Prospects Popping Off! These Prospects Are Rising Ranks Quickly

We are back with another full week of Minor League Baseball action. Tuesday brought a ton of fun performances. Today I will be heading down to Augusta to check out a pitching matchup between Luke Sinnard and Trevor Harrison in what should be a good one!

Let’s recap what happened across the entire landscape of pro baseball yesterday. If you are unfamiliar with the Dynasty Digest, it is a daily newsletter covering the previous days’ action. From star prospects, to players under the radar, I broke down everything you need to know that happened.

Let’s get to it.

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Each day, I will pick a hitter and pitcher who stand out and deserve the top spot on the sheet. Those players’ reports will be free for all to read. The rest will be paywalled for Dynasty Dugout Subscribers. The article is around 3000 words, giving you detailed player reports to encapsulate everything you need to know.

Yordanny Monegro, RHP, Boston Red Sox, 22, AA

If you look at the statistical surface, Monegro looks like one of the best pitching prospects in the minors. He is going to pop on public models and many are going to tell you he is a top 100 prospect. I get it.

Last night, Monegro tossed five scoreless innings with ten strikeouts and just one walk. He generated 15 whiffs and was highly efficient, landing 65 percent of his pitches for strikes. The start lowred Monegro’s ERA to 2.05 on the year dating back to post 2024 All Star break(70.1 innings) Monegro has a 1.02 ERA.

The fastball works in the 94-96 mph range, and in 2024, he began using a sinker more than his four-seam. This suits his arsenal much better, but the fastball is still prone to being hit around. He debuted a new look split-change last year as well, that is quite nasty, sitting at 87-90 mph, and while the shape was not always consistent, it generates a ton of whiffs, giving hitters tough looks.

Monegro relies heavily on his secondaries, using an upper-80s slider with an upper-70s 12-6 curve. The slider varies in shape at times but usually has good depth. The curveball is a true 12-6 breaker, a pitch he used less in 2024. He is comfortable giving hitters various looks at it by dropping it at the top of the zone or throwing it down and getting them to chase out of the zone.

At the end of the day, you can’t argue results. Monegro is a very good arm, but there are still questions about him being a starter long term. Few pitchers can use a fastball as little as he does and find success as a starter. That can always change. He is 22 years old with good breaking stuff. But right now, Monegro projects as a back-end starting pitcher or reliever for me.

Lazaro Montes, OF, Seattle Mariners, 20, A+

At this point, I have become known as a Montes hater because I haven’t ranked him inside my top 50 prospects. The concerns and reasons why were legitimate, starting with contact. ith a big frame and an aggressive swing, Montes does have holes. He ran a contact rate near 69 percent last year, but as the season wore on, he began to see more breaking balls, which ate him up. From July forward, Montes posted a 64 percent overall contact rate.

That concern has not been eased this year as Montes is still running a contact rate under 70 percent, but he might make it work. Montes blasted his eighth home run of the year over the batter’s eye last night on the shot that was hit 108 mph and 426 feet. He is now up to 20 extra-base hits in 38 games this year.

Montes is slashing .271/.398/.557 and has struck out in 26.3 percent of plate appearances and walked 17 percent of the time. One of the major changes in the profile is that Montes has seen the ground ball rate jump 12 percentage points to 45 percent this year. Montes is also hitting more pop ups and is getting to the pull-side less.

All this is could be a moot point given how Montes has performed year over year. One thing is certain, the power is legit.

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