More looks at Dodgers prospect rankings and analyses, including another top-30 ranking for Rushing.
Prospect ranking season is just about wrapping up, with FanGraphs set to unveil their top-100 list on Monday. But several other ratings and analyses have been revealed in the last two weeks that provided some interesting information on various Dodgers minor leaguers.
Baseball Prospectus ranked the Dodgers as the second-best farm system in the sport, one of two teams (along with the Rays) in their top tier of systems. Among the strengths of the Dodgers system, wrote Jeffrey Paternostro, is “a pipeline of recent [international free agent] bats poised for 2025 breakouts.”
Roki Sasaki isn’t considered a prospect by BP, but their slotting of the Dodgers’ prospects fits right in line with the team’s ranking at ESPN (first), Baseball America (third), and The Athletic (third).
R.J. Anderson at CBS Sports is analyzing prospects from around the league, and picks the top three prospects from each team. For the Dodgers, Anderson ranked Dalton Rushing first, followed in order by outfielders Josue De Paula and Zyhir Hope, with Rushing (22nd overall) and De Paula (25th) ranked in Anderson’s top 25 prospects in baseball.
“Rushing is the rare catching prospect with the bat to play far down the defensive spectrum,” Anderson wrote. “He’s an on-base machine who seldom expands his strike zone to chase bad pitches. He has more than enough juice to keep pitchers honest, too, having averaged a 90 mph exit velocity during his time in Triple-A.”
Keith Law at The Athletic unveiled his top 20 Dodgers prospects, with many of the names that have been discussed elsewhere. Of note though in this list is Ching-Hsien Ko, outfielder signed out of Taiwan last June, ranked 14th in the system by Law:
He’s an excellent athlete with a great body and frame, showing a plus arm and above-average range in center field already. He’s a disciplined hitter who’s shown a willingness to work a count, with the potential for 55 to 60 power as he fills out. He hasn’t played that many games yet, so there’s a lot of volatility here, especially around his present hit tool.
In a subsequent prospect chat at The Athletic, Law answered a question about Mike Sirota, the outfielder drafted by the Reds in the third round out of Northeastern in 2024. The Dodgers acquired Sirota from Cincinnati in the Gavin Lux trade on January 6. Said Law, about Sirota:
I am not sure why scouts thought he was a first-rounder based on what I saw of him and what I heard post-draft, but I do think he was a great pick by the Reds and that the Dodgers are also betting that the truth is somewhere in between where he was supposed to go and where he went. Most likely fourth outfielder.
Kiley McDaniel at ESPN two weeks back identified five prospects from his top 200 who could perform better than league average if pressed into major league duty in 2025, with Dodgers shortstop Alex Freeland in that group.
Last week, McDaniel doubled down on his praise of Freeland, with a line about the Dodgers in his column on winners and losers of the MLB offseason (the Dodgers were labeled winners, which could have been expected).
“Keep an eye on top 100 prospect shortstop Alex Freeland as a potential addition this summer,” McDaniel made sure to note on Wednesday.