That’s right! It is already time to prepare for fantasy baseball season once again. The fantasy football season is in the rearview mirror, the NFL Playoffs are rolling along, and the NBA, as well as the NHL, are both about midway through their respective 2023-24 campaigns. For MLB enthusiasts, that all means baseball is fast approaching.
Proper preparation for fantasy baseball drafts always includes digging through the farm systems of all 30 organizations to uncover the next crop of potent producers. In this piece, the focus will be on second-base prospects that seem most likely to make an impact for fantasy managers during the 2024 season.
(Each player included still holds MLB Rookie eligibility)
- Top Prospect Rankings By Position: OF | 1B | SS
- 2024 Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit
- Fantasy Baseball Draft Rankings
- Fantasy Baseball Projections
Top 5 Prospects Per Position: Second Base
1. Colt Keith (DET)
Keith may not be a second baseman for the long term. In fact, his future may be as a DH due to defense being the weak side of his profile. He’s been bounced between second and third base since the Tigers selected him in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB Draft. In his time at Triple-A Toledo last year, Keith played in 35 games at second, 21 games at third and 12 more at DH. The 22-year-old is not viewed as particularly skilled at either infield spot.
Regardless of whether the Tigers will trust him much in the field, Keith’s bat is what is going to get him to “The Show”. Over his 301 plate appearances at Triple-A in 2023, he put up a strong .890 OPS with 13 home runs and 20 doubles. That came after he posted a .977 OPS with 14 homers and 18 doubles across 276 plate appearances at Double-A. Keith obviously has plenty of pop, but he also has a good eye at the plate, as evidenced by an 11.6 BB% in over 1,000 minor-league plate appearances.
Many believed Keith was ready to contend with big-league pitching last year. The Tigers decided to wait on bringing him up. His ranking atop this list is in no small part predicated on the belief that will soon change. Players such as Zach McKinstry, Matt Vierling, and Nick Maton won’t hold Keith back for much longer. His strongest competition for at-bats in Detroit might come from a player just a bit lower on this list.
2. Adael Amador (COL)
Amador has surged to the top of the second-base prospect rankings for many prognosticators. They may just prove to be correct, but, at this point, it’s difficult to know how much big-league time the Rockies will give him this year. One thing is for sure, the young switch-hitter is surging through the farm system. He even reached Double-A Hartford for a 10-game cup of coffee at age 20 last year.
Over 2021 and 2022, Amador appeared in exactly 162 games between rookie ball and Single-A, putting together a promising .294/.407/.445 slash line with 19 homers, 34 doubles, and 36 steals. Amador was limited to only 69 total games in 2023 due to a hamate bone injury in his right hand. He played 54 of those games at High-A Spokane, and actually improved his numbers with a .302/.392/.514 triple slash over 259 plate appearances.
Amador didn’t get off to a hot start against Double-A pitching, as he went just 5 for 35 with one long ball and three steals. That’s quite a small sample size, so it’s not worth judging too harshly. He is likely to be back at Double-A to begin the 2024 campaign, but, given his discipline, approach, and swing from both sides of the plate, Amador is not expected to be there long.
It’s not difficult to imagine Amador forming a young, dynamic duo with SS Ezequiel Tovar up the middle of the Rockies’ infield by mid-summer. Amador makes a ton of contact, regularly produces high exit velocities, and has walked (14.2%) more than he’s struck out (12.3%) in the minors. That could all translate into a doubles machine that competes for batting titles while swinging the bat in Coors Field half the time. He’ll bring a little pop and speed to the table as well.
3. Thomas Saggese (STL)
Acquired in the trade that sent Jordan Montgomery to the Rangers this past July, Saggese turned in ridiculous numbers at the Double-A level in 2023. In 567 plate appearances between Frisco (TEX) and Springfield (STL), he hammered his way to a .935 OPS with 25 homers, 29 doubles, and six triples. In 33 games at Double-A following the trade, the Cardinals bumped Saggese up to the top level of their farm system.
After being promoted, Saggese did not tear up Triple-A pitching, hitting just .207 with one home run, five doubles, and 14 strikeouts across 63 plate appearances. However, he has been able to adapt to every level of pitching so far in his three years of minor-league ball. He figures to get an ample opportunity to do so once again at the outset of the upcoming season.
If Saggese proves up to the challenge in Triple-A as he has at every other stop, a call-up to the bigs could come in relatively short order. He is a bit of a free swinger, which could lead to an elevated strikeout rate, but he also has shown the ability to drive all types of pitches and reach out of the zone for solid contact. A penchant for hitting the ball in the air with above-average power and solid base-running skills could result in Saggese being a source of both homers and steals for fantasy managers. He has swiped 12 bases in each of the last two seasons at an 83-percent success rate.
4. Jace Jung (DET)
After hitting 23 homers across 122 games and earning an All-Star selection as a rookie in 2023, the public has been made fully aware of Josh Jung’s power at the plate. Well, the younger Jung brother generates a ton of power from his bat as well.
Jung was selected with the 12th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft out of Texas Tech where he was a multiple-time All-American and Big 12 Conference Player of the Year (2021). Jung spent his first full year in the minors between High-A and Double-A, slugging a combined .502 with 28 home runs over 575 plate appearances. Following his promotion to Double-A, he even raised his batting average by 30 points and slugging from .465 to .563.
The strikeout rate was not ideal for Jung last year, as he whiffed 24.2 percent of the time. He went on to strike out 19 times in only 65 plate appearances while playing in the Arizona Fall League. Jung figures to receive quite a bit of time at Triple-A this year to iron things out in that department, but on the plus side, he has drawn walks at a 14.7-percent clip over his 700-plus plate appearances in the minors.
Jung has a decent shot at earning some time with the Tigers this year. Once he does, his ability to work counts and regularly drive the ball through the air should lead to plenty of homers.
5. Ryan Bliss (SEA)
Finishing up with the top speed threat of the group by far, Bliss may have many thinking of him as the next Jose Altuve. That’s probably unreasonable, but it’s easy to understand the comparison when one sees a .304 AVG with 23 home runs and 55 steals coming from a slightly-built second baseman who stands just 5 feet 6 inches tall.
Bliss turned in those totals across time at Double-A and Triple-A in 2023. He was also dealt to Seattle in the deadline deal that sent Paul Sewald to Arizona. Some suggest his superb offensive stats were inflated due to so much time spent in hitter-friendly environments of the Arizona farm system. That theory has merit, but Bliss did not totally fall off or anything after joining Triple-A Tacoma (SEA).
In 47 games for the Mariners’ top minor-league club, Bliss posted a .251/.356/.466 slash line with 10 roundtrippers and 20 steals (24 attempts) across 226 plate appearances. He would go on to hit just .239 over 19 games in the Arizona Fall League, but he also got on base at .368 clip and swiped 10 bags in 13 attempts. Simply put, Bliss may round into a decent producer, but he should consistently find his way on base and steal a ton of them.
At age 24, with considerable time already spent at Triple-A, Bliss’ MLB debut should not be that far off and may even happen on Opening Day with a solid showing this spring. With only names like Josh Rojas, Dylan Moore, and Sam Haggerty to overcome for playing time, Bliss is definitely on the doorstep.
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Nate Miller is a featured writer at FantasyPros and a 9-year veteran of the fantasy sports industry. For more from Nate, check out his archive and follow him on Twitter @Miller_RotoDad.