Jacob Reimer’s father, Brandon, played baseball at Concordia University in the late ‘90s and took every opportunity to ensure that his son would pursue the same sport, installing a batting cage in their home and enrolling him on various little league and travel ball teams. Jacob initially began his high school baseball career in 2019 on the Yucaipa High School junior varsity baseball team, but by the end of the season, he had been promoted to the varsity team. He lettered over his next three seasons and ended his time with the Thunderbirds hitting .398 with 8 home runs in his final season there.

Reimer was selected by the Mets in the fourth round of the 2022 MLB Draft and had to choose between going professional or honoring his commitment to University of Washington. His desire to be a pro won out, and the infielder signed with the organization for $775,000, almost $250,000 over the MLB-assigned slot value of $507,500. The Mets assigned him to the FCL Mets in August and he appeared in 7 games with them, hitting .261/.414/.478 with 1 home run, 0 stolen bases, 6 walks to 3 strikeouts. That winter, Amazin’ Avenue ranked him the Mets’ 14th top prospect.

Reimer was assigned to the St. Lucie Mets to begin the 2023 season and hit a solid .280/.412/.392 with 10 doubles, 1 home run, 3 stolen bases, and 44 walks to 61 strikeouts for them in 75 games, missing a bit of time in late June and early July due to an injury. At the beginning of August, the 19-year-old was promoted to the Brooklyn Cyclones and finished the rest of the season in Coney Island, hitting .203/.354/.279 in 25 games with 1 home run, 0 stolen bases, and 17 walks to 22 strikeouts.

Ranked the Mets’ 9th top prospect by Amazin Avenue coming into the 2024 season, Reimer pulled his hamstring in March during spring training. His recovery took longer than expected, beginning his rehab assignment in mid-July rather than in June as initially believed, and after his rehab assignment ended, it only took another few weeks before he was placed back on the 7-Day Injured List. Ultimately, he only appeared in 14 games for the Brooklyn Cyclones and went 9-46 in those 14 games, with 3 doubles, 8 walks, and 7 strikeouts. The Mets sent the infielder to the Arizona Fall League a not only did he get a few more reps with the bat to get some of the rust off, but he also started learning a little left field. He appeared in 17 games for the Scottsdale Scorpions and went 11-53 with 1 triple, 2 home runs, 1 stolen base, and 15 walks to 13 strikeouts.

Amazin’ Avenue ranked Reimer the Mets’ 21st top prospect coming into 2025 and the infielder had a season that fully reestablished his top prospect bona fides to all. Assigned to the Cyclones to begin the year, the 21-year-old appeared in 61 games for Brooklyn and hit .284/.384/.502 with 18 doubles, 4 triples, 8 home runs, 11 stolen bases in 13 attempts, and 32 walks to 52 strikeouts. He was promoted to Double-A Binghamton in late June and finished his season with the Rumble Ponies. In 61 more games with them, he hit .279/.374/.479 with 14 doubles, 1 triple, 9 home runs, 4 stolen bases in 5 attempts, and 26 walks to 60 strikeouts. In total for the season, he appeared in a cumulative 122 games and hit .282./.379/.491 with 32 doubles, 5 triples, 17 home runs, 15 stolen bases in 18 attempts, and drew 58 walks to 112 strikeouts.

Listed at 6’2”, 205-pounds, Reimer stands open at the plate, holding his hands high at the eyes and wrapping his bat behind his head angled almost perpendicularly to the ground. He swings with a leg lift and has a level stroke that is direct to the ball. His swing is better geared towards pitches middle and up in the zone because he stands somewhat tall and stiff in the box, but Reimer has the plate coverage to make contact with pitches down in the zone he wants to make contact with and a good enough eye to know what pitches to lay off of. Especially relative to his age and amount of professional experience, he reads spin well, tracks pitches well, and has a strong sense of the strike zone.

During the 2024-2025 off-season, he put in a lot of work with organizational hitting instructors to modify and optimize his mechanics at the plate, leading to an improvement in his bat speed and his batted ball profile. This past season, he had a 39.3% groundball rate, 33.5% flyball rate, and 27.2% line drive rate with the Brooklyn Cyclones and a 39.6% groundball rate, 40.3% flyball rate, and 20.1% line drive rate with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, good for a combined 39.4% groundball rate, 36.7% flyball rate, and 23.9% line drive rate. Coming into the season, one of the biggest criticisms about Reimer was the fact that too many of the balls that he put in play were hit into the ground, causing him to run a problematically high groundball rate/problematically low flyball rate. In 2023, he played in a combined 102 games and ran a 46.1% groundball rate to a 32.2% flyball rate and 21.7% line drive rate. In 2024, he played in a combined 25 games and ran a 49.2% groundball rate to a 23.8% flyball rate and 27% line drive rate. In 2025, Reimer pulled more balls than ever, posting a 51.0% Pull rate, and hit more balls into the air than ever. He has always had solid in-game power, but was hamstringing himself by hitting the ball on the ground far too often. Lifting the ball more consistently, Reimer is driving the ball more and his burgeoning power really displayed itself in 2025.

A combination of facing more advanced pitchers combined with a hitting philosophy at the plate to go after more hittable pitches, Reimer’s Swing% is up slightly this past season, sitting at 43.3% as compared to 37.7% in his limited innings in 2024 and the 36.9% rate he posted in 2023. Reimer’s passivity at the plate was sometimes a source of concern in the past, as he would pass on just as many good pitches that he would be able drive as he did bad pitches. While he did swing-and-miss a bit more last season- he posted a 10.5% SwStr% last year, as opposed to a 8.2% rate in 2024 and a 7.8% rate in 2023- and make a bit less contact- he posted a 75.7% Contact%, as opposed to a 78.3% rate in 2024 and a 78.9% rate in 2023- Reimer’s overall offensive profile improved, as he was simply doing more damage.

For most of his prep career, Reimer played shortstop, but he grew off the position and was shifted over to third base in his senior year of high school. Since becoming a professional, he has primarily manned the hot corner, occasionally serving as DH and occasionally filling in at first base; in the 2024 Arizona Fall League, he even played a few games in left field for the Scottsdale Scorpions. Solidly built, Reimer is strong and athletic but does not have quick-twitch muscle. He is missing the explosive first step and lateral quickness that you want your third baseman to have, an issue compounded by passivity when fielding plays, letting the ball come to him instead of charging in on the ball. His arm is strong enough for third base, but his accuracy can sometimes be scattershot, depending on the difficulty of the play and how much time he has to set and release. If he puts on additional mass as he ages, his mobility will further suffer and he may be eventually forced to move off of the left side of the infield altogether.

Morning everyone!

Our 2026 Community Prospect List is through the first three rounds and there weren’t any surprises in the early going. Shortstop Leo De Vries absolutely dominated the first round of voting to no one’s surprise, taking over 95% of the vote to get things started. Considering he was the #3 overall prospect in the entire sport last year, it was an easy call for A’s fans to anoint him the top prospect in the system again. In a bit of a frustrating news De Vries couldn’t keep that spot in this year’s top prospects list, falling to the fourth spot behind Brewers middle infield prospect Jesus Made. De Vries didn’t do anything but tear the cover off the ball after the trade over from the San Diego Padres last year so one can’t help but think that De Vries is getting dinged a bit for being in the Athletics’ system now. Or perhaps if the top three weren’t also shortstop prospects De Vries would be higher up on the list. The top four prospects right now will all be judged against one another for the next few years and it’ll be interesting to see which ones have the best futures. Hopefully it’s our guy.

The next two rounds were also fairly predictable but also closer. Left-hander Jamie Arnold took roughly 60% of the vote in Round 2 to take the second spot on our CPL. Arnold only just joined the organization this past year when he was drafted 11th overall, which was a miracle for the Athletics considering he was expected to go much higher than that. While he’s a bit farther away as he’s yet to pitch in a professional game yet, A’s brass believes he could be a fast riser through the system. The A’s have had stud lefty prospects not pan out in the past though (staring at you, AJ Puk) so let’s not assume we have a budding ace before he’s even thrown a professional pitch. That’s the hope and the dream though, for the left-hander to be atop the rotation when the A’s make their eventual push for the playoffs.

Another left-hander followed suit in Gage Jump, who also took roughly 60% of the vote en route to claiming the third overall spot. A second-rounder in 2024, Jump’s rise has caught even A’s fans by surprise. A survivor of the dreaded Tommy John, Jump doesn’t have the typical build of a major league starter, or the obvious arnsenal and advanced repetoire of other high-end starter prospects. Instead Jump uses deception and a funky arm angle to give himself an advantage on the mound. He might not have the high ceiling that Arnold does, and there are some in the industry that believe an eventual move to the bullpen will happen, but for the coming year Jump is going to be continued to groomed as a starter and has the potential to be a quality mid-rotation starter behind Arnold on a future playoff squad. Jump currently ranks as the game’s #57 ranked prospect and could see the big leagues as soon as this summer.

Now that we’ve gotten the obvious top three out of the way, things will start to get much more interesting. Outfielder Henry Bolte has been considered the #4 prospect by national media and scouts in the know, but right-handed pitcher Braden Nett has become a serious contender to lay claim to that position. Then we have Wei-En Lin, who has absolutely rocketed up everyone’s boards and could be the option there ahead of Bolte and Nett. The early returns from you guys indicate it’s going to be one of those three, and it’s going to be close. So don’t wait! Go to our CPL and cast your vote if you haven’t already!

Have a good day A’s fans.

A’s Coverage:

• A’s 2026 Community Prospect List: Jump Takes Third Spot
• A’s prospect Mason Barnett has an atypical arm angle and an old school approach
• A’s spend weekend embracing Sacramento supporters
• Former A’s great Eric Chavez says Dodgers “might be the best team ever constructed”
• A’s had deal in place for Nolan Arenado prior to D-Backs trade
• Happy 104th, Betty White!
• Polarizing Prospects: #2, Junior Perez
• A’s land 3 of MLB Pipeline’s Top 50 international prospects
• Athletics hire former Rockies GM Bill Schmidt as Special Assistant
• Party Like It’s 1981! Why A “Split Season” Is The Way To Go
• A’s excited by lefty prospect Lin, a ‘Taiwanese Snellzilla”

MLB News and Interest:

• Giants sign outfielder Harrison Bader to two-year deal
• Cubs sign outfielder Dylan Carlson to minor league deal
• Multiple teams interested in Lucas Giolito
• Angels ink Trey Mancini to minor league pact
• Yamamoto to pitch for Team Japan in WBC
• The Brewers’ rotation options after Peralta trade
• Today in baseball history

Best of X:

Would be cool to see Morii succeed on both sides of the ball:

A preview of the third base battle between Muncy and Hernaiz:

Velocity is so in right now:

So no athlete, or a re-run with a previous cover guy?

Here’s the location of a 99 mile per hour fastball.

I wouldn’t advise swinging at this pitch. In the Statcast era, there have been 2,416 pitches thrown at least that fast in this part of the plate. The rare guys who’ve swung have a 56% whiff rate and a .307 xwOBAcon. (Imagine Mike Zunino’s whiff rate with Leody Taveras’s quality of contact. Only worse.) Swinging at that pitch is frankly reckless. But here’s what Josh Naylor can do with it:

There’s an Elizabeth Taylor quote that aired relentlessly during the playoffs as Fox pushed its documentary about her: “I don’t think I’m reckless. But I am fearless.” That’s Josh Naylor. And it’s exactly why we all fell for him so hard so quickly. He’s not afraid to swing at a pitch like that, but because he can pull it off, it’s not reckless.

Ryan dug into Naylor’s penchant for swinging high and away after Naylor’s three-hit ALCS Game 2. In that piece, Ryan pointed to Dan Wilson’s thinking on why Naylor can get away with this where others can’t: “His swing is so adjustable. When he sees a pitch up in the zone, he’s able to stay really short and get on top of it, and that’s the key.”

By nature, Naylor’s a bat control hitter. He’s got the raw power you’d expect for a first baseman, and he could use that to chase dingers. But rather than selling out for launch angle, he uses his skills to square up the ball at the 89th percentile, peppering hits all over the field, with enough power to keep pitchers honest. Given his baseball IQ, you trust that choice.

It’s that ability to get the most out of his swing that allows him to fearlessly go after pitches most guys would only flail at. In the Mariners’ biggest regular season series of the year, he went after another high pitch to help bury the Astros.

The conventional wisdom is to elevate and celebrate. Naylor knows he’s better this way, and he’s brave enough to go against the grain.

While it comes through in his hitting, when you think of Josh Naylor’s fearlessness, it’s probably his baserunning that comes to mind first. And in this department, his fearlessness is actually underrated.

Naylor’s a big-bodied first baseman with a sprint speed in the third percentile, 12th lowest in MLB. And yet he stole 30 bases this year, including going a perfect 19 for 19 with Seattle. When he first started his spree, you could say it was just pitchers ignoring a big guy, but he didn’t get any less daring after the word got out.

So when people talk about his stolen bases, they usually talk about how he’s able to do it because of his baseball IQ. He can spot tendencies and timing in pitchers at an apparently elite level, enough to compensate for his concrete shoes. But consider the 27 other players with sprint speeds under 25 feet/second. 17 of them are catchers; it’s not exactly a low-baseball-IQ group. Yet those other 27 players combined for just 15 stolen base attempts. Naylor’s 32 attempts are a testament to his willingness to take risks. His 94% success rate proves he knows what he’s doing and that his baseball IQ is, in fact, elite.

This all came together in one of the biggest games in Mariners franchise history: Game 5 of the ALDS. If ever there was a time for caution, this would have been it. A slow guy getting caught stealing, wasting a precious base runner against Tarik Skubal, could easily have ended up being the story of how the Mariners were eliminated from the playoffs. But Josh Naylor wasn’t afraid to try, and in a game that went 15 innings, you can bet the run mattered.

He plays defense the same way. As he daringly plays farther toward second than any other first baseman. Others play a bit farther from the bag, but they do it safely, playing back rather than shading towards second as Naylor does. His confidence that he can still cover the bag means he’s not sacrificing outs to play with optimized positioning. In other words, it’s not reckless. Aren’t you glad he wasn’t closer to the bag in ALCS Game 3? Lots of teams would like to position thier first baseman here against Alejandro Kirk. Only Naylor’s can actually do it.

Naylor employs a style of play that seems crazy. But he’s not being reckless, just fearless. And beyond merely being good, this is what made him an instant fan favorite and a player the Mariners and their fans felt they couldn’t live without. It’s no wonder he was ready for the big moment.

Kiley McDaniel unveiled his preseason rankings of top 100 prospects in baseball on Tuesday at ESPN. Like the previously released lists — Baseball America (120 names), MLB Pipeline (110 names), and The Athletic (100 names so far) — McDaniel will likely reveal more names beyond the top 100. Last year his list went to 200, for instance. But for now we have his top 100.

A total of five Dodgers are in the top 100 at ESPN, led by outfielder Josue De Paula at No. 21 overall. De Paula in the four national prospect lists that have been revealed in the last week has settled into a fairly narrow range, ranked 15th by MLB Pipeline, 20th at The Athletic, 21st at ESPN, and 24th at Baseball America.

McDaniel had high praise for De Paula, comparing him to Yordan Alvarez “if it clicks.”

Eduardo Quintero continued to rocket up these lists, ranked 37th by McDaniel after his preseason ranking of 106th overall prior to the 2025 season. Quintero, who is a year younger than De Paula and Zyhir Hope, won California League MVP last year and finished the season with extended time at High-A Great Lakes.

“His raw power, bat-to-ball ability, and raw foot speed are all around average, but Quintero makes the most of them, putting up big numbers while being young for his level,” McDaniel wrote. “As is, his hit/power/speed/defense in center field tools are all average to a tick above to go with his plus arm.”

Last preseason, seven Dodgers were ranked in the top 100 prospects by ESPN, led by pitcher Roki Sasaki at No. 1 overall and catcher Dalton Rushing 16th. Both played in the majors last season.

This year, shortstop Emil Morales is the youngest Dodger in the ESPN top-100 list, with the 19-year-old checking in at No. 65 overall. From McDaniel:

Morales has all of the traits to project big homer totals down the road (loft to his path, pull/lift, hard-hit rate, etc.), but that means that giving up some contact is part of that trade. His pitch selection is also below average, so in combination, that gives evaluators pause on his offensive projection.

In-game power usually comes later in the development process, but the Dodgers are the right development group to shepherd him through this process, and the pieces are here for a top-10 prospect in the sport if everything clicks.

23. RJ Petit (115 points, 12 ballots)

RJ Petit is a tough guy to miss. Colorado’s pick in the 2025 Rule 5 draft from the Detroit Tigers organization is a 6’8”, 300-pound titan of a right-handed relief pitcher. Originally drafted by the Tigers in the 14th round of the 2021 draft out of Charleston Southern, the 26-year-old has mostly served as a reliever after dabbling with starting during his draft year. As one might surmise given his size, Petit can throw in the mid to high-90s with a downward plane. He pairs that velo with a hard, sweeping slider that tunnels well with the fastball and a developing change-up.

Petit entered 2025 back at Double-A Erie for the third season in a row (where he was of league-average age) despite posting decent results there in 2024 and being unprotected and unselected in that year’s Rule 5 draft. In 27 games with Erie, Petit posted a 2.28 ERA with a dominant 0.95 WHIP and a 9.6 K/9 rate against a 2.5 BB/9 rate in 43 1/3 innings.

Petit finally got the call up to Triple-A Toledo (which is in the much more pitcher-friendly International League) in mid-July. Petit appeared in 20 games at the level with a 2.74 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, an outstanding 12.9 K/9 rate, and a 3.9 BB/9 rate in 23 innings, including a save. Petit was strong against both righties (.629 OPS against) and lefties (.579 OPS) while allowing just four homers in 66 1/3 innings during 2025. Despite the success at the Triple-A level, Petit was again left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft and this time the Rockies took him with the first pick.

Here’s some video of Petit from his time in the 2023 Arizona Fall League:

Here was Eric Longenhagen’s scouting report on Petit after the Rule 5 draft:

Petit is a pretty standard mid-90s fastball (94-97 mph, touch 98) and a plus slider reliever. He utilizes his slider in all counts because his size creates hittable plane on his fastball, but the addition of a second fastball type (he throws both elevated four-seamers and in-zone two-seamers) helped limit opponents’ contact quality against his heaters in 2025, as both had a sub-.300 xwOBA against. Petit also creates enough sink on his changeup to keep lefties in check, so his role isn’t at risk of being minimized to that of a righty specialist if he throws enough strikes (no guarantees) to make the Rockies bullpen next spring.

Longenhagen ranked Petit as a 40 FV player last March, 25th in Detroit’s system.

Petit ranks 26th on MLB.com’s Rockies prospect list as a 40 FV pitcher with a 60 grade on the slider:

Standing at 6-foot-8, Petit is a tremendous presence on the mound. He doesn’t get big extension out of that frame, instead using his height to create a steep downward plane leading to solid groundball rates. There is some velocity here, touching 98 mph while sitting 94-96, and he’s worked to generate a bit more heat. Petit’s 83-85 mph gyro slider is much better at generating swing-and-miss and chase low in the zone with strong depth, and the Rockies think it’s the kind of breaking ball that should play in Coors Field. He can tunnel his 86-89 mph changeup well enough off the fastball with just enough velocity separation for it to be effective.

Petit has shown the ability to get righties and lefties out at the upper levels, and he was able to get his walk rate back down in 2025 to 3.0 per nine after seeing it creep up in 2024 (4.1 BB/9). He’ll get his chance to stick with the Rockies, who see him as a potential bulk reliever.

Petit is almost certain to be a one and done PuRP, as he will either stick on Colorado’s roster long enough in 2026 to exhaust his rookie eligibility or he won’t and will be returned to the Tigers. He represents a good multi-inning mop-up relief a la Anthony Molina in his Rule 5 year in 2024, with the size and breaking ball to be better than that. I ranked him 23rd on my ballot at the bottom of my 40 FV tier due to the floor.

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