Top 25 Fantasy Baseball Prospects To Stash - Updated Rankings for 2023 Redraft (Week 7)

May 9, 2023

Eric's updated top 25 fantasy baseball prospects rankings for Week 7 (2023). MLB prospects, rookies, call-ups to make fantasy baseball impacts in redraft leagues.

It was an another fun week for prospect promotions and demotions. We finally received the long-awaited promotions of pitcher Brandon Pfaadt to Arizona and first baseman Matt Mervis to the Cubbies while also getting a brief glimpse at Gavin Stone with the Dodgers as well. But on the flip side, Vaughn Grissom was demoted once again to Triple-A. With all this movement, we have a mini shakeup at the top of these prospect to stash rankings with another Cincinnati infield prospect making a sizeable jump towards the top of the rankings.

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: Matt Mervis (CHC), Brandon Pfaadt (ARI), Gavin Stone (LAD). Stone was optioned back to Triple-A.

Honorable Mentions: Luis Ortiz (PIT), Cade Marlowe (SEA), Justin Foscue (TEX), Casey Schmitt (SF), Pedro Leon (HOU), Samad Taylor (KC), Chase Silseth (LAA), Sal Frelick (MIL), Joey Ortiz (BAL)

Fantasy Baseball Prospect Rankings Analysis

Matt McLain (2B/SS - CIN)

There are a lot of Cincinnati Reds prospects standing out right now. Last week, we discussed Christian Encarnacion-Strand and now switch to his Triple-A Louisville teammate, Matt McLain. In 31 games this season, McLain already has racked up 10 doubles, nine home runs, and eight steals, with a stellar .336/.449/.681 slash line. He's also dropped his strikeout rate from 28.1% to 20.3% while maintaining his usual high walk at 15.2%.

Given his power/speed blend and ability to play both middle infield positions, I'm expecting Cincinnati to call up McLain in the near future to take over at shortstop, a position they've gotten zero from this season as both Kevin Newman and Jose Barrero are hitting below .230 with a wRC+ well below 100.

Colton Cowser (OF - BAL)

While he's slowed down a bit over the last several days, Colton Cowser has been swinging a hot stick for the last few weeks now. In 138 plate appearances, Cowser is slashing .303/.442/.514 with six doubles, five home runs, four steals, and nearly as many walks (25) as strikeouts.

Cowser has always shown elite on-base abilities with the power/speed blend that could have him flirt with 20/20, but dropping the strikeout rate down to 18.1% this season has been huge. He's proving that he's ready for the Majors and Cowser is likely the next man up if Baltimore needs an outfielder.

Jordan Westburg (2B/3B/SS - BAL)

I'm honestly not sure what Baltimore is waiting for when it comes to Jordan Westburg. While Adam Frazier hasn't exactly been terrible offensively, it's not like he's lighting the world on fire with his .240/.330/.375 slash line either. Meanwhile, Westburg is slashing .333/.395/.593 in Triple-A with eight home runs and four steals in 29 games.

Westburg's 20/10 upside with possible multi-positional eligibility looks mighty appealing for fantasy purposes and one has to imagine that he's up fairly soon if he continues hitting like this in Triple-A.

David Hamilton (SS/2B - BOS)

You could say that David Hamilton is running wild this season, even at a better pace than his 70-steal season in 2022. Through his first 28 games for Triple-A Worcester, Hamilton has already racked up 20 steals along with six home runs and a .311/.398/.557 slash line. He's also improved his walk rate from 10.5% to 12.1% and his strikeout rate from 22.4% to 16.9%.

Given Boston's revolving door in the middle infield this season, along with Hamilton's production and ability to play both spots, it's probably not going to be long before we see him in Boston. And once he's up, Hamilton could make a Esteury Ruiz type of impact with his legs.

Gavin Stone (SP - LAD)

Well, Gavin Stone was called up but still gets to be included on this week's list as he was sent right back down to Triple-A after the one start. Against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday, Stone allowed eight hits and four earned runs over four innings with two walks and only one strikeout.

Nearly 90% of his 77 pitches (68/77) were either 4-seamers or changeups with his changeup registering a 42.9% usage rate. To put that in perspective, the next highest changeup usage rate for a starter this season was Jeffrey Springs at 34.1% followed by Edward Cabrera at 32.9%. While the start was uninspiring, I'm still a believer in Stone long-term and we'll likely see him again at some point this summer.

Vaughn Grissom (2B/SS - ATL)

Lastly, we conclude with the aforementioned Vaughn Grissom. Since he's not a prospect, you won't find Grissom in the rankings above, but I wanted to include a quick blurb about him here. To put it simply, Grissom was pretty mediocre at the plate this season.

In 70 plate appearances, Grissom hit .277, which is solid, but that came with a .314 OBP, .308 SLG, .031 ISO, zero home runs, and zero steals. Grissom wasn't impacting the ball much at all with only a 5.7% barrel rate, 86.7 mph AVG EV, and two extra-base hits. His defense remains a work in progress as well. Given all of that, I'm not expecting Grissom to be recalled any time soon, so he's safe to drop outside of much deeper formats.

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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