2020 MLB Top International Prospects

Remember when you had never heard of Japanese stars like Shohei Ohtani, Ichiro Suzuki or Yu Darvish? Then there are all of the Cuban stars in the MLB like Yordan Alvarez, Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes and Aroldis Chapman. We know about these soon-to-be MLB stars well in advance of them coming over to America and signing with a big league team. The same is true before 16-year-old Latin American players sign with big league clubs like Miguel Sano, Luis Severino and consensus #1 prospect, Wander Franco. Why then aren’t they listed as top prospects? On FantasyPros we make sure you know about them in case your league allows you to roster them. Today, I’ll go in-depth about five worldwide prospects I love who haven’t signed with MLB teams yet, then I’ll give a list of about 10 more to keep an eye on.

Check out our early consensus rankings for 2020 fantasy baseball drafts

#5 Yuki Yanagita (OF, Japan)
Power? Check. Speed? Check. Average? How’s .352 sound to you? This is the best hitter outside of America right and has been since Jose Abreu defected a handful of years back. In his prime, he could have hit 45 homers with 30 steals and potentially led the MLB in batting average. Oh yeah, he was that big of a stud. I say was, though, because he is now on the wrong side of 30 years old. In fact, he took a big dip in production last year because of an injury and only wound up hitting .293/.434/.507 in a shortened season. Now, there is a chance he still bounces back to all-world superstar status, but more likely, this is going to be another tale like Hideki Matsui where while he is a top 20 MLB fantasy outfielder for some time, we never get to see what could have been. Yanagita is expected to be eligible to sign with an MLB team next winter.

#4 Kodai Senga (RHP, Japan)
Forget the top three names on this list, and they are great for sure, but Senga is far and away the most talented of the whole group. In fact, you could say he already has some of the best stuff in the entire world. In his limited sample-size versus MLB all-stars, he has absolutely carved everyone up. From the moment he came over to America, he’d become a perennial Cy Young contender. Unfortunately, his team, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks are unwilling to use the posting system. Senga is attempting to persuade them otherwise, but most likely won’t be able to file for international free agency until the winter of 2021 at the earliest. If not for that, this strikeout machine would easily be #1 on the list and a top-five overall prospect worldwide.

#3 Tomoyuki Sugano (RHP, Japan)
Much like Yuki Yanagita above, Sugano is older but still talented enough to make a big impact when he comes stateside. That should happen next winter but if we’ve learned anything from transfer expectations in the past, nothing is a lock. Sugano was downright devastating for five years and actually may have been the best pitcher in Japan even when Shohei Ohtani was there. During that time, Sugano never posted an ERA north of 2.33 while constantly pitching deep into games and striking out a boatload of hitters. He took a step back in 2019 as he dealt with an injury but if he can return to form, we are looking at a fringe ace at the big league level in 2021.

#2 Tetsuto Yamada (2B, Japan)
Yamada has grown to become a frustrating case because while he wants to come stateside, the MLB rules have disincentivized his team, the Yakult Swallows, from posting him. They would be capped at receiving a $20 million posting fee which makes little sense for a team possessing one of the best players in the world. I didn’t stutter and I’m not exaggerating; that is exactly the quality of player we are talking about here. Yamada is commonly called the “Trout of Japan” but his stature and game have many comparing him to Jose Altuve. That’s not quite what I see. Although he has hit .320 several times in Japan, he should be more of a .280ish hitter in the bigs but with 35/30 power/speed. More likely by the time he arrives, we are talking about the speed dipping a little so think Trevor Story or Francisco Lindor but at second base.

#1 Oscar Colas (OF, Cuba)
It is easy to want to over-hype the next big new thing but this is not hyperbole; Colas immediately jumped into my top 25 prospects when he defected to the United States this winter. Because he is just 21-years old, he has to be signed as an amateur free agent which limits the upside on the money he’ll receive since MLB teams have a capped budget for that player pool. More than likely, he’ll wait until July 2nd to sign because he’ll have more teams to decide between since most have already spent this year’s budget. As for the talent, his bat looks like a soon to be middle-of-the-order bopper to the highest degree. Think Yordan Alvarez as a reasonable upside projection. More than likely, though, we are looking at a Miguel Sano type of player who may hit 35-40 homers with a .240ish batting average down the line. When compared to other uber-prospects from Cuba, Colas is near the top of some great company. We have data from all of the following (Cespedes, Puig, Robert, Yordan, Gurriel, Gurriel and Abreu) as 17-year-olds in Cuba. Among them, only Cespedes (.883) and Colas (.863) had an OPS above .800. As you well know, each of them has proceeded to do big things so it seems odd to expect any less from Colas, who dominated most all of them. Since then, he has proceeded to become one of the best hitters in Japan despite being just 20 years old. Last year, he batted .302/.350/.516 which blows away Shohei Ohtani‘s 20-year-old season against the same competition (.202/.252/.376). It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him make a major second-half impact this season after signing.

Best of the Rest

#6) Roderick Arias (SS, Dominican Republic)
#7) Ha-Seong Kim (SS, Japan)
#8) Seiya Suzuki (OF, Japan)
#9) Kohei Arihara (RHP, Japan)
#10) Carter Stewart (RHP, Japan)
#11) Takahiro Norimoto (RHP, Japan)
#12) Shintaro Fujinama (RHP, Japan)
#13) Pedro Pineda (OF, Dominican Republic)
#14) Cristian Hernandez (SS, Dominican Republic)

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