Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i Baseball America

Two years ago, Brewers prospect Jackson Chourio hit 22 home runs and stole 44 bases as a 19-year-old in the upper levels of the minor leagues. Prior to that, just three teenagers since 1963 had shown that level of power and speed proficiency by going 20-40 in a minor league season. Now, a fifth teenager has joined the 20-40 club, and one aspect of his background differentiates him from the others. Baseball America No. 1 prospect Konnor Griffin hit 21 home runs and stole 65 bases in 122 games this season. The 19-year-old shortstop was promoted to Double-A Altoona in mid August after mastering Low-A Bradenton and High-A Greensboro. The Pirates drafted Griffin ninth overall in 2024 out of Jackson Preparatory School in Flowood, Miss., where he had been named…

They were the four swings heard round the baseball world. Yet for Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz, that July night when he became the first rookie—and one of just 21 players ever—to slug four home runs in one game still feels like a blur. To the A’s organization, it was something else entirely. The first glint of a long-awaited light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. A moment that briefly dulled the pain of the fire sales, empty seats or the heartbreaking move to Sacramento ahead of a planned relocation to Las Vegas. For the A’s fans who endured the chaos and stayed when others walked away, it offered something rare: hope. Hope to keep following, to keep caring, even when the times are tough. As the A’s…

MLB DEBUTS WITH THEIR SIGNING SCOUTS We highlight the scouts who signed this year’s major league debuts, with this installment covering the period Aug. 16 to the end of the season.…

When the Athletics announced that they would be leaving Oakland to play their home games in Sacramento for the 2025 through 2027 seasons, it represented a clear downgrade for players. A’s players, coaches and club personnel had to uproot their lives in the Bay Area to move 80-some miles inland to play at Sutter Health Park, a minor league facility that would still be hosting Triple-A Sacramento River Cats games when the A’s were on the road. The River Cats are a Giants affiliate. They have played all their home games at Sutter Health this season, though they lost six home dates due to scheduling conflicts with the A’s. While the Athletics in Sacramento situation created chaos, it also created an ideal scenario to see how a Triple-A park would…

1 KONNOR GRIFFIN STANDS POISED AS THE NEXT FIVE-TOOL SUPERSTAR The Pirates drafted High School Player of the Year Konnor Griffin with the ninth pick in the 2024 draft. About a year later he was thriving at Double-A on his way to a Minor League Player of the Year award. Griffin hit .333 with 21 home runs and 65 stolen bases while playing a lockdown shortstop. His five-tool talent brings to mind past POYs-turned-MLB superstars Ronald Acuña Jr. and Bobby Witt Jr. SEE PAGE 12 2 CAL RALEIGH BREAKS UNBREAKABLE RECORDS Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh unleashed a home run barrage unlike any ever seen. His 60 bombs far surpassed the primary catcher record of 48, set by Salvador Perez in 2021. Raleigh also obliterated the records for home runs by…

Baseball America celebrates the top performances by prospects at every position by selecting Minor League All-Star teams at the conclusion of each season. We weight our selections toward players who performed at the upper levels of the minor leagues, which is why every first-team selection reached Double-A or Triple-A. Seven first-teamers reached the major leagues in 2025. Players are listed at the highest minor league level they reached this season. C SAMUEL BASALLO, ORIOLES TRIPLE-A NORFOLK Basallo dealt with an elbow injury in spring training and was later hobbled with a hamstring issue. The Orioles called him up on Aug. 15. In between, Basallo might have been the most impressive young power hitter in the minor leagues. As the youngest everyday player at Triple-A, he belted 23 home runs in…

Aaron Judge has shown 80-grade power since his rookie season. He hit 52 home runs in 2017, establishing a since-broken rookie record. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Since then, Judge: ■ Hit 62 home runs in 2022 to establish an American League record. ■ Topped 50 home runs four times, including in each of the past two seasons. ■ Won the Best Power category in AL Best Tools voting five times. Only Mark McGwire has more first-place finishes in the Baseball America exercise, which dates back to 1988. ■ Reached 300 home runs in just 955 games, the fastest pace in MLB history. No hitter has more home runs or a higher slugging percentage than Judge since MLB resumed post-pandemic normalcy in 2021. Even more notable: In…

The email landed in midwinter, polite and plain. It was the kind of request the summer league official had read a hundred times before. “Dear (league official),” it began. “My name is (redacted) and I was wondering if you had any spots available for me to pitch this summer. I would love to send you some film for you to watch and put you in touch with my college coach.” The official replied within minutes. No openings, he explained, but a reserve slot was possible. The player didn’t hesitate to jump at the chance. “Of course,” he responded. What followed were the familiar calls, texts and emails that go into summer roster building. Only this time, the league official’s communications went unanswered by the player’s coach, a departure from typical…

Former Yankees righthander Joba Chamberlain might never have been the best pitcher in baseball, but he’s almost certainly the only one to have appeared on the TV shows “Man v. Food” and “Gossip Girl.” “There’s always some weird things that happen when you get involved with the Yankees,” Chamberlain said. Chamberlain’s rise to MLB was atypical. Far from a prodigy, he played primarily first base as a senior at Lincoln Northeast High in Nebraska. He had few prospects to play college ball. “You would’ve looked at me and said, ‘He’s too fat. He’s too slow. His spin rate’s not good enough. He hasn’t pitched enough,’” Chamberlain said. “But I hated to lose—I competed—and you can’t put a number on that.” That passion for baseball came from his father Harlan, who…

When Konnor Griffin made his pro debut with Low-A Bradenton in April, it didn’t start on a high note. The 19-year-old shortstop struck out in six of his first eight at-bats. The Pirates 2024 first-round pick made sure that didn’t happen again and didn’t record another two-game stretch with six strikeouts all season. “There were some swing adjustments that I had to make,” Griffin said. Adjust he did. After recovering from a rough start, Griffin hit .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs, 65 stolen bases and 117 runs scored en route to a historically successful debut season in which he climbed three levels to Double-A Altoona and finished the season ranked as the No. 1 overall prospect. Now, Griffin is also the Minor League Player of the Year. Griffin achieved the…

Entering spring training, Jonah Tong knew he was ready to take a step forward. After working in the offseason to add velocity and improve the quality of his changeup, the 22-year-old Mets righthander was about to unleash a level of dominance on the Eastern League not seen in some time. Now, after making good on that preparation with a stellar season that saw Tong earn a callup to the Mets, he is the Minor League Pitcher of the Year. A tweak in his changeup grip helped kick things off. “I tried out a splitter in offseason camps and didn’t like how it felt,” Tong told Baseball America about his Vulcan-grip change. “So they suggested we try on top of the horseshoe.” That seam orientation made all the difference. Tong was…

College baseball’s landscape has shifted dramatically in the past decade, with the transfer portal redefining roster construction. What was once a slow churn of attrition and replacement is now a high-volume cycle of arrivals, departures and internal battles that shape depth charts. The most striking trend is volume. Since the portal’s inception in 2018, entries have climbed every year. When the 2025 window opened on June 2, more than 1,500 Division I players had filed their paperwork by the next morning—doubling the first-day total from last year. It was the latest surge in a system that continues to flood coaches with options to retool rosters overnight. Critics often frame the portal as a mechanism that tilts power toward the giants—and there is some truth to that—but its reach extends far…