Dodgers: Who Could Make the Next Top 100 Prospects List in 2018?

The latest installment of Baseball America’s top 100 prospects came out.  As the list currently stands there are four Dodgers who made the top 100 prospects list.

According to Baseball America’s latest top 100 prospect list, four Dodgers made the pre-season top 100.  Those four are Walker Buehler, Keibert Ruiz, Alex Verdugo, and Mitchell White.  Buehler and Verdugo are not new additions to the list but Ruiz and White are brand new to the top 100 rankings list.  One notable absence for the Dodgers is Yadier Alvarez who has fallen off of Baseball America’s top 100 list.

Although Alvarez has a ton of untapped potential, he will have to work himself back onto the top 100 prospects list.  Usually, there is a middle and end of the season list that is updated by Baseball America so there are still some other Dodgers who could make their way onto the list later this year.  Here are three Dodgers who could work their way into the top 100 list with a strong 2018 campaign.

DJ Peters

Peters is a very big outfielder at 6’6 225 pounds, but he fields the corner positions well enough that he could stick in the outfield without hurting the Dodgers defense.  Peters also played some centerfield in 2017 with the Quakes, and here’s one example of him making a nice play in the outfield.

DJ hit 27 home runs in a full season at Single-A and should start the 2018 minor league season at Double-A Tulsa.  Peters made headlines last year when he hit two home runs off Madison Bumgarner in one inning.  Madbum was rehabbing his shoulder after his infamous dirt bike accident but it was still an impressive feat for Peters.  If Peters has a strong 2018 season he should not only make the top 100 prospects list, but he could also find his way to LA as a September call-up.

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Jeren Kendall

Kendall is yet another very talented Dodgers outfielder who was drafted in the first round of the 2017 draft by the Dodgers.  Kendall was projected to be a potential top 10 pick but fell to the Dodgers who were ecstatic that he was still there.  Kendall is still very raw coming out of college but he has elite speed and elite power.  He could be a future centerfielder but at worse will be a corner outfielder with solid defense and elite power.

Kendall will also likely start the season at Single-A Rancho Cucamonga and should play most of his season there.  If Kendall cuts down on his strikeouts he could make the top 100 prospects list by the end of the 2018 season.  The talent is clearly there he just needs to put it all together.  In 2017, he .253 with three home runs and nine stolen bases in forty plus games.  He did get caught stealing eight times so he has to work on his base-stealing technique.

Dennis Santana

Santana is one of the rising starting pitchers in the Dodgers farm system.  Just as Mitchell White made his name known last year, this could be the year that Dennis Santana makes the leap onto the top 100 prospects list.  Santana is 6’2, but only 160 pounds so he will need to fill in a bit.  He is going to be 22 years old in April so he still has plenty of time to fill in.  Although his stats for 2017 look average with a 5.51 ERA, Santana has good stuff with a mid 90’s fastball and a very solid slider.

Santana showed his dominance in the Double-A playoffs when he pitched 13 innings for the Tulsa Drillers and allowed no earned runs and struck out 18 batters.  That is just some of the dominance that Santana can bring and he is still learning how to pitch since he was originally a shortstop.  If Santana can improve his changeup then there’s a shot he will stick as a starting pitcher long term.  If not then he could end up being a valuable late-inning reliever.

Next: Dodgers try to be the next team to make back-to-back WS appearances

These are just a few of the Dodgers’ prospects who could work their way into the top 100 prospect rankings in 2018.  The Dodgers farm system is still in very good condition so it wouldn’t be surprising if another Dodger prospect like Dustin May or Will Smith ended up making the list instead.