Hope springs eternal when it comes to baseball teams, both in the major leagues as well as with fantasy baseball squads. Some of the biggest importers of hope each season are those "shiny new toys" -- highly touted rookies who have yet to disappoint, bringing tons of promise and optimism to the table.
The list you're about to read is strictly for fantasy purposes and is a spin on my real-world value top 100 list, which is heavily influenced by scouts, executives and my own scouting looks. I don't play fantasy anymore, but I do help some friends with their teams, and I get the big-picture adjustments from the baselines of my other lists: defense doesn't matter, position matters a little, speed doesn't really matter unless they steal bases, lean to position players over pitchers, etc. This list will generally be in the order of that list, only after accounting for those factors, projected playing time and how well I think they'll adjust to the big leagues in 2025 specifically.
With that in mind, here's my ranked top 10 of the best fantasy bets for 2025 among prospects. Not every young player or note qualifies for my list (which coincides with ROY eligibility) -- Junior Caminero just missed -- but this includes the vast majority of intriguing young players in the league.
Early in spring training for last year's list, I had already sniffed out Jackson Merrill's potential rise to Opening Day starter with ROY upside and flagged Paul Skenes similarly, with a question about his 2024 workload, putting them at the top of the "keep an eye on them, they have upside" group. I made the adjustment this year and put the best candidates for that group on the back end of this year's list, but there are still some guys in that section to closely monitor their playing time outlooks over the next month.