Baseball America has updated their top 100 prospects list to include 2020 draft picks. As you may or may not remember, Baseball America had the toughest ranking for the Pittsburgh Pirates for top 100 prospects out of any big source, including just three on their original list. They also had those three players rated lower than most, led by Mitch Keller at 52nd, Ke’Bryan Hayes 56th and Oneil Cruz 57th.
The new rankings are out and there might be a surprise in here for some people. Keller dropped to 55th place, as some added draft picks pushed down his spot. He’s followed by first round pick Nick Gonzales, who debuts in the 59th spot. Hayes and Cruz drop down to 62nd and 63rd respectively.
That’s a fairly high ranking for Gonzales to start off with, placing him second in the system. I think what you can take from it is that BA is very high on Gonzales, and he’s been added to the system. Saying that they have four guys among the top 63 prospects certainly sounds a lot better than the original “three prospects in the top 100”. BA wasn’t going to change the rankings of players who haven’t done anything since the original rankings, so the addition of Gonzales at a fairly high spot is a nice way to add to the list. A total of 12 draft picks from this year made the list, with Gonzales ranking fifth on that list.
We will work on updating our top 50 once all of the draft picks officially sign. All are expected to sign, but none are official quite yet. Gonzales is expected to be announced today, pending physical of course.
