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The people have spoken and Ralphy Velazquez is our No. 4 Guardians prospect. Velazquez won with a whopping 84.4% of the vote despite competing against six other prospects. He moves up five spots from No. 9 last year (and also No. 9 in 2024).

Velazquez was Cleveland’s first round draft pick in 2023, selected No. 23 overall out of Huntington Beach High School. Initially drafted as a catcher, it didn’t take long for Velazquez to be converted to first baseman. His bat was what mattered however, and he has hit at every level he’s played.

Velazquez made his pro debut at in the Arizona Complex League the year he was drafted, smacking a pair of home runs in the six games he played while sporting an impressive 153 wRC+.

In his first full season in the Cleveland system, Velazquez debuted at Single-A Lynchburg, where he blasted 10 home runs while slashing .243/.362.414 with a 131 wRC+ over 82 games, good enough to earn an invite to represent Cleveland in the Futures Game. While there, he put on a prodigious display in the home run derby and wowed scouts with his exit velocity. He finished the season with a 19-game stint at High-A Lake County.

The powerful prospect got off to a slow start to the 2024 season, which began at Lake County. After a rough first two months where he experienced a brutal .212 BABIP, although all of his other underlying data spoke otherwise. He broke out of his unlucky streak with an incredible two and a half months, slashing .287/.357/.522 with 10 home runs and a 143 wRC+. This earned him a promotion to Double-A Akron, where he made one of the most impressive Double-A debuts in recent memory, collecting 12 hits in 22 at bats with four home runs, four doubles and four walks, earning Eastern League player of the week. In his 28 games at Akron, he slashed .330/.405/.589, posting a career-best 188 wRC+.

Velazquez possesses a unique combination of power, athleticism, patience and contact. With improvements to his physical ability made over the past few years, he was able to withstand a full season of baseball in 2025, performing even better in his final month of the season.

Now, it’s time to determine who is number five in the Guardians’ loaded farm system! Your options are below:

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Jaison Chourio, OF (Age 20)
2025 (CPX) 27 PA, .261/.370/.304, 0 HR, 1 SB, 14.8 BB%, 37.0 K%, 95 wRC+
2025 (A+): 353 PA, .235/.380/.284, 2 HR, 9 SB, 18.7 BB%, 21.8 K%, 103 wRC+

Chourio was lining up to be Cleveland’s top prospect after a sensational 2024, but he was slowed in 2025 by a nagging shoulder injury and had a very average season. He’s looking to bounce back in 2026.

Braylon Doughty, RHP (Age 20)
2025 (A): 22 GS, 85.1 IP, 3.48 ERA, 2.84 FIP, 27.3%, 6.4%, 1.25 WHIP

Cleveland’s competitive balance first round pick in 2024, Doughty debuted in full-season ball and put up solid numbers in his age-19 season at Single-A, showcasing elite control.

Angel Genao, SS (Age 21)
2025 (CPX) 32 PA, .308/.438/.654, 3 HR, 0 SB, 18.8 BB%, 12.5 K%, 177 wRC+
2025 (AA): 341 PA, .259/.323/.359, 2 HR, 6 SB, 8.5 BB%, 15.8 K%, 103 wRC+

Had an average regular season in 2025 after missing the first two months with a shoulder sprain, which likely sapped his power after he came back in June.

Cooper Ingle, C (Age 23)
2025 (AA) 403 PA, .273/.391/.443, 9 HR, 0 SB, 16.1 BB%, 17.4 K%, 148 wRC+
2025 (AAA) 107 PA, .207/.383/.329, 1 HR, 0 SB, 19.6 BB%, 16.7K%, 105 wRC+

Ingle has shown excellent offensive tendencies for a catcher. Will his defense and power be enough to earn an opportunity in Cleveland this year?

Jace LaViolette, OF (Age 22)
2025 (NCAA) 262 PA, .258/.427/.576, 18 HR, 7 SB, 21.8 BB%, 25.2K%, 120 wRC+

Cleveland’s first round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, the 6-foot-6 LaViolette instantly becomes one of the top power hitting prospects in the system. Strikeouts and contact have been an issue, however.

Alfonsin Rosario, OF (Age 21)
2025 (A+) 354 PA, .268/.362/.490, 16 HR, 12 SB, 10.8 BB%, 25.1 K%, 139 wRC+
2025 (AA): 145 PA, .211/.303/.391, 5 HR, 2 SB, 10.3 BB%, 33.1 K%, 105 wRC+

One of Cleveland’s most impressive hitters in its minor league system during his stint at High-A Lake County as a 20-year-old. Rosario has a unique combination of speed and power, but will need to overcome his strikeouts.

Khal Stephen, RHP (Age 23)
w/ TOR 2025 (A) 7 GS, 39.1 IP, 2.06 ERA, 1.97 FIP, 31.4 K%, 4.6 BB%, 0.92 WHIP
w/ TOR 2025 (A+): 9 GS, 48.1 IP, 1.49 ERA, 2.70 FIP, 26.6 K%, 5.4 BB%, 0.85 WHIP
w/ TOR 2025 (AA): 1 GS, 4.0 IP, 6.35 ERA, 1.88 FIP, 11.1 K%, 5.6 BB%, 1.68 WHIP
2025 (AA): 4 GS, 11.1 IP, 9.00 ERA, 9.54 FIP, 21.9 K%, 3.9 BB%, 1.50 WHIP

Acquired from Toronto in the Shane Bieber trade, Stephen rocketed through the minor league system in 2025 before hitting a wall in Double-A.He instantly became one of Cleveland’s top pitching prospects.

NOTE ON POLL: We have moved to Google Forms Surveys in an attempt to eliminate vote spammers. Please vote below. Voting will close at 11:59PM ET

Signed by the Mets on the January 15, 2025, Peña was the organization’s crown jewel for the 2025-2026 international free agent signing period. Considered one of the best position players available in the class, and potentially the best position player available, the Mets and Peña agreed to a $5 million dollar signing bonus, shattering the prior organizational record (Yovanny Rodriguez, $2.85 million) and eating up the majority of the $6,261,600 that the team had in their 2025-2026 pool.

Assigned to the Dominican Summer League, Peña has had an interesting start to his career so far. The 17-year-old shortstop started his career on June 2 for the DSL Mets Orange and went 0-2 with a strikeout and a hit-by-pitch. He would go 0-fer for roughly two weeks before logging his first professional hit on June 14th, going 1-3. After finally getting over that hurtle, Peña hit an incredible .351/.467/.635 over the course of the rest of the season. In total, he ended up hitting .292/.421/.528 in 178 at-bats over 55 games with 13 doubles, 1 triple, 9 home runs, 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts, and drew an even 36 walks to 36 strikeouts. Not just once, but twice, Peña hit three home runs in a single game; on June 26 when he went 4-5 with a double and three homers, and on August 18, when he went 4-5 with a single and three homers.

Listed a 5’11”, 170-pounds, Peña is almost certainly a little bigger and heavier than that now. He stands slightly open at the plate, holding his hands at the shoulders and wrapping his bat behind his head angled at 10:30. He swings with a slight leg lift but no real load or weight shift, primarily pulling the ball right now at a 48.5% rate and going back up the middle and to the opposite field at a 22.1% and 29.4% rate, respectively. His swing has natural uppercut and is designed towards putting the ball in the air, but was a bit slow and stiff according to scouts and evaluators early on in the season; whether it was just because he was still getting accustomed to professional baseball or not remains to be seen.

Despite the current lack of explosivity, Peña still makes loud contact, with a high-water exit velocity mark of 99.8 MPH as per public broadcasts of DSL contests where data is available. He does not expand the zone much, either. Peña was marketed as a hitter with his advanced pitch recognition and plate discipline for his age, and while that may be true broadly, the level of pitching he has been facing so far may simply be too embryonic to really get a good gauge on whether or not he actually is, or whether or not he only is currently for his cohort, relative to their current pitching abilities.

Peña’s lower half has thickened since first being scouted professionally, and he seemingly is still far from being physically maxed out. Defensively, he has the tools and ability to play shortstop but may be better suited at third base in the future depending on how quick-twitch athletic he remains. His range at shortstop is not currently an issue, but it may be taxed if he slows down in the future. His plus arm, smooth hands, and strong instincts work at either position.

Inspired by Mike Carlucci at Over the Monster (and, perhaps, an Instagram trend) I thought it would be a fun exercise to look back at Detroit Tigers teams from ten, twenty and thirty years ago and put myself in the shoes of the average fan in the winters just before those seasons.

Some of you here may be relative newcomers to the Tigers; in that case, welcome aboard, and just know that being a serious playoff contender isn’t always a frequent occurrence. But sometimes things line up just right – and, of course, a certain pizza-chain-owning mogul decides to blow his entire bank account on the team for which he once played in the organization.

Some of you have followed the Tigers for decades longer than others; in that case, feel free to fill things in for forty, fifty or more years in the past down in the comments. To that end, fifty years ago marked the debut of one of the singular sensations in baseball history, Mark Fidrych. He’d put together a good year across three minor-league levels in 1975 at age 20, capping things off with six very good starts at Triple-A Evansville (completing four of them; ah, different times, then). Did anyone see his 1976 coming? I doubt anyone would’ve, including Fidrych himself, may he rest in peace.

Anyway, on with the exercise at hand.

Ten Years Ago: 2016

A sense of dread hung over Tigers fans that offseason, as the window for a realistic shot at a World Series title appeared to have mostly snapped shut in the second year of Brad Ausmus’ tenure in 2015. Core stars like Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martínez were aging, Justin Verlander had re-emerged as one of the best pitchers in the league in the second half of the season but most weren’t yet convinced and they’d failed to build back around him, and it became clear that Ausmus was not the guy to reassemble the Tigers into anything ressembling a good team. Plus, Dave Dombrowski quit as General Manager and his longtime deputy, Al Avila, was expected to pilot the ship along roughly the same course as before.

And, let’s face it, the less said about Alfredo “Big Pasta” Simón’s season in Detroit, the better. Yikes. (How did that trade with the Reds turn out? I hope what’s-his-name turned out alright. You know, ol’ Jonathon Crawford.)

But, like all good baseball movies, the aging veterans surely had to have one last turn in the Sun in them, right? Besides, J.D. Martinez had a great season with 38 home runs and 33 doubles, and while he wasn’t so hot with the glove, you could stick him in right field and have him occassionally DH, you could get away with some suspicious defence now and again. Al Alburquerque and his amazing slider could baffle hitters in the late innings, and Bruce Rondón was going to be the Closer of the Future.

While the 2016 Tigers finished with 86 wins – short of a Wild Card spot after a wretched August and September in which they went 23–32 – it was pretty clear that the extended run of consistently good teams, stretching back to 2011, was over. Ausmus was kept around for another year in which the Tigers struggled, traded away all the veteran they could, including Verlander, and finished last. Things look pretty bleak for years afterwards.

Twenty Years Ago: 2006

I’ve always felt that Alan Trammell got a raw deal as manager of the Tigers for three years in the early 2000s. He was handed a truly horrible team in 2003 and, unsurpsingly, they did terribly; nearly-historically-terribly, as it turned out. When your starting lineup features Dmitri Young as, by far, its most valuable hitter (with a nice 3.4 bWAR but a glove as strange as you’ll ever see), and a starting rotation in which one starter had an ERA below 5 (Nate Cornejo, ladies and gentlemen), there’s only so much you can do.

Since things can’t stay that bad for that long, they won 29 more games in 2004 than they did the year before: no pitcher lost twenty games, Iván Rodriguez and Carlos Guillén were solid free-agent pickups, and Dombrowski had a full season on the job to build the kind of team we’d desperately wanted for years. With high hopes and an interesting young rotation, what would 2005 bring?

A slight regression, as it turned out. They won one fewer game, the bullpen was a mess (although they managed to get rid of Ugueth Urbina just in time and flip him for the impossible-to-whiff Plácido Polanco), and while the young starters stayed healthy and ate up a whole lot of innings, they didn’t take the huge step forward that many were hoping for. They had a 61-62 record near the end of August, but the bottom fell out and that was that.

Thus, ol’ Tram “got the ziggy,” and Jim Leyland was brought in to scream and yell and occasionally cry and the room you were sitting in sure got a little dusty when that happened for the 2006 season. As we all know, the Tigers got a Wild Card after skidding backwards into the playoffs, losing the AL Central title to Minnesota, but they made it all the way to the World Series in a run that none of us could have truly predicted. Breakout or standout seasons were all over the place, and some young punk kid named Verlander decided he’d go out and win himself seventeen games as a 23-year-old rookie. Not bad at all.

Thirty Years Ago: 1996

Here’s where a lot of us start to have slightly fuzzy memories, myself included.

Sparky Anderson retired at the end of the 1995 season. He’d been the manager in Detroit since mid-1979, which is the kind of managerial tenure you rarely see in baseball. He’d turned a boatload of ridiculously talented prospects into a World Series winner and kept things going for a while as those prospects aged into veterans. But the strike in 1994, and management asking him to possibly guide replacement players in 1995 (before the strike was resolved) suggested to Sparky that it might be time to hang ‘em up.

Lou Whitaker also retired at the end of 1995, but Trammell decided he had one more season in him as Travis Fryman was clearly going to be the starting shortstop going forward. Kirk Gibson had also squeezed one final campaign out of his body and reitred a Tiger, after memorable seasons in Los Angeles (and not-so-memorable ones in Kansas City and Pittsburgh). Chad Curtis looked to be a solid pickup from the Angels, but the less said about him the better, too, as it turned out.

Add Mike Moore’s name to the list of fresh retirees, too: he’d lost 15 games in the Tigers rotation in 1995, and at age 35 and after fourteen seasons, he probably figured he’d had enough. The rotation in ‘95 had Felipe Lira and José Lima, two promising young pitchers, and the Tigers picked up Omar Olivares as a free agent; he’d had some good seasons in St. Louis. Gregg Olson was brought in to be their closer, and he’d had a nice run in the early-’90s in Baltimore. Could this patchwork pitching staff get the Tigers some wins, picking up the slack for a questionable starting lineup?

Nope. The Tigers in 1996 had the worst team ERA in American League history, they lost 109 games under Buddy Bell, and it kicked off a ten-season stretch in which they wouldn’t win 80 games in a season, and indeed only cracked 75 wins twice. Bobby Higginson sure deserved better than this.

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Again, feel free to add your recollections of any of these past offseasons, a decade apart – or if you’re of a more refined vintage, something from a previous ending-in-six offseason.

The thumb went on the scale, folks.

There is no result because the results were skewed. How skewed? When closing responses, there were 548 collected. 86.6% of people claimed Dante Nori was the team’s third best prospect. No disrespect to Nori intended, but there is a consensus among the scouting community who the team’s top three prospects are, so let’s just learn from this and move on.

There is a decent amount of pressure on Justin Crawford now. He’s taken the methodical route to the majors, the team preferring him to find success at levels over an entire season as opposed to being rushed to Philadelphia before he was ready. Many scouting gurus have talked about his swing not being conducive to major league success no matter how well he performed in the minors, yet perform well in the minors he has.

The time has come for him to show what he can do in the majors and it seems the Phillies are primed to do just that. Judging from their offseason moves, the runway has been cleared for his to hit in the bottom third of the lineup and play left field full time.

Let’s see how he does.

2025 stats (with Lehigh Valley)

112 G, 506 PA, .334/.411/.452, 7 HR, 47 RBI, 46 SB, 11.5 BB%, 18.0 K%, 135 wRC+

Baseball Prospectus scouting report ($)

Offensively, we could pretty much cut and paste any report we’ve written about Crawford since he was drafted here. He still hits the ball on the ground way too much, he still runs like the wind, he still puts the ball in play a lot, and he still swings at way too many pitches for a guy who has what is otherwise a 1990s leadoff man profile. He made some real improvements around the edges of his very durable broad profile in 2025—he cut his chase rate by over five points year-over-year, which got it from catastrophic to merely bad, while turning a few grounders into line drives—but for the most part what you think about his offensive game still depends on whether you think his reliance on nine-hopper singles can sustain a plus-or-better hit tool outcome in the majors.

With each new post, we’ll reveal who won the voting for that particular slot, then post new players for you to vote on, adding another one to the list each time until we get to our final tally of 20. Once we get to 20 top prospects, we’ll do an honorable mention post at the end. If a player gets traded to another team, we’ll just chuck him right on outta here and all the players will move up a spot. If a prospect gets acquired, we’ll ask where he should go on the list.

Probably the most important thing about this whole process – please vote. Give us a few minutes of your time, just click a button and then we can discuss other players and things in the comment section, but don’t forget – VOTE!

Could the Yankees’ starting catcher have caught wind of a major departure?

Austin Wells replied to Cody Bellinger’s latest Instagram post with a crying face emoji as rumors swirl about the star’s looming free agency decision.

The eight-picture post, which shows Bellinger working out, was the two-time All-Star’s first Instagram activity since he shared photos of himself exercising at the same facility in late November.

Bellinger and the Yankees remain in talks about a reunion, but the years offered remain a sticking point.

The Yankees have reportedly offered the 30-year-old outfielder/first baseman a deal worth $155 million over five years.

The Post’s Jon Heyman reported last week that the Yankees are willing to include multiple opt-outs to address Bellinger’s concerns about the contract length.

Bellinger is coming off a platform season entering free agency, slashing .272/.334/.480 with 29 home runs and 98 RBIs in 152 games with the Yankees.

Bellinger’s 5.1 WAR was his best mark since he notched a league-best 8.7 total during his NL MVP-winning campaign with the Dodgers in 2019.

After Bo Bichette signed with the Mets and Kyle Tucker joined the Dodgers on a historic deal, Bellinger remains the top available hitter on the market.

The Mets, Blue Jays and Giants figure to present the stiffest competition to the Yankees in retaining Bellinger – and fans pleaded with him to re-sign with the Bombers.

“Sign with the yankees bro i can’t take it anymore,” one poster wrote on Bellinger’s post.

“Announce you’re coming back to the Yanks, King,” another commenter wrote. “Need ya back in the BX!!”

“Please stay in NY,” another pleaded. “Look at all the love the fans have for you.”

Some, like Bellinger’s former Dodgers teammate Walker Buehler, focused less on his free agency and more on his physique.

“You’re so jacked!” Buehler commented.

Danny Rohl has re-energised Ibrox by instilling a winning mentality while "carrying himself like a Rangers manager should", says former midfielder Charlie Adam.

The former Sheffield Wednesday boss took over the Govan club during a period of turmoil following Russell Martin's calamitous tenure.

With 11 wins in 14 league games, the German coach has dragged the Ibrox side back into contention for the Scottish Premiership title.

Former Rangers player Adam says Rohl has not won matches by playing the best football, but by adjusting and understanding the predicament the club were in when he arrived.

"Danny's done a brilliant job," said Adam. "He's understood where Rangers are [and] he's carried himself like a Rangers manager should.

"I think you have to be a certain type to be the Rangers manager - how you carry yourself, how you speak to the media. I think he's done that really well.

"Has he played the best football? Probably not, but he's got results. That's key and that's the important bit. He's done that quickly.

"Now there's a lot of good feeling around the club and the supporters and the owners are trying to do the right things."

With leaders Hearts welcoming Celtic to Tynecastle on Saturday, Rangers could be presented with the chance to further close the gap at the summit when they host Dundee.

Adam, who was a Rangers player between 2003 and 2009, added: "Inside the club and inside that dressing room, they'll know that there's an opportunity to really kick on for the end of the season.

"A couple of signings from now to the end of the January window will help them, and as long as you come out of the window better than you started, it will give you an opportunity for the last part of the season."

Danny Rohl has re-energised Ibrox by instilling a winning mentality while "carrying himself like a Rangers manager should", says former midfielder Charlie Adam.

The former Sheffield Wednesday boss took over the Govan club during a period of turmoil following Russell Martin's calamitous tenure.

With 11 wins in 14 league games, the German coach has dragged the Ibrox side back into contention for the Scottish Premiership title.

Former Rangers player Adam says Rohl has not won matches by playing the best football, but by adjusting and understanding the predicament the club were in when he arrived.

"Danny's done a brilliant job," said Adam. "He's understood where Rangers are [and] he's carried himself like a Rangers manager should.

"I think you have to be a certain type to be the Rangers manager - how you carry yourself, how you speak to the media. I think he's done that really well.

"Has he played the best football? Probably not, but he's got results. That's key and that's the important bit. He's done that quickly.

"Now there's a lot of good feeling around the club and the supporters and the owners are trying to do the right things."

With leaders Hearts welcoming Celtic to Tynecastle on Saturday, Rangers could be presented with the chance to further close the gap at the summit when they host Dundee.

Adam, who was a Rangers player between 2003 and 2009, added: "Inside the club and inside that dressing room, they'll know that there's an opportunity to really kick on for the end of the season.

"A couple of signings from now to the end of the January window will help them, and as long as you come out of the window better than you started, it will give you an opportunity for the last part of the season."