Last month I profiled the Top 10 Relief Pitching Prospects for fantasy baseball — well, significantly more than 10, since that's the only space I have to rank relief pitching prospects. Each month I will tackle another position, and this month I will rank the Top 10 Left-Handed Pitching Prospects in the minors. I'm excluding players with big-league experience for this exercise, which means Gage Jump (ATH), Connor Prielipp (MIN), Noah Schultz (CHW), Robby Snelling (MIA) and Kendry Rojas (MIN), who all ranked highly on last week's update to the Top 400 Prospect Rankings, were not considered, among others.
1. Kade Anderson, SEA, ETA: 2026
Anderson has essentially been as good as possible since getting drafted third overall last year. He has been so good at Double-A (35.9 K-BB%) that projection systems are viewing him as a big-league ready SP1. He also has an ideal team context for a pitcher, playing half his games in Seattle while pitching for a competitive team. I very rarely rank pitchers in the top 10, let alone the top five, but Anderson looks likely to follow the path of Paul Skenes and Chase Burns as high-end college pitching prospects who needed less than 15 minor-league starts before getting the call.
2. Liam Doyle, STL, ETA: 2026
Doyle is much less of a finished product than Anderson, but he's displaying elite strikeout upside at Double-A while working on his control and pitch mix. He has 27 strikeouts and nine walks over his
Last month I profiled the Top 10 Relief Pitching Prospects for fantasy baseball — well, significantly more than 10, since that's the only space I have to rank relief pitching prospects. Each month I will tackle another position, and this month I will rank the Top 10 Left-Handed Pitching Prospects in the minors. I'm excluding players with big-league experience for this exercise, which means Gage Jump (ATH), Connor Prielipp (MIN), Noah Schultz (CHW), Robby Snelling (MIA) and Kendry Rojas (MIN), who all ranked highly on last week's update to the Top 400 Prospect Rankings, were not considered, among others.
1. Kade Anderson, SEA, ETA: 2026
Anderson has essentially been as good as possible since getting drafted third overall last year. He has been so good at Double-A (35.9 K-BB%) that projection systems are viewing him as a big-league ready SP1. He also has an ideal team context for a pitcher, playing half his games in Seattle while pitching for a competitive team. I very rarely rank pitchers in the top 10, let alone the top five, but Anderson looks likely to follow the path of Paul Skenes and Chase Burns as high-end college pitching prospects who needed less than 15 minor-league starts before getting the call.
2. Liam Doyle, STL, ETA: 2026
Doyle is much less of a finished product than Anderson, but he's displaying elite strikeout upside at Double-A while working on his control and pitch mix. He has 27 strikeouts and nine walks over his last 17.2 innings, in which he's been working in his new cutter and refined slider, as Doyle's mid-90s fastball entered pro ball as a 70-grade pitch. Betting on a 6-foot-2 lefty with that caliber of fastball and track record in the SEC makes sense, even if there's work to go with his consistency in his first full pro season. Doyle could make his debut later this summer if he shows more consistency with his command.
3. Thomas White, MIA, ETA: 2026
White's injury was in question at the time of my update to the Top 400 Prospect Rankings, but we've since learned it's a shoulder injury. Him ranking third here is almost all based on what he did prior to 2026, as White walked nine batters while giving up three homers in 18.2 innings at Triple-A prior to landing on the shelf. He missed time this spring with an oblique strain. At his best, White has as much strikeout upside as anyone on this list while being effectively wild with his command. He's still just 21 and we know very little about the severity of White's current shoulder injury, so he could rank much higher on the next update if he's back in short order.
4. Jamie Arnold, ATH, ETA: 2026
Arnold was one of three 2025 draftees to get assigned to Double-A to start this season, along with Anderson and Doyle, and he had a good April (32:10 K:BB in his first 21.2 pro innings) and a rough May (20:14 K:BB in 25.1 innings). Arnold has been quite unlucky (.417 BABIP) while generating groundballs at an elite clip (59 percent groundball rate), but he hasn't missed as many bats (10.4 percent swinging strike rate) as one would have hoped, particularly lately. Still, he had the most impressive amateur resume and track record of all the college arms in the class, and I think he'll round into form sooner than later.
5. Jonathan Santucci, NYM, ETA: 2026
I overshot Santucci a little bit on this most recent update, but I love high-strikeout lefties and he's certainly that. I think he's gotten unlucky on balls in play this year, but the walks are an issue, as he's walking a career-worst 12.1 percent of batters. He could end up in the bullpen, but I don't think that would happen permanently for several years, as they'll want to exhaust efforts to develop him as a starter. Santucci's fastball/slider combo is filthy, and he's had a swinging-strike rate over 16 percent and a groundball rate over 48 percent in both tours of the Eastern League.
6. Dasan Hill, MIN, ETA: 2028
Hill gives us so much to dream on in a couple years, as he's sitting 96 mph with his fastball, which gained a tick this offseason, and he also has a good slider and throws five pitches. The 20-year-old Hill also has an excellent 52.5 percent groundball rate to go with his absurd 35.0 percent strikeout rate. The problem is he's walking 15 percent of batters at High-A, so we shouldn't expect Hill to rocket through the minors. He also has a .390 BABIP, so there's been some misfortune on balls in play. Hill won't be the fastest to the big leagues, but he has the stuff to be a top five overall pitching prospect some day.
7. Johnny King, TOR, ETA: 2028
King might have even better pure stuff than Hill, although he throws fewer pitches (just three). King's control is an even bigger issue though, as he's walking 16.4 percent of batters as a 19-year-old at High-A. He also doesn't generate groundballs at a plus clip (35.6 percent). King is ahead of schedule and has been pushed aggressively by the Jays, but he might need to spend the full year at High-A as he works on going deeper into starts.
8. Wei-En Lin, ATH, ETA: 2027
Lin might have the best career statistics of anyone on this list other than Anderson, but he also throws the lightest at 92 mph with his four-seamer. Fortunately, he's a lefty with five pitches and good command, so that fastball velocity will play just fine in the big leagues, he just won't put up the same high-end stats he did in the minors. He missed a couple weeks this season with a quad injury but is back in action at Double-A and may even get a taste of the majors before season's end.
9. Ben Jacobs, DET, ETA: 2027
Jacobs is already the Tigers' best pitching prospect after just 33.2 innings across Single-A and High-A. A third-round pick last year out of Arizona State, Jacobs has been arguably even better at High-A (30.4 K-BB%) than he was at Single-A (28.6 K-BB%). He added a tick to his fastball from college, now sitting 92-95 mph and touching 96 mph with his fastball. Jacobs entered pro ball with a full pitch mix and a quality changeup, so as long as he can keep the walks in check (currently 10.1 percent at High-A), he should be at least a mid-rotation starter.
10. Luis De Leon, BAL, ETA: 2027
De Leon was much better last year at Double-A than he has been this year. The 23-year-old fireballer had a 10.2 percent walk rate in 76.1 innings across High-A and Double-A last year but has a 14.1 percent walk rate in 34.1 innings at Double-A this year. At his best, he's an elite groundball generator and bat misser, but there's undeniably some bullpen risk still with De Leon.
HONORABLE MENTION: David Shields (KC), Cam Caminiti (ATL), Quinn Mathews (STL), Jackson Kent (WSH), Joseph Dzierwa (BAL), J.D. Thompson (MIL), Nicolas Carreno (NYM), Joe Whitman (SF), Mavis Graves (PHI), Reinold Navarro (PIT), Kash Mayfield (SD), Hagen Smith (CHW), Kruz Schoolcraft (SD), Franklin Gomez (CLE), Mason Peters (SEA), Mitch Bratt (ARI)
