Sebastian Walcott, Leo De Vries & Jesús Made: Elite Trio Of Shortstop Prospects Taking Minors By Storm
Image credit: (From left) Sebastian Walcott, Leo De Vries & Jesús Made (Photos by Bill Mitchell)
By next January, there’s a good chance at least half of Baseball America’s current top 10 prospects will have graduated.
That list includes players already in the big leagues, like Dodgers and Tigers righties Jackson Jobe and Roki Sasaki and others, like Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony, the sport’s No. 1 overall prospect, whose debuts are coming soon.
Nestled in the middle is a trio of teenage shortstops who will spend the rest of the summer making their cases to take the baton from Anthony and earn the title of the top prospect in baseball heading into next season.
The group includes players at three different levels with three different development paths but similarly sky-high upsides. Rangers top prospect Sebastian Walcott (BA’s No. 8 prospect), currently at Double-A, is the nearest to the big leagues, but Padres and Brewers prospects Leo De Vries (No. 7) and Jesús Made (No. 6), who are at High-A and Low-A, respectively, are nipping at his heels.
Walcott, De Vries and Made were born just more than 13 months apart, and each could one day settle in as the face of a franchise.
“I think the big thing is that they all fit in the same group of players, which makes sense as to why they’re being talked about together,” a professional scouting director told Baseball America. “You can put them in any order, and I think there’s not much to debate or argue. They’re really close in my mind.”
Sebastian Walcott
At just 19, Walcott is the oldest of the bunch, but he also opened the year as the second-youngest player in all of Double-A. He also would have been the third-youngest player in High-A—behind De Vries and Red Sox righty Juan Valera—and would have tied for the second-youngest player in the Low-A California League.
Despite Walcott’s age and non-traditional development path—he spent just nine games in the Dominican Summer League before moving stateside, and he skipped Low-A entirely—the product of the Bahamas has more than held his own against much more seasoned competition.
Walcott has physical tools in spades, but it takes more than that to handle the ups and downs of a pressurized, highly-accelerated development path. You’ve got to be solid between the ears, too, and evaluators have noticed how much the Rangers’ top prospect has grown since his pro career started two years ago.
“I think that the biggest thing right now for him is the maturity that’s struggling to leak into his game,” one scout said. “He’s focused and is completely handling his own very well—and strongly—in Double-A being substantially younger than that level, and his walk rate’s improving. He is patient. He’s not forcing anything. He still has a little bit where he leaks a little bit out front, and I think timing is going to come naturally for him as he just matures, because he should be facing college-age kids. Right now, he shouldn’t be facing professional baseball players.”
As the scout indicated, Walcott is nowhere near a finished product. There are mechanical flaws to iron out. There’s experience to be gained against savvier pitchers who will exploit his weaknesses. And there’s still the matter of whether he’ll stick on the dirt or move to the outfield.
Even with those nits to pick, his ceiling is among the best of any player in the minor leagues.
“I don’t think that the feel for the barrel is what it’s going to be at its peak for him yet,” the scout said. “When it reaches that and that all blends and the perfect marriage happens, I think you’re looking at an absolute monster.”
Leo De Vries
Scoot down a level to the Midwest League, and you’ll find De Vries, who signed in January 2024 and immediately proved advanced enough to skip over both the Dominican Summer and Arizona Complex leagues. He debuted in the Low-A just days before his 17th birthday and went punch for punch against the advanced pitching until a shoulder injury paused his season through to the Arizona Fall League.
All told, De Vries finished his opening pro season with an .803 OPS across 75 California League games. His numbers weren’t as loud in the AFL, but he became the youngest player to hit a home run in the league since Bryce Harper went deep as an 18-year-old in the league in 2010.
It would have been easy to expect De Vries to scuffle out of the gate this year, not only because he was the youngest player in the Midwest League, but also because the circuit’s early-season weather has long had a reputation for muting the outputs of talented hitters.
Not so.
Through the first 27 games, De Vries has taken ownership of the league. His .519 slugging percentage is second only to Dodgers prospect Josue De Paula, and his OPS, RBIs and total bases all rank among the league’s top 10.
The gem of De Vries’ season came on April 22 when he hit for the cycle and added a second home run for good measure. He’s failed to collect a hit or a walk in just four games this season.
“Once he makes contact, like the ball, the ball jumps more than most,” a second scout said, before noting that De Vries could stand to tighten his swing decisions a little bit before he’s ready to handle his first crack at the upper levels.
“He’s got all the tools and ability. I just think he’s he’s an 18-year-old who makes rushed decisions, and there’s some eagerness to every part of this game. But there’s nothing that I saw in that series that didn’t make me think like, ‘Man, this kid high-probability 6, probably even decent probability of being a 7 (on the 20-80 scouting scale). I mean, he’s probably one of the best prospects I’ve ever seen.”
Jesús Made
And then there’s Made, the phenom who took the Dominican Summer League by storm, skipped over the ACL and instead headed straight to Low-A Carolina for his sophomore season as a pro. There, he instantly proved himself to be the jewel of one of the highest-upside lineups in the minor leagues.
The switch-hitter blends quick-twitch athleticism and wiry strength into a frame that helps him produce the kind of bat speed rarely seen from a player so young. A few bumps and bruises were the only thing that derailed Made in the season’s first few weeks.
“The lightning-fast bat is one of the first things that had stuck out with him last year, and his ability to damage the baseball also stood out,” said a third evaluator, who drew on his initial impressions of Made from the DSL in 2024. “The actions and athleticism jumped out immediately.”
Those tools have translated into results aplenty.
Through the season’s first 26 games, Made was hitting .311/.418/.456 with four doubles, three home runs and 13 stolen bases in 16 chances. Those numbers at such a young age—he turned 18 on May 8—make it easy to project him as a future offensive force. Now, the question is: Where will he wind up on the diamond?
He’s played mostly shortstop this season but has also seen time at third base in each of the last two seasons. He also got a bit of exposure to second base in the DSL in 2024. Part of that is an effort to get Luis Peña—an elite prospect himself—time at shortstop.
Even without Peña on the roster, there are a few questions about whether Made might have to move somewhere else on the dirt as he matures.
“I think he’ll be probably bouncing around the infield,” the third scout said. “I’m sure he’ll settle into one of the three spots … He might continue playing shortstop for a while and could even end up there just because of the offensive value he’ll provide and (defensive) positioning getting better. But wherever he plays, he’s going to be a good hitter. That’s the carrying trait for him. It’s just how much offense he’s going to be able to provide a club.”
With more than three months to go in the minor league season, Walcott, De Vries and Made have each provided fantastic opening arguments as to why they deserve to one day hold the title of the best prospect in baseball.
A case can be made for or against each player, and evaluators up and down the sport aren’t likely to come to anything close to a consensus. One thing is for sure, however: Following the progress of all three players has the potential to make this summer one of the most exciting in recent memory.
