Five MLB Futures Game Standouts
The 27th All-Star Futures Game wrapped up Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, with the AL winning 6-1 in a seven-inning showcase that featured nine of the top ten prospects in baseball. From a hobby standpoint, today was a buying signal across the board. A Canadian catcher nobody was talking about three hours ago hit the game's only homer and walked off with MVP. The best pitching prospect in baseball touched 100 mph three times in one inning on national television. The two players debating the title of best prospect in the sport — a teenager from Curaçao and another from the Dominican Republic, both 19, both in Double-A — did exactly what the top players do in these showcases: made the game look routine. And a Blue Jays shortstop smoked a 101 mph fastball off the wall and scored to put the bow on it. Here's what you need to know about each.
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Nathan Flewelling (C, Rays, Low-A Bowling Green)
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The 19-year-old Canadian backstop took home MVP honors on the strength of the game’s only home run, a two-run shot into the second row of the right-field seats off Reading closer Wen-Hui Pan in the sixth inning that gave the AL a 4-1 cushion. Flewelling became the third Rays player in franchise history to win Futures Game MVP honors. The Alberta native was drafted by Tampa Bay in the third round in 2024 at just 17 years old, and has established himself as one of the top catching prospects in baseball in his second full season, with a patient approach, above-average power, and a solid defensive skill set. He’s currently at Single-A Bowling Green, but the national stage today showed why the Rays already rank him their No. 2 prospect. From a hobby standpoint, he’s the kind of Futures Game MVP performance that moves cards — a catcher with a power tool, Canadian backstory, and a Tampa Bay organization that turns prospects into big leaguers fast.
Seth Hernandez (RHP, Pirates, High-A Greensboro)
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The Pirates’ top prospect came out throwing 100.2 mph with the first pitch of the second inning for the NL, striking out a pair in a 1-2-3 frame while averaging 99.5 mph on his fastball and touching triple digits three times. It was a brief but emphatic showcase from the 20-year-old California native, who entered today at 6-1 with a 2.61 ERA and 111 strikeouts on the season after going from Low-A Bradenton to High-A Greensboro. He was the first minor-league pitcher this season to notch 100 strikeouts. The changeup — rated even better than the triple-digit fastball by multiple evaluators — didn’t need to come out in a seven-pitch inning, but the velocity reading alone on national television was the statement. He was the sixth-overall pick in the 2025 draft, and his card market was already moving. Today’s showcase should accelerate that.
Leo De Vries (SS, Athletics, Double-A Midland)
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In prototypical leadoff man fashion, the A’s No. 2 prospect singled, stole second and third base, and scored on a groundout by Franklin Arias to stake the AL to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. It was a quintessential De Vries line — no home run, no loud swing, just elite baserunning instincts and the kind of at-bat that reminds you why the debate about whether he or Jesús Made is baseball’s top prospect is genuinely close right now. The 19-year-old Dominican Republic native (born October 11, 2006) came to Oakland in the Mason Miller trade last summer and has held his own in Double-A all year at an age when most players his age are in high school. He’s put up .278/.367/.427 with 10 home runs — modest by slash-line standards, extraordinary given the context. The Futures Game moment was understated and perfect for who he is.
Jesús Made (SS/INF, Brewers, Double-A)
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MLB’s top-ranked prospect drove in the NL’s only run in the third inning, bringing in Edward Florentino with a groundout that left his bat at 106.9 mph to tie the game at 1-1 — and even in a loss, that exit velocity on a routine groundout tells you everything about the contact quality he generates. Made just turned 19 in May and is already in Double-A, slashing .280/.351/.447 with nine home runs and 26 steals across 75 games in his first full season at the level. He’s a switch-hitter with elite defensive tools and advanced instincts — producing high exit velocities with good contact rates, but still needs to lift the ball more. The 106.9 mph groundout is both the scouting report and the homework assignment in one at-bat. His Bowman chrome is the most coveted card of any active minor leaguer right now, and today didn’t change that.
JoJo Parker (SS, Blue Jays, Low-A Dunedin)
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Parker drilled a 101 mph fastball from Nationals righty Miguel Sime Jr. off the top of the wall in right field for an RBI double in the seventh inning, then came around to score on a Ralphy Velazquez single to extend the AL lead. The 19-year-old Toronto first-rounder — the eighth-overall pick in 2025 — gave the national audience a glimpse of the left-handed power that’s been showing up all month at Dunedin, where he’s been hitting .296 with a 1.020 OPS in June after a slow April and May. A 101 mph offering off the top of the wall on the All-Star stage, then flipping into a smart baserunning sequence to score — that’s the complete prospect package the Blue Jays are developing. His card was already climbing. This doubles the audience that knows his name.