We’ve reached an exhilarating moment for dynasty managers where a plethora of upper-echelon prospects — Roki Sasaki, Dylan Crews, Kristian Campbell, Jasson Domínguez, Jackson Jobe, Cam Smith and (since-demoted) Matt Shaw — made Opening Day rosters around the league. They’ve been supplemented by a handful of impactful early-season arrivals — Nick Kurtz, Chandler Simpson, Luke Keaschall and Chase Dollander — and there are still a couple potential superstar-caliber talents — Roman Anthony, Bubba Chandler and Jordan Lawlar — on the doorstep of breaking into the majors in full-time roles.
We took a glimpse into the future a couple weeks ago in this space with an in-depth look at the next wave of elite dynasty prospects headlined by Sebastian Walcott, Leo De Vries — who went 5-for-5 with two homers and hit for the cycle earlier this week at High-A Fort Wayne — Walker Jenkins, Jesús Made, Bryce Eldridge, Max Clark, Konnor Griffin and Chase Burns.
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This week’s column take a bit of a deeper dive, especially for fantasy managers that aren’t fully immersed in the expansive dynasty space, into a handful of relatively obscure prospects making some serious noise in the lower minors. There are probably 10-plus additional names that could’ve been featured in this space, but this week’s selections include Aroon Escobar, Sean Linan, Bryce Cunningham, Brandon Clarke and Luis Morales. Without further delay, let’s dive into the prospects.
Aroon Escobar, INF, Phillies
After being limited to just 24 games last year in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League due to shin splints, Escobar has gotten off to a sizzling-hot start this season at Low-A Clearwater, hitting .386/.500/.684 with four homers through 15 games. What makes the 20-year-old infielder compelling for dynasty purposes is that he’s added some additional over-the-fence-pop this season without selling out completely to get to it, striking out just 22.9 percent of the time, after walking more than he struck out the previous two years across 57 games between the Florida Complex League and Dominican Summer League. Simply put, there aren’t a ton of glaring weaknesses in his offensive profile, which is spearheaded by an above-average hit tool. He’s not going to steal bases, but the emerging combination of offensive tools give him a realistic shot to reach the majors in a couple years as an offensive sparkplug and viable starting-caliber infielder. He’s several hyperspace jumps…