2022 MLB Draft Top Prospects

The BA 500 is an attempt to capture the industry’s consensus on the talent of the 2022 draft class—not to predict where players will be selected. The list was compiled in consultation with major league scouts, front office executives, scouting directors, college coaches and other professional evaluators. Ben Badler, Teddy Cahill, JJ Cooper, Kyle Glaser, Joe Healy, Tom Lipari, Bill Mitchell and Carlos Collazo contributed to reporting and writing. Chris Trenkle contributed to editing.

Related: 2022 MLB Mock Draft Version 4.0

July 15: A last-minute rankings update to account for player movement and prospects removing themselves from the draft.

Georgia high school outfielder Druw Jones continues to lead the class in the No. 1 spot, as the industry’s consensus top prospect.

Given the extreme attrition to the top-end pitching talent of the class, it’s a hitter-heavy group up top, with high-upside high school players like SS Jackson Holliday, SS Termarr Johnson and OF Elijah Green.

For teams more inclined to chase the safer college demographic, there are plenty of proven bats to be found among the top 10 as well: SS Brooks Lee and C Kevin Parada have cases as the best pure hitters in the college class, while 3B/1B Jacob Berry, 2B Jace Jung, OF Gavin Cross and 3B Cam Collier have varying degrees of high-level hitting ability and power.

Prep righthanders Brock Porter and Dylan Lesko lead the pitching class, with power arms and elite changeups to go with them, while former Vanderbilt star Kumar Rocker ranks at the top of the non-prep pitching demographic.

BA Grades

Baseball America has used BA Grades and risk factors for minor league prospects as part of our team top 30 rankings and annual prospect handbook for more than a decade. Starting in 2021, we assigned the top draft prospects BA Grades as well. This is an attempt to further contextualize the talent of the class and create a more seamless transition from amateur to professional talent rankings.

Below is a brief overview of BA Grades:

For the BA Grade, we used a 20-to-80 scale, similar to the scale scouts use, to keep things familiar. However, most major league clubs put an overall numerical grade on players, called the Overall Future Potential or OFP. Often the OFP is merely an average of the player’s tools.

The BA Grade is not an OFP. It’s a measure of a prospect’s value, and it attempts to gauge the player’s realistic ceiling. We’ve continued to adjust our grades to try to be more realistic, and less optimistic, and keep refining the grade vetting process.

BA Grade Scale

Grade	Hitter Role	Pitcher Role
75-80	Franchise Player	No. 1 starter
65-70	Perennial All-Star	No. 2 starter
60	Occasional All-Star	No. 3 starter, Game's best reliever
55	First-Division Regular	No. 3/No. 4 starter, Closer
50	Solid-Average Regular	No. 4 starter, Setup reliever
45	Second-Division Regular/Platoon	No. 5 starter, Middle reliever
40	Reserve	Fill-in starter, Low-leverage reliever
35	Quality Org Player	Quality Org Player

Risk Factors

Low: Likely to reach realistic ceiling, certain big league career barring injury.

Medium: Some work left to refine their tools, but a polished player.

High: Most top draft picks in their first season, players with plenty of projection left, players with a significant flaw left to correct or players whose injury history is worrisome.

Very High: Recent draft picks with limited track record of success or injury issues.

Extreme: Teenagers in Rookie ball, players with significant injury histories or players who struggle with a key skill, especially control for pitchers or strikeout rate for hitters.

2 Matches

Expand Collapse All Updated on: 7/15/2022

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Mikey Romero
Orange (Calif.) Lutheran HS SS
Video
Notes:
HT: 5-11 | Wt: 168 | B-T: L-R
Commit/Drafted: Louisiana State
Age At Draft: 18.5
BA Grade: 55/Extreme
Tools: Hit: 55. Power: 40. Run: 45. Field: 50. Arm: 45.

Romero established himself as one of the top players his age as an underclassman at Vista Murrieta (Calif.) High and transferred to national prep power Orange (Calif.) Lutheran High for a chance at increased exposure. He got off to a slow start this spring and struggled at the National High School Invitational, but he recovered to show well at the Boras Classic and finished the season strong. Romero has a pretty, natural lefthanded swing and an advanced feel for hitting. He identifies pitches well and frequently gets the barrel to the ball to make consistent contact, including against high-end velocity and quality breaking stuff. Though Romero makes lots of contact, it’s often soft contact. He has a slender build and lacks the strength to do damage even when he squares balls up. He needs to make substantial strength gains to reach his potential as an above-average hitter with below-average power, with opinions sharply divided on whether he will be able to. Romero is an instinctive defender at shortstop with sure hands and a quick transfer, but his range is limited by his fringe-average speed and his fringy arm strength makes it difficult for him to make throws moving to his right. He is likely to move to second base or play a utility role. Romero is a mature, mentally tough individual who performed in high-pressure situations while his father battled advanced stage cancer. He also has athletic bloodlines: his older sisters Sierra and Sydney were two of the best college softball players of their generation at Michigan and Oklahoma, respectively. He is committed to Louisiana State.
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Last: 405
Maxwell Romero Jr.
Miami C
Notes:
HT: 6-1 | Wt: 218 | B-T: L-R
Commit/Drafted: Reds '19 (38)
Age At Draft: 21.2
Romero Jr. spent two seasons with Vanderbilt prior to transferring to Miami for the 2022 season. This spring, the 6-foot-1, 118-pound catcher was the everyday catcher for Miami and he slashed .272/.378/.507 with 12 home runs and 15 doubles. He has solid raw power in the tank and sound exit velocity data to back that up, but there’s a decent amount of swing-and-miss in his game as well. Romero Jr. struck out at a 25.9% rate this spring and has struggled against 93+ mph fastball velocity as well as breaking stuff. He does have solid receiving skills behind the plate and brings a strong arm to the table that dates back to his prep days (when he ranked a the No. 275 prospect in the 2019 draft class). Between Vanderbilt and Miami, Romero Jr. has thrown out 28.6% of base runners and in an admittedly small sample in the Cape Cod League in 2021 that mark was 43%. An ACC catcher with double-digit home run power should be appealing to most teams at some point in the draft.
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2022 MLB Draft Top Prospects

Mikey Romero

Maxwell Romero Jr.

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