MLB Pipeline has been unveiling their Top 10 Prospects at each position on the field over the last week as they count down to the release of their Top 100 list on Thursday. This morning the list was for the top shortstops in baseball and unsurprisingly to anyone who has been following the Cincinnati Reds, there were two Reds players on that list.
As noted by Sam Dykstra (who authored the piece) – all of the players on the list will be among the top 40 prospects in the game when the Top 100 is released on Thursday. Elly De La Cruz comes in at third on the list. He’s ranked behind the Yankees Anthony Volpe and Red Sox prospect Marcelo Mayer. A little bit further down the list is Noelvi Marte, who joined the Reds at the trade deadline in a deal with the Seattle Mariners. Marte comes in at the number nine spot.
There are ETA’s listed with each prospect, too. Elly De La Cruz is expected to arrive in the big leagues at some point in 2023. That’s not a shock considering that he crushed Double-A in the second half of the 2022 season and there’s a good argument that he’ll be in Triple-A when the season begins. Add in that he’s also now on the 40-man roster and him seeing action this upcoming season makes a lot of sense. For Noelvi Marte the group at MLB Pipeline thinks that he’s more in line for a debut at some point in 2024. He was also added to the 40-man roster this offseason, but unlike De La Cruz, he has yet to reach Double-A.
Both De La Cruz and Marte get mentioned in the article for things. Marte “has the most to prove” among the players on the list. De La Cruz gets mentioned several times in the tools section, as well as being the player listed with the highest ceiling.
In 2022, the Cincinnati star was two homers away from being the Minors’ first 30-40 player since George Springer in 2013, and he has the loud tools to back up the numbers. He’s arguably the best power-speed prospect in the Minors, and the only thing that gives us pause is his 30.8 percent K rate from last year. If he brings that down a touch — or even manages to keep making enough hard contact to keep his batting average respectable — he’s a potential superstar.
Earlier in the week the crew at MLB Pipeline unveiled the Top 10 third base prospects and another Red – Cam Collier – found himself on that list. The Cincinnati Reds 1st round pick in 2022’s draft, Collier came in at the 7th spot on this list. The 18-year-old didn’t play much after the draft thanks to the pushing of the draft until late July, but when he was playing he absolutely raked. Collier hit .370/.514/.630 in his 35 plate appearances and he walked more than he struck out (7 to 6).
Can’t go wrong with two and almost three prospects on the top ten SS list. I actually half anticipated Marte to already be on the 3B list yesterday.