Every Monday morning, we highlight 10 players who stood out to us based on their underlying Statcast metrics. Data will usually be through Saturday of that week, but may include some data from Sunday games. These are not full scouting reports, but often serve as good early indicators of prospects who might be ready to break out or are demonstrating MLB-ready skills.
10 Statcast Standouts
Jacob Gonzalez, SS, White Sox
Most player evaluations are built over time, often including many years of observation and data. In Gonzalez’s case, his evaluations have been building up since his high school days. He was a notable prospect in 2020 out of high school but ended up going to college. We ranked him 11th in the 2023 draft, giving him 55 grades on his hit and power tools.
Once he hit pro ball, the evaluation drifted in the wrong direction. Gonzalez’s power didn’t translate, as he struggled to hit or hit for power. He went from a 55/55 hit/power out of the draft, to a 55/50 early in 2024, 50/45 in 2025 and 40/40 before this season. Here was his performance last year:
The preseason 2026 eval looks spot on. We see what looks like 35-grade power, optimistically a 40 given the pedigree. The hit tool also looks fringy. Despite a strong zone contact rate, his average exit velocities were abysmal, and he struggled to do any damage even when he connected.
Athletes are always searching for ways to improve, and in Gonzalez’s case, he knew he had to make a change to avoid falling too far behind in the White Sox system. The results so far this year are eye-popping:
In the early going, it’s looking like 60-grade raw power that he isn’t fully tapping into, making it play more like a 55. He’s accomplished that transformation without sacrificing swing decisions or zone contact skills, producing an identical 76.8% overall contact rate. Given the zone contact and average exit velocities, he’s looking like a 50 hit guy. That’s very close to Gonzalez’s projection out of the draft.
One might say his draft report was never wrong, just a tad early.
Tommy White, 3B, Athletics
The analysis of White’s profile is rather straightforward: plus raw power, plus-plus contact skills, aggressive swing decisions and poor launch angles that will limit his home run output. These profiles often look extremely compelling, given all the gold on these archetypes. However, let’s take a look at the absolute best case scenario for this archetype of hitter:
Diaz has been a very productive hitter for quite some time, but he’s also never hit more than 25 homers in a season, despite raw power that would suggest a higher home run ceiling. White stands a reasonable chance of following in Diaz’s footsteps, but he will need to cut down on his chase rate a little.
While their Statcast cards are remarkably similar, White’s facing much easier competition and in easier hitting environments. That means his metrics may not carry over to the major league level.
But even with some regression, he very much looks like an above-average major league bat.
River Ryan, RHP, Dodgers
Ryan looks like exactly the same pitcher he was in 2024, except he’s throwing a tick harder than he used to. All six of his pitches are quality offerings he mixes in regularly, and each has garnered a whiff rate of at least 25%, with the 94 mph cutter leading the way at 54.5%.
When that’s backed up with a 98 mph fastball, it’s a sure-fire recipe for a floor as a midrotation starter with upside for more. He may be old for a prospect, but Ryan’s stuff and arsenal will play.
Victor Bericoto, OF, Giants
Bericoto shares a lot of similarities with White, except he hasn’t made nearly as much contact in or out of the zone. It’s still a promising profile, though, with at least plus raw power and good fly ball contact, which gives hope that he can get to most of it.
His contact rate will need to hold steady at the major league level, as he doesn’t have the power profile to compensate for a sub-80% zone contact rate. There’s a strong chance he ends up close to a league average bat.
Jake Bennett, LHP, Red Sox
Last December, the Red Sox and Nationals swapped pitching prospects. We’ll take a look at both players today, starting with Bennett.
Bennett has a six-pitch mix, headlined by a fastball/sinker pair that won’t miss a lot of bats, but does do a good job managing contact quality. The sinker is designed to play off the fastball, mirroring the release and spin of the four-seamer. By changing the seam orientation, he’s able to leverage seam-shifted wake and get seven inches of drop and six inches of run compared to the fastball. That’s made the pitch a groundball machine, averaging a -15.7 degree launch angle.
The changeup sits between the two pitches horizontally, allowing it to tunnel well off of both. It’s been his most effective swing-and-miss weapon, both for in-zone and chase pitches. He has both a sweeper and a curveball that grade out well stuff-wise and perform admirably. He ties it all together with a bridge cutter to split the horizontal movement between the breaking balls and the fastballs.
Against righties, Bennett has tremendous command of the fastball, as we see most of his pitches clustered in the top third of the zone:
With the sinker, we see him targeting low and arm side against both righties and lefties. He’s also usually around the zone, with relatively few waste pitches:
Bennett is a great example of how to be an effective pitcher without top-shelf velocity: Command your fastballs, develop good secondaries and make all your pitches look as similar to each other as possible.
Luis Perales, RHP, Nationals
Now for the other half of the trade in Perales, who is the polar opposite of Bennett. He’s a power pronator with an electric fastball featuring plus-plus velo that touches 100.7 mph and good ride. He pairs that heat with a dynamic splitter that falls off the table.
That’s the good side. Let’s take a look at what poor fastball command looks like:
We see there’s no clear target, instead just a large cluster in the heart of the zone. Batters are seeing it clearly out of the hand, as we can see the majority of the swings are middle-middle. This is in stark contrast to Bennett’s chart, where the swings are predominantly at the top of the zone.
His primary pitch against righties is the hard cutter, and he often misses badly with it or sprays it all over the zone:
Perales’ stuff is so electric that he’ll very likely make a very good high-leverage arm, even if his command doesn’t improve. But at this point in time, Bennett looks to have a greater chance at providing MLB value, especially as a starter.
Jett Williams, SS, Brewers
After coming over from the Mets, Williams has improved considerably in his second year at Triple-A. He’s maintained the same 40-grade raw power, but he’s making a lot more contact, rising from a subpar 79.5% rate last season to 85.9% this year.
Williams’ calling card is tremendous pitch selection without being too passive. He doesn’t have a ton of holes in his game and looks like he should be able to post a 90 or better wRC+ at the major league level. While that doesn’t sound terribly exciting, when combined with a 50 glove and 60 arm at shortstop, that often translates to a league average or better player.
Williams is still very young for Triple-A at just 22 years old, so there may be more development headroom.
Daniel Espino, RHP, Guardians
Espino is looking like a future closer, routinely topping out over 100 mph with a fastball that gets a ton of whiffs, no matter where he throws it. His fastball has an elite 43% whiff rate. And his slider? Even better, clocking in at a 46%. It’s two plus-plus pitches at the very least, with the occasional curveball mixed in.
It’s been a long, winding and injury-riddled road, but Espino is looking like he’ll finally realize some of the tantalizing potential he flashed early in his career.
Esmerlyn Valdez, OF, Pirates
Valdez caught our eye early this year. Given his recent callup to Pittsburgh, this feels like a good time to check back in.
While he hasn’t quite kept up his April level of all-around performance, Valdez is still posting 70-grade raw power metrics with good launch angles and pristine chase rates. Those are the three primary ingredients for a “three true outcomes” power hitter.
Valdez does swing and miss a fair bit, but he should offset that with more than enough power and a healthy dose of walks. On Sunday, he got his first major league hit—a home run.
College Pitcher Spotlight
Ethan Norby, LHP, East Carolina (No. 157 on BA’s 2026 Draft Board)
Norby looks the part of a potentially plus supinator. He has elite spin capacity, averaging over 3,100 rpm on his sweeper. His fastball gets decent ride given that profile, and he should be able to develop a proper seam-shifted wake sinker that will pair well with the fastball. Listed at 5-foot-9, he’s a bit undersized, which would make him one of the shortest starters in the major leagues.
If we were to present a roadmap for Norby, he might want to model himself somewhat after Sonny Gray, who has a similar build and a similar sweeper:
Norby is many miles away from looking like Gray, but it’s generally the path a pitcher of his archetype will need to travel: Switch to a cutter/sinker combination for his fastballs, lean on the sweeper and add a gyro slider variant.
