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ARLINGTON, Texas — The All-Star Futures Game, first held in 1999, has long been an annual showcase for the game’s top prospects, who are invited to participate in a seven-inning exhibition as one of the first major events of All-Star weekend.
In 2024, for the first time, MLB introduced a new element beyond the exhibition game: a batting competition featuring a selection of eight young hitters who showcase their range of offensive skills and earn points in three different rounds.
Here are the five Future Gamers who stood out on All-Star Saturday at Globe Life Field:
Roman Anthony, Red Sox player
Let’s start with the winner of the inaugural Skills Showcase, the 20-year-old outfielder who was one of the most promising prospects of 2023. Though he barely scored any points in the first two rounds, focused on hitting balls toward targets and certain sections of the field, his early struggles became irrelevant when he caught fire in the third and final round focused on a much simpler task: hitting home runs. A streak of several home runs in a row earned Anthony enough bonus points to fuel a furious comeback to the top of the leaderboard, and he had the crowd in attendance noticeably more excited than during any of the previous rounds. What a surprise: People just want to see home runs!
It was a remarkable display of power for a prospect known more for his all-around offensive profile and not strictly the tape measure. Anthony has just 10 homers in 66 Double-A games this year, but he has 15 doubles and a .350 OBP as one of the Eastern League’s youngest players, a sign of his offensive aptitude. Along with catcher Kyle Teel and shortstop Marcelo Mayer, also in Arlington for the Futures Game festivities, Anthony is the third member of a trio of position players who should arrive in Boston sometime in 2025.
Reds 3B Cam Collier
Though it’s been two years since Cincinnati selected him in the first round of the 2022 draft, Collier remains one of the youngest players on Futures Game rosters, as he won’t turn 20 until November. The son of former major league infielder Lou Collier, Cam graduated high school early and enrolled at a junior college in Florida, where he could boost his chances of being drafted over older competition — similar to the path taken by Bryce Harper, albeit with far less hype. The plan generally worked: Despite falling to the 18th pick, Collier received the 10th-highest signing bonus in his class ($5 million) as one of the most promising young hitters available. Early returns on him in professional baseball are mixed, but his leadoff home run in the Futures Game was enough to earn him the game’s MVP award.
In just two plate appearances, Collier’s performance was a solid encapsulation of why there’s reason to be excited about his potential and also reason to be skeptical. In his first at-bat, he lined a 94 mph sinker off Angels right-hander Caden Dana into the bullpen in right-center field, a 405-foot solo shot that gave the NL an early 1-0 lead. That’s a familiar sight for Collier in the first half, with his 13 homers ranking third in the High-A Midwest League, a stellar mark for one of the few teenagers in the circuit.
In his second at-bat, though, Collier struck out against White Sox left-hander Noah Schultz in an inning in which Schultz allowed three hits and a walk, a sobering reminder of Collier’s extreme struggles against lefties this season: He’s hit .128/.171/.218 in 82 plate appearances compared to a .269/.355/.472 line in 248 plate appearances against righties. Collier’s ability to get to his raw power in games appears to be improving, but how his overall hitting tool develops against better pitching in the coming years will largely determine the likelihood of him becoming an impact player in the major leagues.
Mets right-hander Brandon Sproat
New York’s second-round pick out of the University of Florida in 2023 (and also, oddly, its third-round pick in 2022, when he chose not to sign and instead returned to school for his senior year) Sproat threw the two hardest pitches of the Futures Game, with a pair of third-inning sinkers at 99.2 mph. He also threw a four-seam fastball that topped out at 98.9 mph, making him the latest hard-pitch pitcher to showcase two different fastballs at the top of his arsenal.
Sproat has been one of the most effective starting pitching prospects in the minors this season, with a 1.71 ERA and .167 batting average against both that ranks third among all minor league pitchers with at least 70 innings pitched. His progress toward becoming a legitimate top-100 prospect is a big step forward for a Mets minor league system that is starved of impact pitchers.
Athletics right-hander Luis Morales
Morales, a lanky 21-year-old right-hander, ranked just behind Sproat with the second-highest velocity in the game, as his two best pitches both hit 99.1 mph. He received the highest signing bonus ($3 million) of any pitcher in his international amateur class when he signed with Oakland out of Cuba a few years ago, and that has been evident since he began his professional career.
In addition to his high velocity, Morales can also spin with the best of them. His slider registered a 2.998 spin rate, the highest of any individual pitch in the League Futures Game, and both his slider and curveball averaged around 2,900 RPM, which is a good fit for him. is among the best in the MLBMorales, who is still in High Class A and only making brief starts as his workload slowly increases, is likely a few years away from pitching for the A’s. That said, he clearly has one of the highest ceilings of any pitcher in Oakland’s system.
Braves catcher Drake Baldwin
In the top of the sixth inning, Baldwin hit the second home run of the game into the bullpen in left-center field, a stunning opposite-field blast that left the bat at 107.5 mph, the highest exit velocity of any batted ball in this year’s Futures Game. One of my personal favorites in The 2022 DraftBaldwin has quickly climbed the minor league ladder and was promoted to Triple-A last month. The timing of the promotion seemed a bit odd, considering he had a .650 OPS in 52 Double-A games, but clearly Atlanta had seen enough to believe Baldwin could handle a jump.
And it appears they were right: Baldwin has hit .309/.440/.532 in 24 Triple-A games, with more walks than strikeouts. In a Braves minor league system relatively devoid of impact position players, Baldwin has emerged as perhaps the most promising hitter. As for whether he’ll eventually replace Sean Murphy as Atlanta’s primary catcher or be traded for a position of greater need? That’s a question for another day.
