Not every baseball fan keeps an eye on prospect development and the minor league ranks, but most are familiar with the top prospects around the league.
It wasn't just Boston Red Sox fans and Washington Nationals fans whose ears perked up when they heard that Yoan Moncada and Lucas Giolito had been traded during the winter meetings.
So what exactly is it that makes a previously unheralded prospect a household name? We'll lump them into two categories:
- Breakout Prospect: If a lower-level prospect turns in a breakout season that vaults him into the top tier of prospects in his organization and perhaps onto leaguewide top-100 lists, there's a good bet he'll become a household name along the way.
- MLB Impact: Even if a player is not a top-tier prospect, he can make a name for himself by contributing at the MLB level. Few knew who Ryon Healy was prior to the 2016 season, but a strong showing after he joined the Oakland Athletics made him a household name.
Ahead we've taken a crack at identifying one prospect from each MLB team that has a chance of falling into one of those two categories this coming season.
For the sake of clearly identifying which prospects already rank as household names, anyone that appeared on Baseball America's midseason top-100 list was not eligible to be included.
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