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It was an interesting week for prospect promotions and demotions. We received another exciting Cleveland prospect with Tanner Bibee while Michael Busch FINALLY made his long-awaited MLB debut, even if it took half the Dodgers team going on the paternity leave list for it to happen. But on the other side, St. Louis optioned Jordan Walker to Triple-A and Tampa Bay did the same with Taj Bradley.
The purpose of this article is to assist those trying to answer the last part above. Stashing fantasy baseball prospects should be done strategically, not haphazardly. You need to be cognizant of which prospects will be up sooner and can make the biggest short-term impact on your teams -- even if that means stashing a prospect that might be ranked lower than another in long-term dynasty prospect rankings.
In this article, we will focus on MLB prospects, rookies, and call-ups who could make impacts for the 2023 fantasy baseball season.
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Top 25 Prospects to Stash for Fantasy Baseball
Notes on plenty of prospects can be found below the rankings table. And remember, these rankings are for 2023 redraft value only. These are MLB prospects to potentially make a rest-of-season fantasy baseball impact in 2023. As prospects are called up, they are removed from the rankings. You can also see our top 250 fantasy baseball dynasty prospects for long-term outlooks.
Called Up Last Week: Tanner Bibee (CLE), Michael Busch (LAD)
Honorable Mentions: Maikel Garcia (KC), Addison Barger (TOR), Ricky Tiedemann (TOR), Luis Ortiz (PIT), Cade Marlowe (SEA), Justin Foscue (TEX), Casey Schmitt (SF), Pedro Leon (HOU), Samad Taylor (KC), Sal Frelick (MIL)
| Rank | Name | Position | Team | ETA | Last Wk |
| 1 | Jordan Walker | OF | STL | May | NR |
| 2 | Gavin Stone | SP | LAD | May | 3 |
| 3 | Brandon Pfaadt | SP | ARI | April | 1 |
| 4 | Matt Mervis | 1B | CHC | May | 6 |
| 5 | Taj Bradley | SP | TBR | May | NR |
| 6 | Kyle Manzardo | 1B | TBR | May | 2 |
| 7 | Edouard Julien | 2B | MIN | May | 4 |
| 8 | Christian Encarnacion-Strand | 1B/3B | CIN | June | 19 |
| 9 | Curtis Mead | 2B/3B | TBR | May | 5 |
| 10 | Matthew Liberatore | SP | STL | May | 7 |
| 11 | Ronny Mauricio | SS | NYM | June | 12 |
| 12 | Colton Cowser | OF | BAL | June | 10 |
| 13 | Matt McLain | SS | CIN | June | 17 |
| 14 | Royce Lewis | SS | MIN | June | 11 |
| 15 | Jordan Westburg | 2B/3B/SS | BAL | June | 13 |
| 16 | Justyn-Henry Malloy | OF | DET | May | 14 |
| 17 | David Hamilton | SS | BOS | June | 9 |
| 18 | Connor Norby | 2B | BAL | June | 15 |
| 19 | Bobby Miller | SP | LAD | June | 16 |
| 20 | Nolan Jones | OF | COL | May | 20 |
| 21 | Elly De La Cruz | SS | CIN | July | 18 |
| 22 | Gavin Williams | SP | CLE | July | NR |
| 23 | Chase Silseth | SP | LAA | May | 21 |
| 24 | Bo Naylor | C | CLE | May | 22 |
| 25 | Endy Rodriguez | C | PIT | June | 24 |
Fantasy Baseball Prospect Rankings Analysis
Jordan Walker (OF - STL)
Is it disappointing to see the Cardinals send Jordan Walker down to Triple-A? Obviously. Should they probably make a trade to free up some space in their crowded outfield? Absolutely. But for now, we'll have to wait for Walker to make his return. Honestly, I don't have a good sense of when that will be. However, given the immense upside that Walker possesses, you absolutely need to be holding him unless you have very shallow benches and are desperate for the roster spot.
Taj Bradley (SP - TBR)
Ditto for Taj Bradley. If you have Bradley, I'd be holding unless you play in a shallower league. In three starts with the Rays, Bradley compiled an impressive 3.52 ERA, 2.29 xERA, 0.91 WHIP, 38.3% strikeout rate, and 35% K-BB rate. He was missing bats at a high clip with both his changeup (44.4%) and curveball (37.5%), and all four of Bradley's offerings had an xBA of .200 or less. I'm anticipating Bradley will be back up before the end of May and he's already shown that he has the stuff to be an impact arm.
Gavin Stone (SP - LAD)
Make sure you go check your league's waiver wire to see if Gavin Stone is available. The Dodgers are calling him up to make his MLB debut this week and there's a chance he could stick for a bit if he impresses in that outing. Or it could be a spot start, who knows. But I'm not opposed to adding him regardless to see what happens. Stone has looked much better in his last two Triple-A starts, combining for 15 strikeouts in 9.2 innings while allowing five hits, four walks, and one earned run.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand (1B/3B - CIN)
After missing the first few weeks of the Triple-A season, Christian Encarnacion-Strand made his debut at the level early last week and has been mashing all week. Encarnacion-Strand is slashing .448/.500/.931 in seven games with two doubles and four home runs already.
And just as impressive is the fact that he's improved his strikeout rate to 15.6%. He's an aggressive hitter in general, but the quality of contact is elite and he'll be able to call the most hitter-friendly ballpark in baseball home at some point this season. That might be sooner rather than later, especially if he continues mashing like this.
Matt Mervis (1B - CHC)
Speaking of mashing, Matt "Mash" Mervis continues mashing in Triple-A while Eric Hosmer and Trey Mancini continue to be the epitome of "meh" offensively for the Cubs. Another two hits on Sunday, including the missile below, have Mervis' season line up to .295/.407/.580 with seven doubles, six home runs, and as many walks as strikeouts (17). Mervis has nothing left to prove in Triple-A and should be up with the Cubs before the end of the month.
Gavin Williams (SP - CLE)
We've already seen the debuts of Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen over the last week, and Gavin Williams likely isn't too far behind them. After a dominant 19-start stint in Double-A including a 0.63 ERA in a trio of starts this season, Williams was finally bumped to Triple-A last week and tossed 5.1 shutout innings with six strikeouts in his debut at the level.
Williams has proven himself to be a top-five pitching prospect in the game with a dynamic four-pitch mix headlined by a big fastball and plus or better curveball. There's not currently an opening in Cleveland's rotation given the recent promotions, and they'll get Triston McKenzie and Aaron Civale back at some point as well. Williams is knocking on the door and could make a sizeable fantasy impact once up.
Andrew Abbott (SP - CIN)
We go from one pitching prospect that dominated Double-A and was recently promoted to Triple-A to another in the exact same situation. If you follow me on Twitter and check my daily prospect stat tweets each morning, you'll know that the name Andrew Abbott has popped up a few times already this season.
It's hard not to when you strike out 64.3% of the batters you face in three starts, which ended with 11, 14, and 11 strikeouts in 15.2 combined innings. That's about as impressive as a pitcher can be at any level. Abbott struck out another seven in 5.2 innings in his Triple-A debut and looks poised to join the Cincinnati rotation by the All-Star break, likely much sooner than that.
Jo Adell (OF - LAA) & Christopher Morel (3B/SS/OF - CHC)
While neither are technically prospects, I wanted to include a quick blurb on Jo Adell and Christopher Morel this week. Both are hitting for a ton of power in Triple-A right now, but both also have major issues in the contact and approach departments, specifically with how much they strike out. If I were to stash either of these two right now, it would be Morel.
He feels like a much safer bet for production at the MLB level this season and could be up any day now while the Angels seem content letting Adell sit in Triple-A. Morel is currently slashing .363/.463/.835 in 23 games with a whopping 11 home runs. I'm not rushing to add either one, but Morel could have some value again in the near future and has multi-positional eligibility which also helps.
If you enjoyed these rankings and want to see additional rankings, analysis, and more, check out Eric's Toolshed Fantasy Patreon.
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