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As our series on top prospects in spring camps comes to an end, we take a look at the best prospects who spent time in Major League Spring Training with the St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays and Washington Nationals.
With the regular season already a week old, we have seen some top prospects make an impact on their big league clubs already and some others receive call-ups just days into the season.
St. Louis Cardinals
The 2011 World Series champions have a farm system ripe with talent, with some prospects breaking through in recent years to make major impacts in the show.
From their 2013 top prospects list, the following players spent time in Major League camp with the Cardinals this past spring:
Right handed pitcher Shelby Miller, right handed pitcher Trevor Rosenthal, infielder Kolten Wong, right handed pitcher Tyrell Jenkins, first baseman Matt Adams, left handed pitcher John Gast, right handed pitcher Michael Blazek, right handed pitcher Maikel Cleto, right handed pitcher Eric Fornataro and right handed pitcher Jordan Swagerty.
From this group, Miller, Rosenthal and Adams all made the Opening Day roster for St. Louis. Miller is the team’s fifth starter and Rosenthal is pitching out of the bullpen. Adams is backing up Allen Craig at first base and provides pop off the bench.
Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay Rays infielder Wil Myers.
Tampa has seen some of its top prospects graduate to the big leagues over the past handful of seasons and they have made major impacts, especially on the pitching staff.
As we continue further into the first month of the season, the Rays have quite an impressive crop of top prospects waiting in the wings. The group that spent time in Major League camp includes outfielder Wil Myers, right handed pitcher Jake Odorizzi, right handed pitcher Chris Archer, short stop Hak-Ju Lee, left handed pitcher Enny Romero, left handed pitcher Mike Montgomery, right handed pitcher Alex Colome, short stop Tim Beckham, and left handed pitcher Felipe Rivero.
Texas Rangers
Texas has some talented prospects knocking on the doors of the big leagues, including short stop Jurickson Profar, third baseman Mike Olt, left handed pitcher Martin Perez, right handed pitcher Wilmer Font, right handed pitcher Justin Grimm, right handed pitcher Roman Mendez, right handed pitcher Neil Ramirez, right handed pitcher Nick Tepesch, and infielder Leury Garcia.
From this list, Grimm, Tepesch, and Garcia are all on the Major League roster right now for the Rangers.
Toronto Blue Jays
The top prospects from the Toronto system that spent time in big league camp this past spring include left handed pitcher Sean Nolin, right handed pitcher Josh Stilson, catcher A.J. Jimenez, and infielder Ryan Goins.
This is a very underwhelming crop of prospects, especially since the first player to appear in camp hits the MLB.com list for Toronto at number eight.
Washington Nationals
Washington fans are going to be enjoying baseball in the Nation’s capital for quite a long time with the current active roster and the top prospects down on the farm.
The players on the top 20 list who spent time in spring camp include third baseman Anthony Rendon, right handed pitcher Nate Karns, outfielder Eury Perez, left handed pitcher Matt Purke, third baseman Matt Skole, first baseman Chris Marrero, right handed pitcher Christian Garcia, and catcher Sandy Leon.