Yahoo Sports’ 26-and-under power rankings are a remix on the traditional farm system rankings that assess the strength of MLB organizations’ talent base among rookie-eligible and MiLB players. While focusing on strictly prospects can be a useful proxy for projecting how bright an organization’s future is, it fails to account for young players already contributing at the big-league level.
By evaluating the strength of all players in an organization entering their age-26 seasons or younger, this exercise aims to paint a more complete picture of each team’s young core. These rankings value productive young big leaguers more heavily than prospects who have yet to prove it at the highest level, and the majority of the prospects included in teams’ evaluations are those who have already reached the upper levels of the minor leagues.
To compile these rankings, each MLB organization was given a score in four categories:
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Young MLB hitters: 26-and-under position players and rookie-eligible hitters projected to be on Opening Day rosters; scored 0-10
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Young MLB pitchers: 26-and-under pitchers and rookie-eligible pitchers projected to be on Opening Day rosters; scored 0-10
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Prospect hitters: prospect-eligible position players projected to reach MLB in the next 1-2 years; scored 0-5
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Prospect pitchers: prospect-eligible pitchers projected to reach MLB in the next 1-2 years; scored 0-5
We’re counting down all 30 organizations’ 26-and-under talent bases from weakest to strongest leading up to Opening Day, diving into five teams at a time. So far, we’ve covered Nos. 30-26, Nos. 25-21, Nos. 20-16, Nos. 15-11 and Nos. 10-6.
We have finally arrived at the top of our rankings with teams Nos. 5-1.
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More rankings: Nos. 30-26, starting with the Phillies | Nos. 25-21: Young cores on the rise | Nos. 20-16, starring Bobby Witt Jr. | Nos. 15-11: Young superstars powering contenders | Nos. 10-6: Paul Skenes, Jackson Chourio lifting their teams
5. Los Angeles Dodgers (total score: 18/30) | 2024 rank: 7
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Young MLB hitters (2/10): OF Andy Pages, 2B Hye-seong Kim
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Young MLB pitchers (10/10): RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP Roki Sasaki, RHP Brusdar Graterol, RHP Bobby Miller, RHP River Ryan, RHP Gavin Stone
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Prospect hitters (4/5): C Dalton Rushing, SS Alex Freeland, OF Zyhir Hope, OF Josue De Paula
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Prospect pitchers (2/5): RHP Ben Casparius, LHP Justin Wrobleski, RHP…