Make The Call: Which MLB Infield Prospect Would You Pick?

At Baseball America, we spend a lot of time gathering information, talking to scouts and watching players ourselves to try to figure out how to line players up in our rankings.

Here’s your opportunity to try your hand at trying to decide who you like. Here’s a trio of players to debate and discuss to eventually decide who you like the best.

The Player Breakdown

These three players have all multiple positions, including shortstop, but all three are best defensively and best fits in the major leagues at second base.

All three reached Triple-A in 2024. All three had to fight to get noticed as prospects, as none were viewed as likely big leaguers coming out of college.

They are very similar in age as well. Player A will play the 2025 season as a 25-year-old. Player B will turn 24 halfway through the 2025 season. And Player C will play the 2025 season as a 25-year-old.

Player C bats lefty, while Player A and B hit righthanded.

Player A hit .275/.377/.451 in a 90-game season largely spent at Triple-A in the International League. He had 25 doubles, two triples and 10 home runs in those 90 games and stole 31 bases in 35 tries. Player A played primarily second base, but also spent plenty of time at third base. He has gotten spot starts at shortstop and left field as well.

Player B hit .293/.437/.401 in 122 games at Triple-A. Unlike the other two, he spent the entire season in the International League. He had 20 doubles, three triples, seven home runs and 13 steals in 19 attempts. Player B is the only one of the three who played more games at shortstop than second base in 2024. He played 51 games at shortstop, 35 at third base and 19 at second base. Player B has never played a game in the outfield. He was the only one of these three players to be a top 10 round pick.

Player C hit .307/.435/.497 at three levels, but played 64 games in the International League. He had 19 doubles, eight triples and 12 home runs with 41 steals in 51 attempts. Player C played 63 games at second base, 27 at shortstop and nine at third base. He also played eight games in left field, three in center and two in right field.

Here’s the statistical production info in a chart to make it a bit easier to compare.

Comparing Stats + Data

Player	AVG	OBP	SLG	ISO	BB%	SO%	BABIP	wRC+
Player A	.275	.388	.451	.176	13.1	9.9	.378	124
Player B	.293	.437	.400	.108	18.8	12.7	.393	132
Player C	.306	.435	.497	.191	14.3	14.5	.425	155

So you have three multi-position infielders. All three performed well. Player C had the best statistical season, but also spent the fewest games at Triple-A. Player A has the best strikeout percentage while Player B walks at an exceptional rate.

But nowadays, we have more than just statistical information. We also have additional analytical information. The average exit velocity and max distance is compiled from Triple-A games, while the other

Player	Miss	Zone Miss	Chase Rate	90th EV	Max Distance	% of 95+ Hits
Player A	16%	11%	28%	101	400	25%
Player B	12%	8%	17%	102	404	35%
Player C	16%	13%	20%	101	430	28%

So Player B has the best contact and bat-to-ball skills and hits the ball harder, but all three are in a similar range.

Want a little more information? Here’s the spray chart for Player A as well as his OPS heat chart by pitch location thanks to Synergy Sports. He has a very pull-heavy approach.

Player B, also a righthanded hitter, likes to have the ball in on his hands and isn’t as effective on pitches away.

And here’s Player C’s heat map and spray chart. The lone lefty of these three hitters uses the whole field more than Player A and Player B and showed more all-field power.

We also have Statcast data from Triple-A games for speed and arm strength. The average arm strength is for each player’s hardest (80+ mph) throws.

Player	Max Sprint Speed	Avg Sprint Speed	Max Arm Strength	Avg Arm Strength
Player A	29.3	28.1	83.2	81.4
Player B	28.8	27.1	83.4	81.3
Player C	29.4	27.3	89.0	82.4

Player A is the fastest player and uses his speed the most. Player C has the strongest arm. To add to this, Player A had a one error in 40 games at second base in 2024 and a .994 fielding percentage, with no throwing errors at second. Player B had zero errors in 19 games at second base for a 1.000 fielding percentage. He had seven errors in 51 games at shortstop with five throwing errors. Player C had four errors in 63 games at second base with a .983 fielding percentage. He had one throwing error at second.

So who do you like: Player A, B or C?

Lock in your answer before you find out who is who.

Don’t worry, we’ll add a few more returns in here so you don’t accidentally get the identities spoiled before you make a decision.

Here’s one.

And another!

And a couple more.

For good measure.

OK, are you ready?

You can find the answer below.

Player Reveal

Player A is Caleb Durbin. When the offseason began, he was considered a potential candidate for the Yankees’ second base job. Instead, they traded him to the Brewers in the Devin Williams deal. He’s now competing for a spot in the Brewers’ infield in spring training.

Player B is Chase Meidroth. He was also traded this offseason as the third prospect in the Garrett Crochet deal alongside Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery. He’s a non-roster spring training invitee who will compete for a spot in the White Sox infield.

Player C is Payton Eeles. The Twins signed him out of the partner leagues early in the 2024 season. Eeles then leapt all the way to Triple-A. He is much less likely to earn a big league job out of spring training, especially with the Twins’ current infield depth, but he could reach the majors in 2025.

Now that you know who is who, does it change your assessments?

We left heights and weights out in case it provided too much identifiable information, but there are not massive differences. Eeles is the shortest of the three (5-foot-5, 180 pounds officially), but all three are similar in size. Meidroth is listed at 5-foot-10, 170 pounds while Durbin is 5-foot-6, 185 pounds.

If nothing else, hopefully this exercise lays out how challenging and interesting it can be to line up players, while also explaining why all three of these infielders are intriguing prospects, and ones who can be compared to each other as somewhat similar prospects, even if one of them (Eeles) was an undrafted indy ball signee, another was a 14th-round pick out of a Division III school (Durbin) and the third was a fourth-round pick (Meidroth).