MLB spring training 2024: scouts are enthralled with ten players

Scouts are flocking to Florida and Arizona as MLB spring training games get underway to catch a glimpse of real action. Many of the athletes they see are improved versions of themselves, having improved their swings, learned new pitches, or just gained muscle.

These ten guys are standouts who have wowed evaluators in the early going of spring training as the buzz around those players increases.

Cole Ragans, SP, Royals of Kansas City

The analogy seemed too absurd to be real. After becoming enamored with the 26-year-old pitcher, one assessor remarked of Ragans, “He’s left-handed deGrom.” Comparing Major League Baseball’s unquestioned king of stuff, Jacob deGrom, to a pitcher who has thrown just 136 major league innings seems excessive.

Take a peek at Ragans’s debut performance this spring: His 99.2 mph fastball was averaged. He launched one with a 20-inch vertical break that was generated at 101. Last season, not a single MLB starter hit 101 with that kind of vertical, indicating that the ball doesn’t drop nearly as far as a typical fastball. Ragans can produce a slider, curveball, changeup, four-seamer, and, most importantly, a cutter that was sitting at 95 mph. In the past, Ragans’ injuries prevented him from fulfilling his potential. He has the potential to be one of baseball’s top pitchers if he can maintain his health.

Jackson Merrill, SS/OF, San Diego Padres

Merrill ranked No. 12 on Kiley McDaniel’s Top 100 prospects list, though his appeal is as much due to his natural position as his bat. The Padres have a shortstop (for this year at least) in Ha-Seong Kim, but with two outfield spots open alongside right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Merrill has dabbled in center and left field. If the Padres sign a free agent outfielder — former Padre Tommy Pham, Michael A. Taylor and Adam Duvall all remain available — it could potentially bump the 20-year-old Merrill back to the minors. For now, though, multiple sources have lauded Merrill’s work ethic, and his left-handed bat is good enough that it would surprise no one if he is in the lineup when the Padres face the Los Angeles Dodgers to start the season in Seoul.

Los Angeles Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow, SP

The 30-year-old Glasnow, who was dealt to the Dodgers in December and inked a five-year, $136.5 million contract extension, has been honing his two-seam fastball, which can reach speeds of 99 mph, during the spring. It almost seems unfair that he would pair his incredible curveball and slider with an equally impressive blazing sinker to match his fast-paced four-seam fastball.

The Dodgers can’t wait to use the additions of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani to their advantage. Pitching in the expansive Dodger Stadium and in good health, Glasnow might be just as valuable an addition for Los Angeles as they attempt to win their first championship since the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season.

A.J. Puk, SP, Marlins of Miami
Puk, who was formerly regarded as one of the best starting pitching prospects, moved into the bullpen in 2019 during his rookie campaign with Oakland and developed into a reliable reliever. The Marlins are now expecting even more. Together with his four-seamer and slider, Puk arrived at camp with new pitches, including a split-fingered fastball and two-seam fastball, which has given Miami the confidence to start him once more.

The Marlins already have two of baseball’s greatest players in Jesus Luzardo and Eury Perez, and if the 6-foot-7 Puk can replicate his 6-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio from the previous season, he has a real opportunity to be very, very excellent.

Cleveland Guardians’ Chase DeLauter, OF

During the 2022 draft process, DeLauter was considered to be the front-runner overall at one time. When he broke his left foot running the bases, he was hitting.435/.576/.828 for James Madison; three months later, he was traded to Cleveland for the No. 16 selection. DeLauter played in 57 games and hit.355/.417/.528 despite having an ankle injury that ended his first complete season in the major leagues.

Cleveland’s outfield has long been the weakest part of a strong organization, and the 6-foot-4, 235-pound DeLauter — whose follow-through-free left-handed swing still manages to generate immense power — could find himself locking down the Guardians’ right-field job as soon as Opening Day.

DL Hall, SP, Milwaukee Brewers

When trading a player the quality of Corbin Burnes, landing a strong return is imperative, especially for a team like Milwaukee that consistently operates on bottom-10 payrolls. In the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Hall, the Brewers landed a hard-throwing, hyperathletic left-hander whose stuff screams front end of the rotation but whose control has screamed future in the bullpen.

Milwaukee’s staff is bullish on Hall as a starter, and a future rotation with him and Jacob Misiorowski — the 6-foot-7 flamethrower who might have the best raw stuff in organized baseball — is a scary prospect for National League Central teams.

Cole Irvin, SP, Baltimore Orioles

Already having added Burnes, the Orioles have a supercharged version of Irvin ready to join their rotation. Irvin, 30, debuted in 2019 as a classic control-and-command left-hander, his average fastball not even 90 mph. Last year his velocity jumped to 92, and in his first outing this spring, Irvin was sitting at 94. He popped one heater at 95.9, the hardest he’s ever thrown in a game. Velocity isn’t everything, but among qualified lefty starters in 2023, only Luzardo, Framber Valdez, Blake Snell and Yusei Kikuchi threw harder.

Kyle Bradish’s tender elbow might portend trouble, and John Means’s return being behind schedule isn’t ideal, but among Burnes, Irvin, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells, the Orioles have the depth to weather it.

Cristopher Sanchez, SP, Philadelphia Phillies

Wildness had hindered Sanchez until he finally stuck in the Phillies’ rotation last season, and he rewarded their patience by allowing just 16 walks in 18 starts. He showed up this spring with two extra ticks on a fastball that’s now sitting at 94 mph, and he’s added a cutter to his top-of-the-line changeup and effective sinker.

Betting on 27-year-old pitchers to take the leap can be a fool’s errand, but the early indications make Sanchez a real candidate to do so. If he can join Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez for a full season in the rotation and continue to generate ground balls — his 57% rate was fourth among all MLB pitchers with at least 90 innings last season — the Phillies’ hopes of catching the Atlanta Braves in the NL East gets that much better.

Owen Caissie, OF Chicago Cubs

The Cubs acquired a pre-pro debut Caissie from the Padres in the Yu Darvish trade, and he finally broke out last season as a 20-year-old who was pushed to Double-A. Caissie combines the two qualities every team seeks in a hitter: huge power and fantastic swing decisions. While the Cubs don’t have room for him right now with Ian Happ in left field and Seiya Suzuki in right, it’s a first-world problem for a team whose prospect cache (infielder Matt Shaw, center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, right-handers Cade Horton and Ben Brown) is ranked as the best in the National League by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel.