The 2026 MLB regular season opens soon and it's time to cast our collective gaze toward the promise of youth in the Show.
To get a sense of which up-and-coming big leaguers are poised to excel in 2026, RotoWire.com created a tiered ranking of the 25 best MLB players 25 and under. We blended backward-looking 2025 performance with forward-looking 2026 projections and prospect evaluations to create a comprehensive snapshot of baseball's brightest young talent.
Check out our MLB Draft Kit as well.
Top 25 MLB Players 25 and Under
Tier Definitions
- MVP (2 players): Consensus top-of-sport talent. MVP or Cy Young caliber.
- Elite (5 players): Franchise-altering impact. All-Star locks or elite projected production.
- Star (7 players): Proven MLB contributors with star-level output or projections.
- Breakout (4 players): Flashing legitimate upside but haven't fully arrived yet.
- Rising (5 players): Younger players or recent call-ups establishing themselves.
- Prospect (2 players): Top-tier prospects who have not yet had a full MLB season.
The MVP Tier: Witt and Skenes Stand Alone
Two names stand head and shoulders above their youthful MLB peers.
That dynamic duo is fifth year infielder Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals in the American League and reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, with the NL's Pittsburgh Pirates.
Witt has already made two AL All-Star teams and has a career WAR total of 21.7 (per Baseball-Reference.com), with 105 homers and 373 RBIs in 626 games.
For the MLB betting year ahead, RotoWire projects that Witt will pick up where he left off a year ago, with 27 homers and a .303 batting average for the Royals, along with a .836 OPS and 36 stolen bases.
Such totals would put Witt's homer count four ahead of his 2025 total and his average would be .008 ahead of 2025. His OPS would be slightly lower than the .844 sum he racked up for K.C. a year ago.
For Skenes, we project that the former LSU star's ERA will once again drop below that hallowed 2.00 mark, finishing 2026 at 1.98 (it was 1.97 in 2025). The Pirates ace also is projected to set a career high for strikeouts (224), with a WHIP near the 0.948 figure he posted during his Cy Young season in 2025 in 187.2 innings.
At BetRivers Sportsbook, Skenes has +250 odds to repeat as the Cy Young Award winner in 2026.
The Elite Five: Proven Stars With Franchise-Defining Ceilings
When it comes to the second tier of under-25 MLB stars, it appears that there's no mold to what makes a player excel.
This tier includes a power-hitting infielder (Gunnar Henderson) and a speedster in the outfield, Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In Henderson's case, we project the fifth year infielder for the Baltimore Orioles to finish the season with 22 stolen bases, 25 homers and a .271 average for the AL East contenders, which would fall in line with his 2025 totals. During that campaign, Henderson hit .274 with 17 home runs and 30 stolen bases, while posting an OPS of .787 in 154 games played. This year, we expect the former Arkansas Razorbacks star to increase his OPS to .803, getting him more in line with his.831 career.
We project Carroll, the fifth year outfielder, to regress a bit from a career high of 31 HRs in 2025 to 26 in 2026, That's one below his 162-game average through 488 games played. We're also expecting Carroll to see his batting average hover around where it sat in 2025, going from .259 in 143 games played to .256 in 2026, while we expect him to boost his SBs from 32 in 2025 to 37 this year.
Finally, the biggest drop-off for Carroll year-over-year is his OPS total, which was .883 in 2025 and .832 through his first four seasons in the Valley. That's because we're projecting the speedster to finish 2026 at .803, which would be the second lowest total of his career (ahead of the .749 total he put up in 2024).
Star Power: The Deep Middle Class of Young Talent
When it comes to what we're referring to as the "middle class" of under-25 MLB talent, few hitters are expected to do better than Seattle Mariners star Julio Rodriguez. The team at FanGraphs.com has the fifth-year CF fifth leaguewide (among batters) for WAR at a 5.6 projection for 2026.
At BetMGM Sportsbook, Rodriguez is fifth on the AL MVP board as of Feb. 23, with +1400 odds.
FanGraphs.com projects that Rodriguez will hit slightly more homers (30) than we do (27), but most of our projections match up otherwise, with a .270 average by our math (compared with .275 at FanGraphs) and a sizeable gulf between our OPS projection (.767) and theirs (.824).
Another rising star to keep an eye on is Cincinnati Reds OF Elly De La Cruz, who is projected by FanGraphs to finish 11th among hitters at 4.6 WAR, ninth leaguewide among those 25 or younger. For the year ahead, we expect the Dominican Republic native to hit 21 homers and steal 47 bases while hitting .256 and posting an OPS of .755 in the Queen City.
Such totals would put De La Cruz at or near many of his 2025 totals, when he hit 22 homers and stole 37 bases across 629 at-bats, posting an OPS of .777 and a .264 average for the Reds.
Breakout Candidates: On the Verge of Stardom
When it comes to the league's next crop of stars, it's hard to argue that San Diego Padres CF Jackson Merrill isn't at or near the top of the list.
The native of Severna Park, Maryland, is coming off a two-year stretch where he amassed 7.2 WAR (per Baseball-Reference.com) across 271 games played, hitting 40 homers, 56 doubles and 12 triples during that stretch.
In 2026, FanGraphs.com expects that Merrill will find his groove again in America's Finest City, with a 4.1 WAR projection based off an expectation that he'll have 23 HRs and 76 RBIs in 134 games.
Our metrics are even kinder to the third-year outfielder, with Merrill projected to hit .271 with 22 homers and 85 RBIs, serving as the main driving force in San Diego's lineup this season while ranking 14th on our under-25 list.
The Padres have +1500 odds to win the NL pennant at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Another name to keep an eye on is Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero, who hit 45 long balls and 110 RBIs for the AL East club in 2025. Come 2026, we have the Rays star sixth on our under-25 list, projecting him to bash 34 homers and 94 RBIs with an .802 OPS. FanGraphs.com has Caminero posting a 3.8 WAR total across 119 games, with 32 HRs and 88 RBIs for the Rays.
Rising and Prospect Tiers: The Next Wave
Most of our under-25 prospects list centers around hitters, but two pitchers besides Skenes made the list: Cade Horton of the Chicago Cubs and Chase Burns of the Cincinnati Reds.
FanGraphs.com projects Horton, a second-year righty, to go 8-9 with a 4.34 ERA across 134 innings. We have him at 106 strikeouts in 129 projected innings with a 2.65 ERA. FanGraphs has Horton as the No. 6 Cubs pitcher for WAR at 1.2, though we'll know more once the season begins.
Burns enters his age-23 season with the Reds looking to improve on the short stint he had with the club in 2025. He went 0-3 across 43.1 innings with Cincy a year ago, striking out 67 batters across eight starts. In 2026, FanGraphs.com projects the 23-year-old to go 8-8 across 132 innings with a 2.7 WAR total.
We have Burns 24th on our under-25 list (two spots behind Horton), with a 3.63 ERA and 159 strikeouts across 129 innings, as the Reds look to win the NL Central for the first time since 2012.
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Methodology: How We Built the Rankings
Rankings were compiled using a weighted blend of three data sources:
1. 2026 RotoWire Projections (primary): Full-season batting and pitching projections including AVG, HR, SB, OPS, ERA, K, IP, and WHIP. These serve as the baseline for where each player is expected to perform.
2. FanGraphs 2026 Depth Charts Projected WAR: The Steamer + ZiPS blended projection system, which accounts for playing time allocation. Used as a secondary ranking signal, particularly where RotoWire and industry consensus diverged (e.g., Henderson's 6.0 projected WAR despite a down 2025).
3. 2025 Actual Stats & Prospect Rankings: Baseball Reference fWAR, FanGraphs leaderboards, and prospect rankings from ESPN, Baseball America, and MLB Pipeline. For prospects without significant MLB service time (Griffin, McGonigle, Burns, Jensen), scouting grades and MiLB performance were weighted more heavily.
Cross-referenced against: ESPN Cockcroft 2026 fantasy rankings (points leagues), FanGraphs OOPSY prospect system, and FanGraphs ZiPS team projections.
Eligibility: Players must be 25 or younger on 2026 Opening Day (March 26, 2026).
