavernous Coors Field, and without being a total slouch in home runs. It's just a matter of the Rockies deciding it's go time. Judging by him splitting his starts between center field and shortstop, he could fill basically any opening on the diamond.
Yohandy Morales, 3B, Nationals
2025 minors: .265 BA (509 AB), 15 HR, .769 OPS, 57 BB, 164 K
2026 minors: .355 BA (172 AB), 10 HR, 1.018 OPS, 21 BB, 48 K
I don't know that Yohandy Morales needs to be stashed, really, because I don't know that any publication considers him to be that great of a prospect (MLB Pipeline and Baseball America both rank him outside of the Nationals' top 20, for instance). But I do know he's taking a wrecking ball to Triple-A daily. You see the overall numbers, and in just his last 10 games, he's batting .436 (17 for 39) with six home runs. That sort of surge would normally be enough to propel a player to the majors, particularly when his parent club just sent down the starter at the position he happens to play (Brady House).
Morales has a long swing that can cause him to miss on pitches in the zone as well as waste some of his hard contact to the opposite field, but as you can see, there's plenty of hard contact to spare, his average and max exit velocities both placing in the 92nd percentile. In a deep enough league, it wouldn't hurt to speculate on him.
FIVE ON THE PERIPHERY
(Here are some other prospects doing something of note.)
Karson Milbrandt, SP, Marlins
2025 minors: 3-5, 3.00 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 90 IP, 48 BB, 113 K
2026 minors: 4-1, 1.06 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 42 1/3 IP, 14 BB, 63 K
I wrote about Karson Milbrandt here two weeks ago, pointing out his exceptional numbers at Double-A, which at the time included a 1.48 ERA. It's only gone down since then. He's allowed a combined one earned run over his past four starts, all six innings, with his strikeout total rising each time (from eight to nine to 11 to 12). His swinging-strike rate, which was already an astounding 18 percent at the start, is now up to 19.4 percent. Baseball America recently moved Milbrandt into their top 100, but I'm not sure it's enough. He's trending toward being a top-five pitching prospect with a plus-plus fastball that plays well at the top of the zone and a well-developed secondary arsenal. Though he's only at Double-A, I wouldn't be surprised to see the 22-year-old in the majors by season's end.
Jhonny Level, SS, Giants
2025 minors: .269 BA (346 AB), 12 HR, 21 SB, .796 OPS, 50 BB, 70 K
2026 minors: .331 BA (172 AB), 10 HR, 10 SB, .985 OPS, 13 BB, 32 K
Rarely does an 18-year-old hold his own at High-A, much less deliver some pop while maintaining a low strikeout rate, but that's exactly what Jhonny Level did last year, putting him on the fringes of top-100 status. Back at that same level to begin 2026, Level appears to have leveled up, already coming five-sixths of the way to last year's home run total with a pair of two-homer games last week. A switch-hitter, he tends to golf pitches from his left side and may not have much raw power at 5-feet-8. It also seems like he may be destined for second base in the long run. The whole package is beginning to resemble Ozzie Albies, though Level obviously has a long way to go.
Nolan Perry, SP, Blue Jays
2024 minors: 1-1, 2.93 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, 46 IP, 39 BB, 57 K
2026 minors: 3-0, 1.07 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 42 IP, 12 BB, 68 K
After losing all of 2025 to UCL surgery, Nolan Perry has come back more dominant than ever, putting aside the control issues that plagued him before the procedure and piling up whiffs at an exhausting rate. A recent move up to High-A hasn't slowed him down. He's recorded 10 strikeouts in back-to-back starts to give him 15.0 K/9 for the season.
His fastball stands out more for its shape than velocity, getting tremendous ride despite an over-the-top delivery, and he has a full complement of secondary offerings. He might have a hard innings limit this year because of how little he pitched in previous years, but if he keeps this going, he's likely to show up on some top 100 lists next year.
Hendry Mendez, OF, Twins
2025 minors: .299 BA (408 AB), 11 HR, .838 OPS, 67 BB, 65 K
2026 minors: .331 BA (154 AB), 7 HR, .968 OPS, 24 BB, 30 K
All the Twins had to give up to get Hendry Mendez from the Phillies last year was Harrison Bader, which should tell you he's not so highly regarded as a prospect, but he does the most valuable thing a position player can do: hit the branding off the ball. This was always evident to a certain degree, but now that he's moved up to Triple-A (where he's batting .400 in 17 games, by the way, following a 4-for-4 performance Tuesday), we have the Statcast readings to confirm it.
Mendez's exit velocities are in the 80th percentile; he gathers walks and strikeouts in equal measure, he doesn't miss on balls inside the zone, and doesn't chase on balls outside of the zone. He does everything you would want a hitter to do, with the notable exception of putting the ball on the ground too much, like over 50 percent of the time. Is that such a big deal, really? The same was true for Michael Harris. James Wood, too. It's true for so many hitting prospects whose stock hasn't suffered for it the way Mendez's has. Of course, his defense presents a hurdle as well and may be the more damaging part of his profile, but if he continues to tear up Triple-A, he'll get his chance.
Murf Gray, 3B, Pirates
2026 minors: .367 BA (166 AB), 12 HR, 1.097 OPS, 19 BB, 36 K
I've learned to tune out 22-year-olds who are dismantling Low-A because they're clearly just overleveled (in a video game sense, though I suppose underleveled would make more sense in a baseball context -- you get what I mean). Murf Gray recently made the move up to High-A, though, and all he's done there in six games is homer four times, going 10 for 24 (.417) overall.
His lightning-quick bat and sturdy build both hint at considerable upside. The knock on him is that he offers at too many bad pitches, but you wouldn't know it from his strikeout and walk rates so far. As light as third base is in prospects right now, I'd put Gray on the list of names to know in dynasty.
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