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47. Royelny Strop (my #34)
48. Mason Burns (my #40)
49. Austin Love (my #41). Another relief arm, but he’s had more time in the system than Mason Burns (this will be year #5 in the system for him). He had a very good return from injury in 2025 at Springfield, but it wasn’t crazy dominant. Still, you figure he’ll be at Memphis with a shot to get called up.
50. Ty Van Dyke (my #42). I have these guys all bunched up (Payton Graham is my #43 and I have Elissalt, Showalter, Holiday and Young also in my #40-50 range), but Ty (not to be confused with Tyler, the QB prospect) bumps ahead of them based on the fact that he debuted and pitched really well. I like the big righty from Stetson to dominate at Palm Beach next year and he should weather Peoria well too. He may even find his way to the stellar Springfield bullpen by the end of 2026.
47. Holiday (my 34) – I’m having a hard time with this one not making our top 50. At least he made TCN’s.
48. Rajcic (my 35) – Competent, steady, injury-free workhorse who is one adjustment away from being a number 5 starter. Not exciting, but close to the majors and could contribute in ‘26.
49. Graham (my 38) – Actually very exciting upside if he gets healthy again. Could easily get to top 30 next year.
50. Mason Burns (my 40) – probably our 3rd best bullpen only prospect.
Jnevel, help me understand why Holiday should be so high? He hasn’t pitched, is coming off a significant injury, and although he was good in college, his stature isn’t one that generally has a good major league success rate. But he was a semi high draft pick. I felt like he slotted in behind some other guys in my list for that reason. Here’s how and why I ranked the guys I mentioned in my last post:
Burns #40-good stuff, good results in his first year and made it to AA to play a significant role.
Love #41-Had a great year this year but he’s older than all the rest and that dings him. He’s still probably the first to MLB if he makes it.
Van Dyke #42-His good start to his career colors this one.
Graham #43-Here’s where I could be convinced that Holiday slots above. Graham is probably Holiday in a year and will drop in my rankings. But I like the profile once he heals up and I like this year’s Cardinals development team eye better than last year’s, if that’s worth anything.
Elissalt #46-The stuff models like him, and he’s had decent results. I just can’t rank him much higher, maybe a hunch? I dunno why exactly.
Showalter #47-A frustrating guy as he sometimes looks great and sometimes he’s throwing 88 mph. The mechanics need to get right, but there’s upside since he’s so young. He looked like a world beater in 2024 and then very weird in 2025.
Holiday #48-Hasn’t pitched and who knows when he will.
Young #49-Hasn’t pitched and I’m a little spooked by the relief profile, but admittedly he could rise.
Jnevel, help me understand why Holiday should be so high?
I have some misgivings with Holiday’s size and funky throwing motion. However, he’s had a lot of success prior, looked really great in Spring training last year, should be recovered from injury soon, and was a higher draft pick. Plus, our resident experts Kyle and Brian rated him at 34 on their list (which coincidentally is exactly where I have him). That’s all I’ve got on him because I’ve never watched him play live. But I feel like that’s a lot more than some of the guys we are voting for past and current.
Brandt Thompson, Frank Elisalt, and Jacob Odle are the only other 3 in my top 50 I won’t get to and Odle was #50. The others all got elected earlier.
#47. Miguel Hernandez (my #28)
#48. Royel Strop (my #34)
#49. Austin Love (my #36)
#50. Brian Holiday (my #39)3 of the same 4 for me this vote cycle so I won’t rehash them. Holiday is the new name for me in the group. Obviously a lot of risk with him, but he does have great stuff and should be healthy to go soon into the year. I think he has a better shot despite the risk of being in an MLB rotation than someone much closer like Rajcic.
47. Max Rajcic – Probably should have been ranked in the 30’s.
48. Brian Holiday – ‘Holiday’ with one,
‘L’, not two L’s like Matt Holliday.
49. Keiverson Ramirez – Wish there would have been some discussion about this former DSL kid. I’m guessing that he is undergoing a period of adjustment after being shipped stateside.
50. Alec Willis – Listed at 6’5”, 220 lbs. Drafted out of high school although, reportedly, not intending to sign if drafted. Ultimately signed with Cardinals for $1M. Proved to TCN that he was still with the organization by allowing BW to take his photo during 2025 ST.47. Ian Michael “Tippy Toes” Petrutz
48. Noah “Bird Dog” Mendlinger
49. Miguel Eduardo “The El Tigre Tiger” Hernandez
50. Brian Michael “Flash” Holiday
#47 Holiday
#48 Rajcic
#49 Love
#50 MHernandez
There you have it…. the 2026 TCN Community Top 50 Prospect Selections.
Remember: starting now we can begin the voting for the 5 Honorable Mention selections. The deadline for that will be Thursday Dec. 11th at noon CST and 1:00 EST.As always, thanks to all of you who made this process run smoothly and with added credibility. Its been a great exercise for making the “fireside chat” a little more interesting into the Winter Meetings.
Q: Is there much interest in a “Top 50” like this starting at the All-Star break? Comments welcomed.2026 Top 50 Prospects
1. JJ Wetherholt, IF
2. Liam Doyle, LHP
3. Quinn Mathews, LHP
4. Rainiel Rodriguez, C
5. Joshua Baez, OF
6. Leonardo Bernal, C
7. Jimmy Crooks, C
8. Ixan Henderson, LHP
9. Brycen Mautz, LHP
10. Tekoah Roby, RHP
11. Jesus Baez, IF
12. Tink Hence, RHP
13. Cooper Hjerpe, LHP
14. Yairo Padilla, IF
15. Deniel Ortiz, IF
16. Chen-Wei Lin, RHP
17. Ryan Mitchell, OF
18. Braden Davis, LHP
19. Tanner Franklin, RHP
20. Nathan Church, OF
21. Luis Gastelum, RHP
22. Blaze Jordan, IF
23. Andre Granillo RHP
24. Pete Hansen LHP
25. Zach Levenson, OF
26. Chase Davis, OF
27. Jack Gurevitch, IF
28. Bryan Torres, IF/OF
29. Mason Molina, LHP
30. Won-Bin Cho, OF
31. Nate Dohm, RHP
32. Sebastian Dos Santos, IF
33. Leonel Sequera, RHP
34. Andrew Dutkanych, RHP
35. Kenly Hunter, OF
36. Hancel Rincon, RHP
37. Cade Crossland, LHP
38. Ethan Young, RHP
39. Travis Honeyman, OF
40. Cade Winquest, RHP
41. Frank Elissalt, RHP
42. Yaxson Lucena, OF
43. Matt Koperniak, OF
44. Michael Watson, LHP
45. Josh Kross, C/IF
46. Cesar Prieto, IF
47. Brian Holiday, RHSP
48. Max Rajcic, RHSP
49. Austin Love, RHRP
50. Miguel Hernandez, SSHonorable Mentions
– Royel Strop (my #34)
– Jacob Odle (my #40)
– Leonel Segura (my #41)
– Tyler Van Dyke (my #43)
– Jalin Flores (my #45)Odle has oodles of arm talent but with his injury history, he hasn’t developed yet. There is upside there though as he has good stuff. He is one of the guys I think is poised to jump up significantly next year if he can pitch the whole year. His command was not there this past year, but I suspect part of that is not having pitched as much and hopefully that rust can wear off.
I fully expected Seguara to make the community list and am quite surprised he didn’t. He put up very respsectable numbers in A ball as a 19 year old. The stuff isn’t outstanding and is more average, but he does have great command (a thing most TCN members highly value). There is room for projection on him to still put on muscle mass though so there could be more in the tank for Segura.
Ty Van Dyke is someone Kyle has got me excited about. I won’t repeat here as if you listen to the TCN podcasts you know Kyle’s thoughts on him.
Flores has a lot of pop potential in his bat. There is a much higher risk amount here than you will see on most college seniors as Flores has multiple things to improve, but he has power and a good glove and that gives him a chance to be at least a solid big leaguer.
I know we get only 5 honorable mentions, but listing other remaining player who made my personal top 50 but did not make the communities.
– Branneli Franco (my #50)Pure upside pick with Franco for my last pick who has plenty of talent, but he needs to put it together. We will see what his state side debut looks like this year.
I like the idea of a mid-season list. But maybe we keep it to Top 20/25. 50 is a lot to get through. I’ll participate either way though.
Honorable Mentions:
1) Mason Burns – I think he’s easily a top 50 guy right now but got pushed out. After Granillo and Gastellum, I have him as our next best relief-only prospect (very close with Watson too).
2) Payton Graham – I’m super excited about Graham. I think he’s a real steal in the draft. But we will see how he responds after his injury.
3) Brandt Thompson – Brandt had an amazing 2025 and I’m shocked no one else mentioned him. He just kept getting promoted and he just kept excelling at each new level. Yeah, his stuff looks ordinary, but results matter and he got them.
Those 3 are easy for me. Not so much for the last 2. I have Odle ranked next from my list but I’m not feeling him today. I’m also tempted to go Echeman who is a really interesting under the radar draft pick. But he hasn’t pitched yet and I’d prefer to wait on him but am more confident with Graham that I included him. I’m just going to go with 2 guys who I really like watching.
4. Miura – Fun to watch the hustle, defense, and hitting skills.
5. Van Dyke – Big heavy pitchers are fun to watch. And his results were solid enough to give us hope.
I agree that the midseason re-rankings would be a good idea, but also would limit the number to no more than 30 then.
Honorable Mention:
– Mason Burns
– Ryan Campos
– Ty Van Dyke
– Randel Clemente
– Mason MolinaHonorable Mention List:
1. Tre Richardson
2. Royelny Strop
3. Jonathan Mejia
4. Jon Jon Gazdar
5. Skylar HalesI also agree that if there is an all star break list it should be scaled back to top 20 or 25. 50 is a massive undertaking, especially for folks like myself whose knowledge and interest level in lower level guys is very lukewarm. I know some of you guys live and die with the minors, and I appreciate the knowledge you bring, but my interest is more line with the action in STL, with a little AA and AAA sprinkled in.
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