MLB 2022: J-Rod, Torkelson lead early Rookie of the Year contenders

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

"I believe the children are our future/Teach them well and let them lead the way" — Whitney Houston, "Greatest Love of All"

Hold on to your top hats, old timers, because baseball is being taken over by Gen Z. 

That’s right: This darn newfangled generation of kids, always tweeting and texting and YouTubing and ticking and tocking has ... Olivia Rodrigo’ed its way into Major League Baseball.

This is a young person’s game. Now more than ever. The two best hitters in the world, Juan Soto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., are both 23 years old. So is the game’s most electric player, Fernando Tatis Jr. Wander Franco made his debut last season and was Tampa Bay’s best hitter in the ALDS at just 20 years old. Even Albert Pujols is still only 25.

But the golden era of young, dynamic talent rolls on, and 2022’s "Freshman Class" has the potential to be one of the greatest ever. Nine of the top 10 names on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospect list could make their debuts this season. Four of the 10 (Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodríguez, Spencer Torkelson and C.J. Abrams) have made their respective teams out of camp.

This is a phenomenally deep group of talent, which means the competition for Baby of the Year is as fierce as ever. 

AMERICAN LEAGUE: FAVORITES

Julio Rodríguez, OF, Seattle Mariners

If you’ve never heard of J-Rod, it’s time to get acquainted. Rodríguez is a generationally talented hitter with incredible contact skills, jaw-dropping raw power and the intelligence to make adjustments at the highest level. He’s also the most lovely, interactive, friendly, gregarious and personable 21-year-old in baseball — and maybe the world. 

J-Rod made the Mariners' Opening Day roster and should hit in the middle of their order right away. This is the type of guy babies in the Seattle metropolitan region could be named after.

Spencer Torkelson, 1B, Detroit Tigers

You’ll never forget the name "Torkelson," both because it sounds awesome and because this Torkelson is about to light the American League on fire. Defensively limited? Yes. Relatively slow? Yup. But Tork has been a fearsome hitter ever since he stepped on campus at Arizona State. 

The prototypical intimidating slugger at the end of every '90s baseball movie — I’m looking at you, Kit "Hit or Die '' Kesey — that’s Tork in a nutshell.

Bobby Witt Jr., SS, Kansas City Royals

Some publications had Witt as the No. 1 overall prospect in the entire land. Why? He’s got a power/speed/contact combination that comes around only once every so often in a shortstop. Witt stole 29 bases and smashed 33 home runs in the minors last year, with a .290 average. 

He could struggle initially more than some of the other names on this list — as toolsy as he is, Witt is a less advanced hitter than Torkelson and J-Rod due to a more swing-happy approach — but once he adjusts to big-league breaking stuff, Witt will become the man.

DARK HORSES

Jeremy Peña, SS, Houston Astros

With Carlos Correa gone to Minnesota, Peña becomes Houston’s every-day shortstop. The son of a big leaguer, Peña was drafted in the 3rd round as a glove-first guy back in ‘18 out of the University of Maine, a cold-weather school that hasn’t produced a big leaguer since 1995. Since then, he’s added a ton of strength and power without sacrificing the quickness that made him so good defensively. He’s dominated advanced competition in the Dominican Winter League the last two offseasons and could catch some people by surprise this year with his sneaky pop. Huge, huge fan of this guy.

Joe Ryan, SP, Minnesota Twins

Few baseballers had a weirder 2021 than Ryan, who was pitching for Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics when he found out he’d been traded from the Rays to the Twins as the main return for Nelson Cruz. My dude was roaming around the Olympic Village chilling with Katie Ledecky and whomever, and a month later, he was pitching in the bigs for Minnesota. 

Ryan racked up a ton of strikeouts in the minors with a fastball that sits around 91 but plays up thanks to a bunch of other meaningful characteristics. Ryan is somehow Minnesota’s Opening Day starter — which probably says more about the Twins than anything else — and is sure to rack up a ton of innings for a staff looking for anything resembling a real starting pitcher. 

Steven Kwan, OF, Cleveland Guardians

This guy does not strike out, plain and simple. Kwan has K’ed 87 times in 947 career minor-league plate appearances, the second-lowest strikeout rate in that span behind only that of his college teammate Nick Madrigal. Kwan’s elite contact rate and ability to play center field are enough for him to establish himself as an every-day big leaguer, and if he can add just a touch of power, he could become a sneaky impactful player for the Guardians. Kwan made the big-league roster and could start Opening Day.

LONG SHOTS

Triston Casas, 1B, Boston Red Sox

Casas freakin’ rakes. Think Eric Hosmer but thicker, with a Freddie Freeman/Joey Votto style choke-up grip on the bat. Pending a complete disastrous first half from Bobby Dalbec, Casas won’t debut for a few months, which is why he’s in this group. But if that plan changes, and Casas catches fire ... oooooh, boy.

Grayson Rodriguez, SP, Baltimore Orioles

Ranked by most publications as the No. 1 pitching prospect in the minors, Rodriguez likely has another few months of slow cooking in Triple-A before he journeys to Baltimore. When he’s on, G-Rod sits in the high 90s and dominates with two distinct breaking balls that give hitters fits. This is what the ideal pitching prospect looks like.

MJ Melendez, C, Kansas City Royals

Melendez was basically the worst hitter in the minor leagues in 2019, hitting .163 over 110 games in High-A. Then he added some good muscle, changed a few things in his swing, grew a beard and came out of the pandemic a new man. 

In 2021, Melendez led the minor leagues in home runs with 41. Salvy has the catching position locked up in KC until the sun shrivels into a marble and we all die, but Melendez’s bat should make him an impact hitter at any position.

NATIONAL LEAGUE: FAVORITES

Oneil Cruz, SS, Pittsburgh Pirates

Think Giannis Antetokounmpo — but baseball. Cruz is 6-foot-8 and built like that statue Mets owner Steve Cohen spent $150 million on. That’d be a bizarre frame for any baseball gent, but Cruz is somehow also a shortstop. He isn't superb defensively, and things can get a little ... giraffe-y at times, but Cruz makes it work thanks to a howitzer of an arm. 

At the plate, he hits the ball harder than almost anyone else. In a brief, two-game stint at the end of last season, Cruz hit a homer that was tracked as the hardest hit ball by a Pirate in the Statcast Era. Thanks to service-time manipulation, which lives on despite the new CBA’s attempts to disincentivize the practice, Cruz will spend a few pointless weeks in Triple-A before joining the big-league club. That might be the only thing between him and the ROY.

Seiya Suzuki, OF, Chicago Cubs 

The best Japanese hitter to bop stateside for some time, Suzuki inked a huge deal with the Cubbies in the offseason. His big advantage in the ROY chase is that unlike the rest of the children on this list, Suzuki is a millennial. The 27-year-old posted phenomenal numbers throughout his time in the NPB (Japanese League) and should never see a day in the minor leagues, something that can’t be said for the rest of the rookies.

CJ Abrams, UTIL, San Diego Padres

Fernando Tatis Jr.’s motorcycle accident is definitively "not what you want," but it opened the door for Abrams to contribute in 2023. The lightning-quick Georgian has played only infield in the minor leagues but saw time in left field in spring training and would presumably move there once Tatis returns. Abrams has great bat control and uses his legs to turn grounders into infield hits, singles into doubles, etc., etc. 

DARK HORSES

Hunter Greene, SP, Cincinnati Reds

Are you a dark horse if you throw 102 mph? Somehow, Greene is. He’s slated to make his MLB debut this weekend for the Reds, and once he does, he’ll immediately become front-page news. We’ve never seen a starting pitcher throw this hard. 

Greene tosses straight gorgonzola, total gasoline, flame emoji — whatever you wanna call it. The rest of his arsenal needs a bit of refinement, but the heater should be enough for him to compete in the bigs right away.

Bryson Stott, 3B, Philadelphia Phillies

If you want a longer profile of Stott, check this story out, but here’s the TLDR on Philly’s top prospect: He’s a lefty-hitting shortstop who will probably play a lot of third and second this season, with an above-average bat and some dormant raw power that could blossom in time. Like many of the names on this list, Stott showed up to spring, took his team by surprise and made the big-league roster ahead of schedule. Oh, and he’s Bryce Harper’s roommate.

LONG SHOTS

Mickey Moniak, OF, Philadelphia Phillies

The first overall pick in 2016, Moniak has sufficiently underwhelmed so far in his tenure in the Phillies' system and stopped appearing on Top 100 prospect lists a few years ago. He got a taste of the bigs in ‘20 and ’21 but struggled in those brief stints. 

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the chill Californian showed up to spring training this year and was a force of nature. He homered five times in camp, thanks to a new swing and a rejuvenated approach, and made the big-league team. Moniak’s prospect star has certainly dimmed, but he’s still just 24 years old, and much, much wilder things have happened. This is a guy to root for.

Roansy Contreras, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates

Like his Pirates compatriot Cruz, Contreras should be on the big-league roster to start the year — but service-time manipulation. Contreras isn’t an intimidating figure on the mound, at 6 feet, but he still gasses things up with a fastball that sits 95 and up. Acquired from the Yankees in the Jameson Taillon swap, the Dominican hurler is probably the best pitcher in Pittsburgh’s org right now, and he should get his callup sooner rather than later.

Matt Vierling, CF, Philadelphia Phillies

A fifth-round pick out of Notre Dame in 2018, Vierling got a 34-game cup of coffee at the end of 2021 and chugged it, slashing .324/.364/.479 with six extra-base hits. The Phillies are primed to give him a significant chunk of time in center field to start the year, and if Vierling hits as well as he did last year, he’ll keep that spot even after Odubel Herrera returns from injury. There’s not an incredible ceiling here, but Vierling is going to get his chance.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.