Sasaki, Rushing, De Paula all ranked in the top 20. Emil Morales, 18-year-old shortstop signed last year by LA, also made the top-100 after a strong pro debut.
So far the three national outlets that have decided to include Roki Sasaki among its prospect rankings have rated the Dodgers right-hander No. 1 in baseball. The latest is by Kiley McDaniel at ESPN, with Sasaki heading a group of eight Dodgers among the top 100 prospects.
ESPN opted to include Sasaki among prospects due to the process by which he was signed. Officially Sasaki did not qualify as a foreign professional, and was forced to sign as an international amateur. He signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers for $6.5 million on January 22. Baseball America and MLB Pipeline also qualified Sasaki as a prospect and ranked the 23-year-old No. 1 overall. Baseball Prospectus and The Athletic did not include Sasaki specifically because of his four years pitching professionally in Japan.
McDaniel wrote that Sasaki will still need to develop into an ace pitcher in MLB, but is still very high on the right-hander:
Sasaki also fits with some of the top pitching prospects on the last few versions of this list in terms of potential and polish. At his best, he can sit in the upper-90s and get into the triple digits, mix in one of the best splitters on Earth, and a plus slider along with solid strike throwing and a starter-looking delivery. On his best day, some scouts say Sasaki has two 80-grade pitches.
Eight prospects for the Dodgers is their most on any 2025 top-100 list released to date, with six the maximum at other outlets so far. Dalton Rushing and Josue De Paula are the two holdovers from last year’s top-100 list at ESPN, checking in at 16th and 20th, respectively this year.
River Ryan was also nearly on last year’s ESPN list, checking in at No. 102 overall. He cracked the top 100 this year, at 94th overall, despite Tommy John surgery likely wiping out the entirety of his 2025 season.
Ryan was also included in the top 100 prospects at The Athletic, ranked 52nd overall by Keith Law.
Shortstop Alex Freeland has been ranked on all five top-100 lists to date, with an average rating of 61st. He’s 37th on the ESPN list, Freeland’s highest mark to date, with McDaniel surmising he “now looks like an every-day player.”
The unique Dodgers name on ESPN’s list is Emil Morales, the shortstop from the Dominican Republic signed last January to headline LA’s 2024 international class. Morales, who just turned 18 in September, was ranked the 80th-best prospect in the sport by McDaniel:
Like many top international signees, Morales is a longer-levered hitter with big raw power and a physical projection, but those qualities also make contact and sticking at shortstop long-term a challenge, balancing strength and quickness. He had a fantastic pro debut, hitting 14 homers and posting a 1.168 OPS in 46 games with almost as many walks as strikeouts in the Dominican Summer League, but his whiff rate at the lowest level of the minors is a yellow flag for most evaluators. In 2025 or 2026, when Morales gets an extended look at Low-A, we’ll see if he makes the necessary adjustments to stay on this list; there’s a really high variance to where he lands on next year’s list.
Zyhir Hope has been ranked on all five top-100 lists to date, with an average rank of roughly 52nd. He is ranked 70th at ESPN. Jackson Ferris is ranked 93rd, and has been ranked in four of the five prospect lists thus far.