Led by shortstop Corey Seager, Los Angeles Dodgers prospects have received plenty of praise this offseason. The Dodgers’ farm system was recently named the best by Baseball America, and ranked only behind the Atlanta Braves by ESPN.
Adding to his growing list of accolades, Seager was again rated the top prospect in all of baseball, this time by ZiPS, which is a data-driven projection system.
The Dodgers placed five prospects in the ZiPS top 100 prospect rankings for 2016, as Julio Urias is ranked ninth, Alex Verdugo No. 13, Jose De Leon No. 29 and Austin Barnes No. 49.
Seager was rated the No. 1 overall prospect by Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB.com and ESPN.
Seager and Urias both being in ZiPS’ top 10 comes as no surprise, as Urias has been somewhere in the top 10 in each of the lists mentioned above, as well as being named the top left-handed pitching prospect by MLB.com.
Verdugo was ranked No. 51 by ESPN and is No. 100 on Baseball America’s list. The 2014 second-round draft pick split time between Single-A Great Lakes and High-A Rancho Cucamonga last season.
Between the two, he hit a combined .311/.340/.441 with nine home runs and 61 RBIs in 124 games. De Leon has also been a popular name on prospect lists, as he was ranked No. 23 by Baseball America, No. 24 by MLB.com, No. 26 by Baseball Prospectus, and the fifth-best right-handed prospect by MLB.com.
Barnes, a 26-year-old catcher played 20 games with the Dodgers last season, batting .207/.361/.276 in 37 plate appearances. He will likely be the team’s third catcher in Spring Training.
Both Urias and De Leon are among the 21 non-roster invitees that will participate in big league camp this spring.
