Updated top 100 MLB prospect rankings: There’s a new No. 1
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Kiley McDaniel
A lot has changed since the last time we ranked the top MLB prospects.
The MLB draft and breakout seasons have added new names to our list, replacing players who have graduated or regressed in 2025 — and some of the prospects on the list are in new places after a busy MLB trade deadline.
All of that movement makes this the perfect time for an updated ranking of the top players in the sport — along with some of the biggest risers of the season — heading into the final weeks of the minor league season.
This is my ranking of these players for the long term, considering their upside, risk and proximity to the big leagues, in consultation with scouts and execs around the league. Here’s more on the grading tiers and lingo I use. Players in the big leagues are eligible for this update (MLB rookie eligibility rules apply here — 130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched or 45 days on the active roster) so you will see some recently called up major leaguers.
Now let’s get to my final 2025 ranking of the best young prospects in baseball.
60 FV tier
1. Konnor Griffin, SS, Pittsburgh Pirates
It has been an improbable rise for the No. 9 pick in the 2024 MLB draft, going from being a high school hitter with big questions about his swing to ranking as the top prospect in the game in roughly 12 months.
I compared Griffin’s upside to Fernando Tatis Jr. at draft time and he’s following that plan, but with even better early reports on his shortstop defense and patience. Griffin is a plus-plus runner and thrower who can be average to above defensively almost anywhere on the field and has 30-homer upside, especially if he can lift the ball a bit more.
With some performance in Double-A (he was just promoted to the level), he will move into the hallowed 65 FV prospect tier, which doesn’t always have a player in it.
2. Kevin McGonigle, SS, Detroit Tigers
I was the guy in the media high on McGonigle when he was part of a very deep prep position-player crop in the 2023 draft — and my belief in him has paid off better than I could’ve expected so far.
The concerns at draft time were that his power/speed combo and odds to stick at shortstop weren’t strong enough to warrant going higher than 37th overall (where Detroit took him). He has been at least a passable shortstop as a pro and has a real shot to stick long-term. His power (by literally any measure) is now above average, if not plus.
McGonigle’s feel and on-base skills were never in question, so now he looks like he could be above average at everything in the batter’s box and closer to average on the bases and in the field.
3. Jesus Made, SS, Milwaukee Brewers
Made leapt onto the prospect scene last summer into the middle of the top 100 amid one of the best DSL performances we’ve ever seen. He has continued to deliver with an .801 OPS across both Single-A levels as a 17- and 18-year-old this season.
Made is an above-average contact/patience threat with at least plus power, though his flatter swing plane is keeping his homer totals down at the moment.
4. Samuel Basallo, C, Baltimore Orioles
Basallo has legit 40-homer potential and might be an every-day catcher. He is a good enough framer and blocker, and he has a plus arm, though his exchange and accuracy are lacking a bit.
The reasons I have him just behind Made are because of the rocky development path catchers typically take and the fact that Basallo still tends to chase pitches out of the strike zone, which could undermine both his on-base and power potential against big league pitching.
That said, Basallo has to be ranked high because he’s a 21-year-old catcher who just got called up to the majors and could lead the league in homers in a few years.
5. Leo De Vries, SS, Athletics
In the most A.J. Preller trade to date, the Padres traded De Vries to the A’s at the deadline in a package for reliever Mason Miller.
Though he is playing shortstop now, De Vries is a below-average runner and it’s looking more likely that he’ll need to slide over to third base.
The negatives end there as De Vries has a plus arm, above-average-to-plus power, great feel to pull and lift to get to that power in games, average-to-above contact/patience and all of that from an 18-year-old switch-hitter who is already playing in High-A.
There is some thought that he looks a little more like a very good player than a potential star, but either way De Vries is a very high probability, strong, every-day infielder with a shot to be an impact player.
6. Max Clark, CF, Detroit Tigers
Clark was the No. 3 pick in the 2023 draft, and everything has basically gone to plan since Detroit selected him.
He is a plus runner who fits in center field defensively, and he has plus contact skills and plus pitch selection at the plate. He’ll probably hit 20 homers in his best seasons but should hover around 15 on an annual basis with lots of doubles and triples.
7. Colt Emerson, SS, Seattle Mariners
Emerson was the 22nd pick in that same 2023 draft as Clark and it quickly became apparent that he was underrated.
He is now in Double-A and looks like he can be an every-day lefty-hitting MLB shortstop with above-average on-base percentages and 20ish homers.
8. Sebastian Walcott, SS, Texas Rangers
The sales pitch is easy here: Walcott is a 6-foot-4 potential long-term shortstop with big power.
That length to his frame creates plus-plus power potential — but also some swing-and-miss in the zone. His pitch selection is solid, but the main issue right now is that his flat swing plane is keeping him from posting homer totals that match his raw power.
9. Travis Bazzana, 2B, Cleveland Guardians
Bazzana was the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft but doesn’t have the conventional superstar upside you may associate with that.
He is a plus runner and fine second-base defender whose best offensive traits are his patience and pull/lift ability. His bat-to-ball and raw power are close to average, but he should post plus on-base percentages and hit 20ish homers annually.
10. Aidan Miller, SS, Philadelphia Phillies
Miller was another 2023 draft prep position player from the deep group that produced McGonigle, Clark and Emerson ranked above on this list.
He is on the shortstop/third base defensive spectrum but has improved defensively (and seems quicker on the basepaths, too) to the point that I think he can be an average defensive option at shortstop — though some teams will likely move him if they have a superior option.
Miller has above-average-to-plus raw power right now but still has some work to do to fully tap into it in games, though he has been productive with 21 homers and 70 stolen bases in 196 games the past two seasons.
11. Walker Jenkins, CF, Minnesota Twins
Jenkins has played only 163 regular season professional games since going No. 5 in the 2023 draft because of various injuries. His .301/.405/.471 line with 16 homers and 34 stolen bases in those games while playing almost exclusively center field shows his power/speed combo and advanced feel to hit.
He is above average at basically everything on a baseball field, but durability has been an issue and that cost him a few spots on this list.
12. Josue De Paula, LF, Los Angeles Dodgers
I can’t shake the comp a scout gave me on De Paula a few years ago: Yordan Alvarez.
De Paula is a better runner and defender – he’s fine in left field – than the Astros slugger, but I don’t think he’ll be quite as elite at the plate. That said, De Paula should post plus on-base percentages buoyed by big walk rates and should grow into 25-30 homer seasons as he taps into his power.
13. Bubba Chandler, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates
The first pitcher on this list didn’t crack the top dozen spots because of both the risks of pitching prospects in general and also a bit of a dip in who is still eligible as Chase Burns and Jacob Misiorowski recently graduated.
Chandler’s past nine starts in Triple-A have been just OK — 42 innings, 50 hits, five home runs, 24 walks, 47 strikeouts, 4.93 ERA. So, while he seemed ready for a big league look before this stretch, it’s now harder for the Pirates to make the move.
He still has front-line potential though, with a repertoire headlined by a plus fastball that sits 96-100 and hits 102 mph.
55 FV Tier
14. JJ Wetherholt, SS, St. Louis Cardinals
15. Thomas White, LHP, Miami Marlins
16. Kade Anderson, LHP, Seattle Mariners
17. Ethan Holliday, SS, Colorado Rockies
18. Jett Williams, SS, New York Mets
19. Nolan McLean, RHP, New York Mets
20. Eli Willits, SS, Washington Nationals
21. Jonah Tong, RHP, New York Mets
22. Andrew Painter, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies
23. Jordan Lawlar, SS, Arizona Diamondbacks
Lawlar is a sure shortstop in Triple-A and has grown into plus raw power, but has had some health, contact and consistency issues over the past few years. Wetherholt and Williams are also Triple-A shortstops but might move off the position depending on what their big league teams need.
The top three players on my 2025 MLB draft board went in the top four picks and fall into this tier: Anderson, Holliday and Willits.
White, McLean and Tong are all arrow-up prospects this season, joining Painter on the verge of the big leagues as potential front-line starters. I go back and forth on Tong vs. McLean: Tong has more command and a better changeup while McLean has multiple standout breaking pitches.
50 FV tier
24. Carson Williams, SS, Tampa Bay Rays
25. Franklin Arias, SS, Boston Red Sox
26. Eduardo Tait, C, Minnesota Twins
27. Carson Benge, CF, New York Mets
28. Luis Pena, SS, Milwaukee Brewers
29. Bryce Eldridge, 1B, San Francisco Giants
30. Luke Keaschall, 2B, Minnesota Twins
31. Sal Stewart, 3B, Cincinnati Reds
32. Seth Hernandez, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates
33. Payton Tolle, LHP, Boston Red Sox
34. Arjun Nimmala, SS, Toronto Blue Jays
35. Trey Yesavage, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays
36. Bryce Rainer, SS, Detroit Tigers
37. Rainiel Rodriguez, C, St. Louis Cardinals
38. Chase DeLauter, RF, Cleveland Guardians
39. Colson Montgomery, SS, Chicago White Sox
40. Liam Doyle, LHP, St. Louis Cardinals
41. Moises Ballesteros, C, Chicago Cubs
42. Angel Genao, SS, Cleveland Guardians
43. Ryan Sloan, RHP, Seattle Mariners
44. Eduardo Quintero, CF, Los Angeles Dodgers
45. George Lombard Jr., SS, New York Yankees
46. Zyhir Hope, RF, Los Angeles Dodgers
47. Gage Jump, LHP, Athletics
48. Rhett Lowder, RHP, Cincinnati Reds
49. Owen Caissie, RF, Chicago Cubs
50. Josuar Gonzalez, SS, San Francisco Giants
The 55 FV tier tends to be shallower at this time of year because there has been so much movement and the top end of the list is hollowed out by graduations; over the winter another dozen or so prospects will slide up a tier.
Keaschall and Montgomery (whose season has been a rollercoaster, but he is now red-hot) should graduate soon and the majority of these players will be in the big leagues at some point next season.
Arias is a standout defender and contact hitter who needs to tap into more power but is also just 19 years old. Tait was the headliner of the Jhoan Duran trade and could hit 25-30 homers as an every-day catcher.
On the pitching side, Hernandez was the No. 5 pick in July and could move up a tier with a hot start next season while Tolle and Yesavage are arrow-up college arms from the 2024 draft who should be in the big leagues next season.
Rodriguez and Gonzalez are two of the new risers from the previous list; Rodriguez has a real shot to stick behind the plate and hit 25 homers while Gonzalez was the top signee from the January international class and has had a hot debut in the DSL. He could stick at shortstop, hit 20 homers and post plus on-base percentages, but obviously has a long way to go. I won’t project the same rise for Gonzalez as Jesus Made and Luis Pena, but those were the two standout names from the DSL at this time last year.
51. JoJo Parker, SS, Toronto Blue Jays
52. Aiva Arquette, SS, Miami Marlins
53. Slade Caldwell, CF, Arizona Diamondbacks
54. Josue Briceno, C, Detroit Tigers
55. Theo Gillen, CF, Tampa Bay Rays
56. Mike Sirota, CF, Los Angeles Dodgers
57. Emmanuel Rodriguez, CF, Minnesota Twins
58. Jamie Arnold, LHP, Athletics
59. Robby Snelling, LHP, Miami Marlins
60. Khal Stephen, RHP, Cleveland Guardians
61. Troy Melton, RHP, Detroit Tigers
62. Logan Henderson, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers
63. Jonny Farmelo, CF, Seattle Mariners
64. Ethan Salas, C, San Diego Padres
65. Harry Ford, C, Seattle Mariners
66. Noah Schultz, LHP, Chicago White Sox
67. Michael Arroyo, 2B, Seattle Mariners
68. Carter Jensen, C, Kansas City Royals
69. Cam Schlittler, RHP, New York Yankees
70. Luis Morales, RHP, Athletics
71. Travis Sykora, RHP, Washington Nationals
72. Ricky Tiedemann, LHP, Toronto Blue Jays
73. Alex Freeland, SS, Los Angeles Dodgers
74. A.J. Ewing, CF, New York Mets
75. Cooper Pratt, SS, Milwaukee Brewers
Parker and Arquette (and Carlson just below) were the top position players in the 2025 draft outside of that top tier of Holliday and Willits. Caldwell and Gillen are arrow-up prep position players from the 2024 first-round group. Arnold was a borderline shocking drop to the No. 11 pick in the 2025 draft, largely tied to how hard his fastball was hit in college, but I think he still has mid-rotation upside.
Snelling, Stephen and Henderson have all been arrow-up this year mostly due to command and execution rather than a jump in raw stuff, though Snelling’s raw stuff has been a bit better. Schlittler and Morales are in the big leagues while Tiedemann is almost back from elbow surgery and Sykora is about to undergo surgery. Schultz and Salas have had tough seasons, but the tools are still there.
76. Caleb Bonemer, SS, Chicago White Sox
77. Billy Carlson, SS, Chicago White Sox
78. Cam Caminiti, LHP, Atlanta Braves
79. Hagen Smith, LHP, Chicago White Sox
80. Didier Fuentes, RHP, Atlanta Braves
81. Spencer Jones, CF, New York Yankees
82. Connor Prielipp, LHP, Minnesota Twins
83. Brandon Sproat, RHP, New York Mets
84. Tink Hence, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals
85. Emil Morales, SS, Los Angeles Dodgers
86. Lazaro Montes, RF, Seattle Mariners
87. Jarlin Susana, RHP, Washington Nationals
88. Jakob Marsee, CF, Miami Marlins
89. Jefferson Rojas, SS, Chicago Cubs
90. Luke Adams, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers
91. Joe Mack, C, Miami Marlins
92. Ryan Waldschmidt, LF, Arizona Diamondbacks
93. Jeferson Quero, C, Milwaukee Brewers
94. Dylan Beavers, RF, Baltimore Orioles
95. Trey Gibson, RHP, Baltimore Orioles
96. Jurrangelo Cijntje, RHP/LHP, Seattle Mariners
97. Leonardo Bernal, C, St. Louis Cardinals
98. Charlee Soto, RHP, Minnesota Twins
99. Jackson Ferris, LHP, Los Angeles Dodgers
100. Jaxon Wiggins, RHP, Chicago Cubs
The White Sox and Braves make up the top of this section of the list. Fuentes had a tough big league debut while Caminiti’s slider/arm speed taking one more step forward could vault him up this list. Smith, like Schultz, has had trouble throwing strikes this year, but the potential is still there. Bonemer had a loud pro debut while Carlson’s early returns will be watched closely as his age and offensive outlook put him just behind Parker and Arquette for some teams.
Jones has been red-hot of late but still has an uncertain outlook due to his long track record of contact issues and not hitting 20 homers in a season until his age-24 season. Speaking of red-hot, Marsee’s improved center-field defense, solid Triple-A showing and shocking MLB look allowed him to sneak onto the list before graduating.
Prielipp was on the shelf with elbow issues for years (30 total innings pitched in 2023-24), but now looks like a potential impact arm, likely in shorter stints. Sproat and Gibson could impact their teams early next season. Montes could hit 30 homers if it all clicks in the big leagues. Morales could be a 6-foot-3 every-day shortstop who hits 25 homers annually.
10 players in contention who weren’t on the preseason top 200
Luke Dickerson, SS, Washington Nationals
Kyle Karros, 3B, Colorado Rockies
Caden Scarborough, RHP, Texas Rangers
Edward Florentino, 1B, Pittsburgh Pirates
Johnny King, LHP, Toronto Blue Jays
Jacob Reimer, 3B, New York Mets
Jhonny Level, SS, San Francisco Giants
C.J. Kayfus, 1B, Cleveland Guardians
Josh Adamczewski, 2B, Milwaukee Brewers
Juneiker Caceres, RF, Cleveland Guardians
Dickerson probably isn’t a shortstop and needs to lift the ball more, but he has impact tools. Karros and Kayfus are in the big leagues, so they probably aren’t secrets. Florentino is a surprisingly polished pull-and-lift left-handed power hitter but needs to prove it at three more levels of the minors and some scouts are still dubious.
King and Scarborough could be No. 2/No. 3 starters if their command continues to improve. Caceres is showing signs of developing into a strong every-day player with 25-homer upside. Adamczewski, Level and Reimer are not long-term shortstops, but they can all stick in the infield, they can hit and they all have above-average power potential with strong performances this season.
TORONTO — Every so often in the Seattle Mariners clubhouse, the “Top Gun Anthem,” full of soaring guitar notes and pick-me-up vibes, will randomly blast from inside a locker. Everyone knows the culprit. Jorge Polanco, the Mariners’ veteran second baseman, is not a fan of silencing his phone.
“But he loves Maverick and Iceman,” Mariners star Cal Raleigh said.
Nobody really minds. When a player is doing what Polanco has done this postseason — rescuing the Mariners from the danger zone seemingly daily, with his latest trick a go-ahead three-run home run that paved the way for Monday’s 10-3 victory — his ringtone could be Limp Bizkit and nobody would utter a peep.
Instead, it’s the perfect soundtrack for this Mariners run, which currently sees them up two games to none against the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. The “Top Gun Anthem” is an epic ballad filled with the sorts of ups and downs that personify an organization that has spent 49 years alternating among the desolation of mediocrity and the heartbreak of underachievement. The only team in Major League Baseball to never to play in a World Series, Seattle is two wins away from capturing its first American League pennant and is heading home to T-Mobile Park for Game 3.
The Mariners’ dominant position is in large part thanks to a 32-year-old infielder whose feats have earned him the right to be called Iceman himself — and yet that’s not the nickname Polanco wears these days.
“He’s George Bonds,” M’s catcher Mitch Garver said.
Yes, Polanco’s alter ego is the anglicized version of his first name and the surname of Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader. He earned it earlier this season, Garver said, when “everything he hit was 110 [mph] in a gap or over the fence. It was unbelievable.”
Particularly when considering that last winter, Polanco didn’t know whether he would be healthy enough to keep hitting major league pitching. Polanco, who had struggled for years with left knee issues, underwent surgery in October 2024 to repair his patellar tendon. A free agent, Polanco drew limited interest on the market and wound up re-signing with the Mariners for one year and $7.75 million.
“It’s been a journey, man,” Polanco said. “That’s the way I can put it. I wouldn’t say it’s been bad. I wouldn’t say it’s been easy. I think God just prepared me for this year. I’ve been hurt a little bit, so yeah; but now we here, and I’m glad to be back.
“You just have to have faith. You overcome. Come back stronger.”
Polanco’s strength has been on display all October. It first appeared in the second game of Seattle’s division series against the Detroit Tigers when he hit two home runs off ace Tarik Skubal, who is about to win his second consecutive Cy Young Award. It continued three games later in a winner-takes-all Game 5 when he lashed a single into right field in the 15th inning that advanced the Mariners to their first ALCS since 2001. It didn’t stop there, with Polanco’s go-ahead single in the sixth inning of Game 1 against the Blue Jays on Sunday.
Then came Monday’s fifth-inning blast off Toronto reliever Louis Varland, who fed a 98 mph fastball over the plate and watched it leave the bat at 105.2 mph, flying 400 feet to turn a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 Seattle lead.
“He’s always been a great hitter,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “His swing right now is very short. That ball tonight, I wasn’t sure it was going to go out of the ballpark, but I think he’s just getting that kind of spin on it right now where it stays up.”
That is no accident. Polanco arrived in the major leagues with the Minnesota Twins in 2014 at age 20, a bat-to-ball savant whose ability to hit from both sides of the plate carved him out a regular role with the team.
“He wasn’t George Bonds before,” Garver said. “He was Harry Potter. Because he was a wizard. He’d just make hits appear.”
Polanco found power five years into his career, and he maxed out with 33 home runs for the Twins in 2021. But the degradation of his knee sapped the juice in his bat and left him flailing too often at pitches he’d have previously spit on. Last year, in his first season with the Mariners, his numbers cratered, but the organization appreciated Polanco’s even-keeled demeanor and believed fixing his knee would fix his swing too.
The Mariners were right. George Bonds was born during a ridiculous first month of the 2025 season when he whacked nine homers in 80 plate appearances. Polanco had embraced the M’s ethos of pulling the ball in the air. Raleigh led MLB with a 1.594 OPS on balls pulled. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez was second at 1.497. Polanco hit 23 of his 26 home runs this season to the pull side, and both of his homers off Skubal (hit from the right side) and the one against Varland (left) were met in front of the plate and yanked over the fence.
“Throughout the years, I hated going to Minnesota just solely because of him,” said shortstop J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured Mariner. “The guy single-handedly beat us so many times. We all know the type of player he is when he is healthy, and it’s clearly showing right now.”
Never in the game’s 150-year history had a player logged three consecutive game-winning hits after the fifth inning in the postseason. It’s the sort of performance teams need to win pennants — and championships. As brilliant as Raleigh has been in a could-be-MVP campaign and as conflagrant as Julio Rodriguez was in the second half and as dominant as Seattle’s pitching has been en route to this point, winning playoff baseball takes more.
Like, say, a guy who over the winter was an afterthought hitting cleanup and never wavering, even in the highest-leverage situations.
“What’s most impressive is bouncing back after a rough year last year,” said Bryan Woo, who will start Game 3 on Wednesday against Toronto’s Shane Bieber. “Especially for a guy on his second team, back half of his career. To do what he’s doing — get healthy, come back, help the team like he has — is even more impressive than just playing good baseball.”
Playing good baseball helps too. Polanco has helped get Seattle in a place that barely a month ago looked impossible to conceive. From mid-August to early September, the Mariners lost 13 of 18, trailed Houston by 3½ games in the AL West and held a half-game lead on Texas for the final wild-card spot. From there, the Mariners went 17-4, won the West, earned a first-round bye and charted a course for history.
They’re not there. And yet even Polanco admitted that Mariners players can’t ignore the team’s history and recognize what it would mean to get to the World Series.
“Yeah, we think about it,” he said. “We’ve heard it a lot. We know.”
The knowledge hasn’t deterred them. Raleigh is raking. Rodriguez is slugging. Josh Naylor, who grew up in nearby Mississauga, blasted a two-run home run in Game 2. And George Bonds has shown up in style, cold as Iceman, cool as Maverick, perfectly happy to eschew silent mode in favor of loud contact.
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Bradford Doolittle
MILWAUKEE — Few teams have a lineage of great pitching as long as that of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise. With this postseason, Blake Snell is making that star-studded line longer by one.
Snell dominated the Milwaukee Brewers over eight innings Monday, leading Los Angeles to a 2-1 Game 1 victory in the National League Championship Series before a packed house at American Family Field.
“That was just so good from the start,” said Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose sixth-inning homer broke a scoreless tie. “Sometimes it takes an inning or two for someone to settle in. [Tonight] it was from the get-go.”
Snell held Milwaukee to one hit in going a full eight innings for only the second time in a career that has netted him a pair of Cy Young Awards. He struck out 10 and picked off the only baserunner he allowed — Caleb Durbin, who singled in the third.
Snell became the first pitcher to face the minimum through eight innings in a postseason game since Don Larsen threw a perfect game in the 1956 World Series. The only longer outing in Snell’s career was the no-hitter he threw for the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 2, 2024. Has he ever felt as locked in as he did Monday?
“The no-hitter, yeah,” Snell quipped.
Snell improved to 3-0 in a postseason during which no other starting pitcher has recorded two wins. He is the second Dodgers pitcher to win his first three playoff starts for the franchise, joining Don Sutton (1974).
If Los Angeles keeps winning, Snell will get more chances to add to his numbers, but for now, his 0.86 ERA over three outings is the second best for a Dodgers left-hander in a postseason (minimum 20 innings), behind only Sandy Koufax’s legendary run (0.38 ERA over three starts) in the 1965 World Series.
This is the kind of company Snell knew he’d be keeping when he signed with the Dodgers before the season.
“Even playing against them, watching, it was just always in the back of my mind, like, I wanted to be a Dodger and play on that team,” Snell said. “To be here now, it’s a dream come true. I couldn’t wish for anything more.”
Snell’s gem continued the Dodgers’ stretch of dominant starting pitching that began over the last month of the season and has propelled a postseason run for the defending champs, positioning them for a repeat despite an offense that has at times struggled to put up runs in the playoffs.
Dodgers starters are 6-1 with a 1.65 ERA so far in the postseason, logging six quality starts in L.A.’s seven games.
“Our starting pitching for the last seven, eight weeks, has been — I don’t know if you can write enough words in your stories about our starting pitching,” Freeman said. “It really has been amazing. They seem to feed off each other.”
But no Dodgers’ starter is on a run quite like that of Snell, who is hoping to win his first championship ring with the team he lost to as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2020 World Series.
Despite Snell’s dominance, the Dodgers still had to withstand a ninth-inning push by the stubborn Brewers and understand the series is just getting started. Still, with the way Snell is rolling, he’s conjuring names of Dodgers present and past, like Koufax, Kershaw, Sutton, Valenzuela and Hershiser.
“I feel like the whole postseason I’ve been pretty locked in, pretty consistent,” Snell said. “Different outings, but eight innings, went deeper. The last three I felt really good, really locked in. Consistent. Similar.”
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Jorge Castillo
TORONTO — J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured member of the Seattle Mariners, has experienced some disappointment in his seven seasons in the Pacific Northwest. A last-place finish. Falling just short of reaching the postseason three times. Playoff exhilaration getting abruptly extinguished the year they made it.
Sometime early this season, the shortstop believed this team was different.
“We know we’re a good team,” he said shortly after the Mariners completed perhaps the most important road trip in franchise history with a 10-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series. “And now everyone knows that we can do this thing, and that’s what’s lighting the fire underneath everyone.”
The Mariners are two wins from doing the thing — winning their first AL pennant and advancing to the World Series for the first time in franchise history — with Game 3 scheduled for Wednesday at T-Mobile Park. It is the first time they’ve led an ALCS by multiple games. It is the 28th time in postseason history that the road team has won the first two games of a best-of-seven series. Only three of those clubs lost the series.
“We think about it,” said second baseman Jorge Polanco, who swatted a go-ahead, three-run home run in the fifth inning to give Seattle a lead they didn’t relinquish. “We hear it a lot. We know. But the mentality is just keep it simple. Just try to refocus on playing game by game.”
Less than 24 hours after the Mariners — wearied after an emotional 15-inning win in Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Friday — won Game 1 thanks to a late-inning comeback fueled by adrenaline, they used a less dramatic blueprint in Game 2.
The Mariners pounded three home runs and got six scoreless innings from three relievers to complete Monday’s demolition inside an open-roofed Rogers Centre on Canadian Thanksgiving before heading back to Seattle to potentially close out the series.
The Mariners did not waste time inflicting heavy damage against a pitcher they never had faced. Eight days ago, Trey Yesavage held the New York Yankees hitless over 5⅓ innings in his fourth career start in Game 2 of the ALDS. His abnormally high release point and arm angle, coupled with a fastball-splitter combination, overwhelmed the Yankees.
The Mariners entered the encounter with a simple game plan to avoid falling victim to the splitter, which limited the Yankees to 0-for-11 with eight strikeouts: If it’s low, let it go. Wait for a mistake up in the zone and do not miss.
Julio Rodriguez did not miss. Three batters into the game, after Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Cal Raleigh walked, Yesavage threw a mistake splitter to Rodriguez up and over the plate on a 1-2 count that Rodríguez cracked down the left-field line for a three-run shot.
It was the first home run Yesavage has allowed in his brief major league career — he had previously surrendered just two extra-base hits in four starts — and the first extra-base hit he has surrendered with his splitter in the majors.
“I feel like, at the end of the day, you got to see the ball and get your pitch,” Rodríguez said. “We have seen what he’s been doing, and obviously we respect that, but we went out there to compete.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider called for a reliever to warm up as Yesavage’s pitch count approached 30 after Rodriguez’s crowd-silencing blast. But the rookie right-hander stranded a runner at second base with consecutive strikeouts. He then settled into the game as Toronto responded with three runs in the first two innings to tie the score. Yesavage held the Mariners without another run until departing with one out and two runners on base in the fifth inning.
Two batters after Yesavage’s exit, Polanco continued his torrid October by launching a 98 mph fastball from right-hander Louis Varland just over the right-center-field wall to give the Mariners the lead with their second three-run homer. The home run was the switch-hitting Polanco’s third of the postseason and first batting left-handed. His first two were against Detroit Tigers ace lefty Tarik Skubal in the ALDS. Polanco, a 12-year veteran, has eight RBIs in the playoffs, already tied for the third most in the Mariners’ concise postseason history.
Josh Naylor delivered the final blow, a two-run home run to right field off right-hander Braydon Fisher for Naylor’s third hit of the day to give Seattle a 9-3 lead in the seventh inning. A native of Mississauga, Ontario, the first baseman became the first Canadian-born player to hit a home run in the postseason as a visiting player in Canada.
“I went 0-for-4 yesterday, and we won,” Naylor said. “So, if I did it again today, maybe [it] was good luck to go 0-for-4, and we would win again. But I was very thankful to get some hits, help the team out. Super cool to do it in front of my family, too.”
Naylor celebrated the homer by pointing to the crowd behind the Mariners’ dugout as he began his trot. He and third baseman Eugenio Suarez were the two sluggers the Mariners acquired at the trade deadline to bolster an offense that failed to adequately complement an elite pitching staff in previous years. The moves solidified Crawford’s belief early in the season — that this team could do what no team has done since the franchise’s inception in 1977.
“We’re two wins away,” Crawford said. “If that doesn’t fire anyone up, I don’t know what can.”
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