Baseball America's April 2026 Top 100 Update Brings Seven New Additions, Five Graduates

Samuel Basallo, the Orioles catcher who entered 2026 inside the top 10, graduated off Baseball America's Top 100 prospects list on April 3 alongside Mets right-hander Nolan McLean, the two highest-profile departures in the publication's first spring update of the minor-league season.

The April recalibration produced five total graduations, two additional drop-outs, and seven new entrants. The update reflects two forces Baseball America weighed simultaneously: early evidence from the opening weeks of minor-league play, and a graduation policy that removes players once they cross specific service-time thresholds. Both Basallo and McLean cleared that threshold, leaving a list that looks meaningfully different from its January version despite only three months of roster activity. Two additional players were cut for reasons short of graduation, removed based on performance concerns or organizational decisions made before the minor-league calendar reached its second week.

Jefferson Rojas, the Cubs shortstop, was among the seven players added. His return to the rankings came off a physically upgraded spring camp: evaluators pointed to a more developed build and improved feel for barreled contact as the triggers for his re-entry. Dasan Hill, a left-hander in the Twins system, joined Rojas in the new additions based on a body of work running from last summer through this spring, profiling as a high-upside arm whose placement at Triple-A to start 2026 will draw immediate attention from evaluators across the sport.

Both Rojas and Hill are the closest-to-the-majors watch cases the April update generates. For Rojas, barrel feel against advanced pitching over the next two weeks is the early indicator; for Hill, walk rate is the tell. Left-handed pitchers with his profile typically announce themselves at Triple-A by locating the zone before anything else registers. Newly ranked players frequently begin the year at Triple-A, and their assignments will redirect scouting priorities and short-term roster decisions for rival clubs as April unfolds.

Baseball America framed the update as a calibration exercise rather than a definitive reordering, separating the durable signals, service time, 40-man placement, and organizational roster choices, from the noise of spring training statistics. As those signals continue to compound through April and into May, the next revision will carry even more weight.