Ranking the top 25 MLB players aged 25 and under in ‘25

With a boost from the latest collective bargaining agreement and its Prospect Promotion Incentive, teams appear increasingly more willing to zoom their top prospects through their respective farm systems, while finding creative ways to keep them in place for as long as possible.

The result? Some of the best players in Major League Baseball have already established themselves as the faces of their franchise with their prime years still ahead of them.

Most often, those MLB phenoms play in the field. Last year, we saw two shortstops under the age of 25 contend for an MVP award. One compiled one of the most valuable all-around seasons from a player at the position in baseball history, while the other came three home runs shy of a 40-homer, 20-steal campaign. We also saw a 21-year-old finish top 10 in MVP voting while playing center field for the first time in his professional career, and a 22-year-old compile the first 25-65 season from a shortstop in MLB history (that’s in addition to the aforementioned MVP contenders).

Teams tend to be more careful with their top arms, who carry more injury risk and often require more polishing at the highest minor-league levels, though that’s not to imply there’s a shortage of impact pitching on the way. In 2024, we saw a 22-year-old start the All-Star Game and contend for the Cy Young Award in one of the all-time great seasons by a rookie pitcher.

Two of the top four players in last year’s American League MVP voting, two of the top nine in National League MVP voting and two of the top eight in NL Cy Young voting are still under the age of 26. More of the game’s best young talents are set to debut soon and may find their place on this list a year from now. 

For now, though, here are the top 25 MLB players aged 25-and-under in 2025.

The WAR figures are pulled from FanGraphs, and the projections for this season are ZiPS. The ages listed next to the players represent how old they will be on Opening Day.

Two years after shining in the national spotlight during the D-backs 2023 World Series run, Moreno is still searching for his first full season in the major leagues. There’s an argument to be made that he should be higher on this list, and if he can stay healthy and surpass his projections this season, the catcher has the chance to boost his power numbers at the plate and ascend in our rankings next year.

Last year, Tovar became the youngest shortstop in National League history to win a Gold Glove award after he led all MLB shortstops in double plays (107), assists (435) and ultimate zone rating (11.2). So there’s no question his defense is phenomenal, but there’s plenty of room for his offense to grow.

It’s extreme to say Volpe has been a disappointment, but he’s fallen short of expectations since the Yankees promoted him to be their starting shortstop before the 2023 season. His defense is solid, he plays every day and we saw a flash of his potential when he slashed .286/.407/.408 in his first postseason experience. He’s done a lot of things right, but consistent, above-average production from the plate is still the missing link.

Coming off his first career All-Star nod, Abrams is entering his fourth year in the big leagues and has to prove he can be consistent at the plate in order to take a step forward. He lagged in the second half of ‘24, punctuated by a September demotion after an all-nighter at a Chicago casino. With that ugly situation behind him, Abrams should be plenty motivated to put up a huge year. 

Describing Woo as possessing excellent control doesn’t do him justice. The right-hander recorded a microscopic 2.8% walk rate — the best in the majors — before a couple of stints on the injured list limited his production. The Mariners are spoiled with spectacular pitching, and Woo just needs to avoid the injured list and increase his workload to build on his nasty stuff.

Neto’s outlook for this season is unclear since shoulder surgery will delay his start, but he’s projected to have another strong year otherwise. The shortstop was the Angels best player in 2024, leading the club in WAR, RBI, stolen bases and wRC+. Neto should still have a long runway this year to prove that the excellence he displayed in 2024 was the real deal. 

The O’s up-and-coming outfielder led all AL rookies in WAR, home runs and runs scored (77) in 2024, ultimately finishing as the runner-up for the Rookie of the Year award to the Yankees’ Luis Gil. If he can avoid a sophomore slump, Cowser could once again be a top-three hitter in a Baltimore lineup that has no shortage of star power.

A glimpse of Sasaki’s star potential — the good and the ugly — in his major-league debut during the Tokyo Series only confirmed that the rookie belongs right around the middle of these rankings. His fastball is devastating, but it’ll take some time for Sasaki to sharpen his command. What’s his ceiling? Check out that 2.10 career ERA across nearly 400 innings pitched in NPB for an idea.

The right-hander displayed elite control in his standout rookie season with the Braves, which can often be difficult to do for pitchers who lack big-league experience. His 4.6% walk rate was in the 95th percentile in MLB, and with pinpoint location that caused hitters to chase, it’s not a leap to expect Schwellenbach to be a top-of-the-rotation starter in Atlanta.

The sky’s the limit for the 21-year-old after he brought his elite bat speed to the majors in late summer. Caminero is widely expected to be the next Austin Riley, and he should see a significant uptick in his power numbers while he plays in hitter-friendly Steinbrenner Field this year. Don’t be surprised when he develops into a perennial 30-home run slugger.

The Cardinals shortstop expects his 2024 rookie season to be his worst year in the majors, and that’s the type of attitude that sets him apart from his peers. To be clear, Winn’s first full season in The Show was an absolute success; he led the team in WAR and emerged as the future face of the franchise. As he continues to grow, Winn is all but certain to climb up our rankings.

Vientos went from being squeezed out of the Mets’ 2024 Opening Day roster to emerging as a top-three power hitter in the major-league lineup all within a few months. The Mets have a ton of confidence in Vientos to build on his breakout season, and the key for him will be to limit chasing pitches out of the zone. His career 73.8% in-zone contact rate is well below the 82% league average.

Langford turned heads all spring, indicating that he just might be able to avoid a sophomore slump and begin the 2025 the way he finished 2024. The left fielder was named the American League Player of the Month for September after posting a .996 OPS in the final month of his electric rookie campaign. Langford will be an exciting top-of-the-order presence for the Rangers for the foreseeable future.

Considering he just signed a seven-year, $65.5 million extension, it’s easy to forget that Butler’s struggles to begin his big-league career carried into the start of last season, when he was optioned to Las Vegas in the middle of May with a .179 batting average and .555 OPS. Upon returning in June, he tallied an .896 OPS with 20 homers, 20 doubles and 15 steals the rest of the way. He also had an absurd month of July in which he slashed .363/.408/.802 with 10 home runs. Butler can hit the ball with tremendous force, but keeping his strikeout rate down the way he did during his second-half surge will be key to maintaining his success.

Limited by a back injury in 2023 and a hamstring injury in 2024, we have yet to see what a fully healthy season can bring for Harris, who needed just 114 games to win Rookie of the Year honors in 2022. Harris’ offensive stats took a step back last season, but the underlying numbers suggest he should have performed much better than the league average results he produced. A high chase rate and low walk rate can lead to some slumps, but he hits the ball hard, doesn’t strike out often, plays tremendous defense and has stolen more than 20 bases in two of his first three big-league seasons. An All-Star breakout could be ahead.

Last year was a breakout season for the 2019 first-round pick Greene, who was an All-Star for the first time in 2024, has seen his barrel rate increase in each of his first three big-league seasons, but just as important last year was his improved patience at the plate and ability to stay on the field. Though he missed nearly a month with a hamstring injury, he returned in time to contribute to the late-season playoff push and played in more than 100 games for the first time as a big-leaguer. His walk rate jumped, his chase rate declined, he pummeled fastballs and right-handed pitching, and he finished the year as one of the 10 most valuable outfielders in the sport.

By Baseball Reference’s version of WAR, the only pitcher who produced a more valuable season than Greene in 2024 was AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. Greene has always possessed tremendous strikeout stuff with his fastball and slider, but last year he was able to harness those tools into elite production by cutting his home run rate in half and significantly lowering the quality of contact against him. The result was an All-Star campaign in which he finished eighth in Cy Young voting.

After being named Rookie of the Year and finishing fifth in MVP voting in 2023, last summer wasn’t the follow-up campaign that anyone envisioned for Carroll. But after a miserable first half, the speedy 24-year-old began to look like himself again. After going yard just five times in the first half, he had 17 homers and 17 steals in 64 games after the break — that’s a 40-40 pace over the course of a full year.

It took a couple of months for Chourio to get his big-league legs under him, but at 20 years old, who could blame him? Once June arrived, so did Milwaukee’s top prospect. Chourio’s .310 batting average and .914 OPS in the second half both ranked in the top 12 among all qualified hitters. Defensively, he didn’t commit an error all year. Chourio finished the regular season as the youngest player ever to record a 20-20 campaign, then thrived on the biggest stage by recording five hits and two homers in three postseason games.

There was a time in 2024 when De La Cruz was on a 100-steal pace. The self-proclaimed “fastest man in the world” had to settle instead for the first 25-65 season from a shortstop in baseball history. De La Cruz’s distinctive set of skills packed into a 6-foot-5 frame make him unlike any other talent in the sport.  His combination of power, speed and arm strength had his teammate Tyler Stephenson comparing him to a “create-a-player” last year. He put his incredible tools together in an All-Star season at 22 years old. If he can cut down on his whiff rate, the ceiling is as high as any player in the game.

It’s hard to fathom now that the Padres entered the 2024 season with serious questions about their outfield. Most obviously, they didn’t know who would start in center field. Merrill, then a 21-year-old top shortstop prospect who had never played center as a pro, answered that question in March and never looked back. Defensively, he graded out as a top-10 player at the position by outs above average. Offensively, the only qualified center fielder with a higher wRC+ than Merrill was MVP Aaron Judge. If not for Paul Skenes‘ historic season, Merrill, who finished ninth in MVP voting in an All-Star debut season, would have been the runaway Rookie of the Year in either league.

Rodriguez’s WAR and OPS totals have trended slightly the wrong direction since his spectacular Rookie of the Year campaign in 2022, but his exceptional defense and speed still give him one of the highest floors of any outfielder in the sport. Despite a down year offensively, he still logged his third consecutive 20-20 season. His expected stats suggested some unluckiness in a slugging percentage that declined considerably from the season prior, and — as he demonstrated with an OPS over 1.100 in July — he is capable of looking like the best player in the sport for long stretches. Sustaining that production and realizing his tremendous potential will require better plate discipline as he enters his prime.

It felt almost impossible for Skenes to match the expectations placed upon him after helping guide LSU to a national championship and going first overall in the 2023 draft. Somehow, he surpassed them. Skenes didn’t make his MLB debut until May 11, yet he still went on to start the All-Star Game, win the Rookie of the Year Award and finish third in Cy Young voting. Among pitchers who threw at least 100 innings last year, Skenes’ 1.96 ERA led the majors. It was also the lowest mark of any rookie pitcher who made at least 20 starts in the last 100 years.

If not for the top player on this list, we’d be talking a lot more about Henderson’s extraordinary 2024 season. A year after launching 28 homers in a Rookie of the Year season, Henderson had already tallied that many long balls by the 2024 All-Star break. Though his production tailed off in the second half, he still came close to a 40-20 year and finished fourth in MVP voting. Unfortunately, he will have to wait a bit to begin the follow-up campaign to his first All-Star season, as he is expected to start the year on the injured list with an intercostal strain. The Orioles are hopeful he won’t be sidelined for long.

Witt signed the biggest contract in franchise history, and then proceeded to demonstrate why it’s still one of the best bargains in the sport by authoring one of the greatest all-around seasons from a shortstop in baseball history. Since 1950, only three shortstops have recorded a season of at least 10 fWAR: Cal Ripken Jr. in 1991 (10.6), Alex Rodriguez in 2002 (10.0) and Witt last year (10.4). Witt led the majors in hits (211) and batting average (.332) — becoming the first shortstop ever to log multiple 30-30 seasons in the process — and won his first Gold Glove Award, too.

Honorable mentions: James Wood, Washington Nationals (22); Heliot Ramos, San Francisco Giants (25); Taj Bradley, Tampa Bay Rays (24); Grayson Rodriguez, Baltimore Orioles (25); Francisco Alvarez, New York Mets (23); Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs (23); Austin Wells, New York Yankees (25); Triston Casas, Boston Red Sox (25)

Deesha Thosar is a MLB reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets for four years as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.

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