Written by: Ray Butler

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The midseason version of my 2020 top-200 prospect list is here.

There are a couple of things I’d like to quickly discuss before diving into the actual list. First, there’s been a bit of a paradigm shift the past few months within the prospect evaluation world. Long before and since I began ranking prospects in 2017, age has been such a popular talking point and point of valuation in the dynasty world. Prospects who have age on their side are commonly given the benefit of the doubt over their senior peers, and it can serve as a tiebreaker of sorts when margins become practically invisible in the latter half of a top-200 list. This will still hold true at certain points, but the conversation is in the process of evolving.

The average age of top-200 prospects is about to increase, and the end result will be fairly drastic before we experience normalization. Our John Calvagno wrote about this in June, and I’m sure you’ll realize it as you scroll this list. The COVID-19 shutdown and canceled 2020 minor league season will push back ETAs of 90% of the prospects on this list. That fact won’t really impact the evaluation process per se, but don’t be surprised if it affects trade negotiations in your dynasty leagues moving forward. Prospects who were fortunate enough to be assigned to taxi squads this summer will benefit from continued development, but it won’t stop the fact next preseason there will be 23-year-old prospects on top prospects lists who are yet to debut in full season minor league ball. A specific example: Bobby Witt Jr., who has a chance to someday be the top-overall prospect in the sport, is already 20 and is yet to play at a level higher than the Arizona League. We must re-calibrate how we account for age when evaluating prospects moving forward.

Secondly, the margins between top-end prospects are much tighter than usual. For the first time since I began evaluating prospects, I truly feel as though you could rank #2-7 in practically any order and form a strong argument to support your reasoning. In turn, if the gap between Jarred Kelenic and Gavin Lux is relatively thin, imagine how arbitrary the margins are on the opposite end of the list. The lack of a minor league season and in-person scouting has certainly not helped, either.

Without further ado, let’s dive in. If you have questions or a beef with a specific ranking, feel free to @ me on Twitter. I’m already in the process of writing a ‘behind the scenes’ article that explains some of the nuances of this list, so your question(s) might be answered within that process, too. Away we go!

Honorable mentions: Maximo Acosta, Keoni Cavaco, Justin Dunn, Dane Dunning, Estevan Florial, Luis Gil, Brent Honeywell, Daulton Jefferies, Jared Kelley, Jorge Mateo, Bobby Miller, Braden Shewmake, Carson Tucker, Arol Vera, Jordan Westburg, Will Wilson, Cole Winn 

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