Who are MLB's top young stars? Ranking baseball's best players at every age from 16 to 25

One of the challenges of following baseball as a fan or as a prospect evaluator is keeping track of the pools of players at all different levels, ages and countries. With that in mind, here is our third ranking of the best baseball players on Earth by birth year.

Scouts and the public will often talk about baseball players in rookie classes, draft classes or international signing classes, occasionally ranking players by age or level, but very rarely in terms of when they were born, which is a great way to track movement over time among the same group of players.

One of the most interesting parts of my job as a prospect evaluator is mixing the levels of play, countries and ages of the players I scout, from international amateurs in Latin America and U.S. high school and college prospects to players in the lower minors, and foreign professional leagues in Asia and, of course, the more straightforward work watching players in the upper minors and big leagues. This exercise gives me an excuse to check in with sources all over the world at all levels of baseball to make sure I still have my finger on the pulse.

Also, as I get my offseason prospect rankings ready for later this winter leading into the beginning of MLB's international signing period Jan. 15 with draft season starting soon after that, it's good to review players through this spectrum rather than just by draft class or international signing class.

Our last version of this ranking came in August 2024, so just over one full season has happened since then -- but it's been nearly 17 months on the calendar, which is an eternity when it comes to ranking teenaged players, though not as much changes with the more established big leaguers who start our list.

2000

These older age groups are much more stable because almost all of the players listed have had multiple big league seasons in the last iteration, so now I'm correcting for breakouts who have since had some regression (Lawrence Butler, Logan O'Hoppe, Colton Cowser) and subbing in more recent breakouts such as Bryan Woo, Maikel Garcia and Ceddanne Rafaela.

All that said, I'm still surprised the top four stayed in exactly the same order since the last time we did this exercise.

Recently signed Chicago White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami was a late cut this time and in the last iteration, as well. Andy Pages, Caleb Durbin, Sal Frelick, Parker Messick and Triston Casas are some other players in the running domestically, while OF Shota Morishita (Hanshin of NPB) hit .275 with 23 homers in Japan last year.

2001

The top of this group had a little more movement than the year above, with Roki Sasaki and Anthony Volpe as the disappointments from the top five in the last ranking and Nolan McLean, Drake Baldwin, and Tyler Soderstrom (a longtime favorite of mine) taking steps forward.

The last two spots on the list are still a bit unstable as Cam Schlittler and Cade Horton made big progress in 2025, but Matt Shaw, Chase DeLauter, Dalton Rushing, Alex Freeland and Ronny Mauricio could jump onto the list with strong 2026 showings.

2002

The separator for this group is either having already posted a 3-plus WAR season in the big leagues or looking like someone who might soon. I think the top of this list will hold, but I'm guessing the back half will change a bit in the next update.

There are a number of candidates who just missed here and could join the next edition: Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel, Marcelo Mayer, Travis Bazzana, Jordan Lawlar, Jackson Jobe, Payton Tolle and a long list of other players who will either be on this year's top 100 prospect list or graduated in 2025 from last year's top 100 during the season.

2003

This group is obviously headlined by standout big league debuts with some more speculative projections of big league success at the bottom after some early experience. The top of this list held pretty well from the last ranking, but the bottom half did not. But those who fell off this list are still going to be on this winter's top 100 or will just miss making that list.

Like the 2002 ranking, there are a ton of big-name prospects who just missed, such as Cole Young, Jett Williams, Jasson Dominguez, Andrew Painter, Carson Benge, Mike Sirota, Carter Jensen, Cam Smith and Jonah Tong

Keep an eye on two KBO standouts: right fielder Ahn Hyun-min (.334, 22 homers last season, plus exit velocity) and 3B Kim Do-yeong (38 homers and 40 stolen bases in 2024 but played only 30 games in 2025; plus-plus runner, plus exit velocity, might move to center field).

2004

The top six held from the previous ranking with the shuffling coming from Roman Anthony's loud big league debut and Kevin McGonigle's continued domination of the minor leagues.

The four players who fell off the end of the list are still among the top 100-150 prospects in the sport, so it's more of a shuffling among top prospects than anyone flopping just yet. Bryce Eldridge, Angel Genao, Travis Sykora, A.J. Ewing, Jonny Farmelo and Josue Briceno are among the pros who just missed.

This is also where we start to see current minor leaguers and amateur players popping up.

Kade Anderson was the top prospect in the 2025 draft for some teams (and me), and he was in everyone's top two or three coming out of LSU. The 2026 draft group looks to be strong with the consensus top two prospects appearing later in this story, while Justin Lebron is the wild card who is generally seen as the third-best prospect in the upcoming draft but with loud tools that could propel him to the top spot with a big spring. College outfielders Drew Burress and A.J. Gracia were the fourth and fifth picks in my first mini-mock and are future candidates to make the list for this birth year.

2005

The already-legendary 2023 MLB draft (headlined by Paul Skenes and Wyatt Langford) was especially deep in high school position players, and that group is spread among the 2004 and 2005 birth years. Colt Emerson, Walker Jenkins, Roch Cholowsky, George Lombard Jr. and Ralphy Velazquez are on this list with Arjun Nimmala just missing, while the 2004 group includes Kevin McGonigle, Aidan Miller, Max Clark and Justin Lebron with Bryce Eldridge, Jonny Farmelo and Drew Burress just missing. The league did a pretty good job sorting through this group with only Lebron making it to college without being offered first-round money.

The just-missed group here is mostly prospects already in pro ball who rank in the back end of the top 100 (to just off the list) -- with Theo Gillen, Charlee Soto, Caleb Bonemer, Braylon Doughty, Felnin Celesten, Starlyn Caba, Devin Fitz-Gerald and Jefferson Rojas the best of that bunch.

2006

Konnor Griffin was an obvious first-round talent early in his high school career, but even at draft time he was seen as a high risk/high reward prospect when the Pirates took him No. 9 overall. He's now the top prospect in the sport by a mile and one of the better in recent memory after a full-season pro debut for the ages. My predraft comp of Fernando Tatis Jr. underrated Griffin's ability to stick at shortstop but might nail both having a big league debut at age 20 and MVP-level projections.

Ethan Salas is the only player from the top five of the last list to fall off, and his 2026 season will be key to seeing whether he is going to recover to his early career projections. Billy Carlson, Johnny King and Alfredo Duno are among the top pros to just miss.

Two personal favorites to watch who could jump on the next version of this list: the 28th pick in 2025, third baseman Josh Hammond (Royals), and two right-handed pitchers eligible for the 2027 draft, Oregon State's Dax Whitney and Wake Forest's Chris Levonas.

2007

Jesus Made was a recent discovery who had just finished one of the loudest DSL seasons of all time when the last ranking came out. He has delivered on that noise and is a consensus top-five prospect in the sport now.

Eli Willits rose from a mid-first-round talent when the last list was published to the No. 1 draft pick a year later. Rainiel Rodriguez rose from a name to watch coming off a big DSL season to one of the best catching prospects in the sport in the same span.

The prospects who fell off the list were largely premature bets on strong DSL showings, while the new names are high-first-round high schoolers in the 2025 draft and a fresh crop of recent international signees who had breakout seasons.

Royals right-hander Kendry Chourio was a late cut from the international group. The just-missed list is otherwise heavy on 2025 and 2026 high school draft prospects led by Kruz Schoolcraft from the 2025 group and Tyler Spangler, Jacob Lombard, Gio Rojas and Carson Bolemon from the 2026 side. Keep an eye on potential helium 2026 draft prospects Will Yow, Kaden Waechter and Jensen Hirschkorn.

2008

Colt Emerson joins Roch Cholowsky and Justin Lebron as the top prospects for the 2026 MLB draft. There was buzz during the summer that 2027 prospect Dylan Seward was going to reclassify, and he would have been in that group if he did, but he ended up sticking in the 2027 class.

Luis Hernandez is signing with the Giants later this month and will go into the top 150ish prospects in the sport when he does (I'm still working on that detail). Victor Valdez is also in that class, likely to sign with the Rays soon, while Kevin Defrank and Andrew Salas signed with the Marlins in last year's class and had big pro debuts. Defrank sat at 96-99 mph and hit 100 mph in the DSL with a real slider, a changeup and good feel for his age, while Salas (brother of Ethan) played shortstop and center field in Low-A and was solid at the age of a high school junior.

The back of the list includes some toolsy international signees with solid DSL debuts who snuck ahead of a bunch of high schoolers expected to be selected in the mid-to-late first round: Blake Bowen, Coleman Borthwick, Logan Schmidt, Eric Booth Jr., Kevin Roberts Jr., Will Brick, Brady Harris, Connor Salerno (2027 class). I just prefer Trevor Condon (think Brett Gardner or Steven Kwan) right now, but that group will get shuffled a lot leading up to draft time.

2009

And now to the most speculative part of the article! Wandy Asigen (switched late from the Yankees to the Mets) and Francisco Renteria (Phillies) will sign later this month, while Alfredo Sena (Braves) is the top player in next year's class. I expanded this last group from the usual five names to six to include one player from the classes of 2026 (Rocco Maniscalco, who reclassified from 2027), 2027 (Jacob Seamon, second in the class behind Dylan Seward) and 2028 (Striker Pence, who is rumored to be considering a move to the 2027 class for obvious reasons mentioned below).

Pence, who is the nephew of longtime MLB outfielder Hunter, was seen as a strong two-way prospect early in 2025 but turned into one of the more intriguing pitchers on Earth this summer, when he sat in the upper-90s and hit 100 mph at multiple events, mixing in a strong slider, sweeper and splitter as a 6-foot-6 16-year-old. A couple just-misses include 2027 left-hander/first baseman Jared Grindlinger and 2028 right-hander/center fielder Dexter McCleon Jr. along with a number of players who will get seven figures in the international market later this month. Two domestic players born in 2010 (third baseman Colin Anderson and right fielder Ethan Stewart) have popped up in the early going from the 2028 draft class.