Whose stock rose and fell in the 2025 MiLB season?
The 2025 minor league baseball season was wild in Cleveland’s system. It saw three teams in Akron, Lake County and Lynchburg achieve a significant amount of success, all this despite several injuries to the Guardians’ top prospects.
Here’s my take on some of the players who saw their prospect status rise and fall the most in Cleveland’s loaded system.
Risers
Ralphy Velazquez, 20, 1B
Cleveland’s first round draft pick in 2023 got off to a slow start this
season at High-A Lake County this past season with a .191/.279/.401 slashline through May 31, but then he caught on fire in June, becoming one of the hottest hitters not only in Cleveland’s minor league system, but in all of minor league baseball. Velazquez slashed .287/.357/.522 with 10 home runs from June 1 through Aug. 10, earning a promotion to Double-A and he didn’t slow down there. Upon his promotion to Double-A, Velazquez was named Eastern League player of the week for the first week he ever played at the level at 20 years old, going 12-for-22 (.545) with four home runs, four doubles and a triple in just five games. He did all this while maintaining a strong 9.5% walk rate and dropping his strikeout rate from 20% to 15%. He has quickly become one of the top prospects in Cleveland’s system and one of the best first base prospects in all of minor league baseball.
Braylon Doughty, 19, RHP
A first round competitive balance pick out of high school in 2024, Doughty made his professional debut in his age-19 season at Low-A Lynchburg this past year and he impressed mightily. Doughty spent his entire season at Lynchburg, making 22 starts, where he sported a rock solid 3.48 ERA and an even better 2.84 FIP. He struck out 10.4 batters per nine innings and walked just 2.4 per nine. His longest start of the season was 5.2 innings and his most impressive performance was July 26th, when he didn’t walk a batter or allow a hit while striking out six in 4.0 innings of work (he hit one batter, so wasn’t perfect). In my opinion, Doughty is worth of consideration as Cleveland’s top pitching prospect.
Joey Oakie, 19, RHP
Oakie was another top prep prospect, selected in the third round by Cleveland in the 2024 MLB Draft. Unlike Doughty, he did not begin the 2025 campaign in full-season ball, instead waiting to make his pro debut with the ACL Guardians in early May. Things didn’t get off to a great start for Oakie in the rookie complex league as he posted a 7.46 ERA through 12 appearances and nine games started, although he maintained an elite 12 strikeouts per nine innings. When the Complex League ended in late July, Oakie was promoted to Low-A Lynchburg and something clicked for him. He became one of the filthiest pitchers in Cleveland’s system. His ERA plummeted to 2.22 and in his final two starts of the season, he was downright phenomenal, striking out 11 batters in consecutive games while allowing just one hit over 9.2 combined innings pitched. If he can carry that performance over to 2026, the sky is the limit for Oakie.
Alfonsin Rosario, 21, OF
Acquired from the Chicago Cubs in an offseason trade for Eli Morgan last winter, Rosario was seen as a speed/power guy with youth and athleticism who could make an impact in the outfield. Boy, did he ever. In his age-20 season, Rosario absolutely lit up the Midwest League at Single-A Lake County, slashing .268/.362/.490 with 16 home runs and 12 steals with a 139 wRC+ over 82 games played and earning a promotion to Double-A. He struggled a bit in Double-A with a 33% strikeout rate, but he still was above average with a 104 wRC+ over 33 games played at the level. Rosario’s prospect status exploded and he easily is one of the top outfield prospects in the Guardians system, causing some serious sellers remorse for Cubs fans
Juneiker Caceres, 18, OF
Caceres has done nothing but impress at every level he’s played despite his young age. He destroyed the Dominican Summer League in 2024 with a .340/.425/.504 slashline during his age-16 season. Then this year, he slashed .289/.419/.469 as a 17-year-old in the Arizona Complex League, good for a 137 wRC+ over 40 games. This earned him a promotion to Low-A Lynchburg, where he was the youngest player in the league. Upon his arrival to Lynchburg, he made one hell of a first impression, collecting a multi-hit game in his first four games for the Hillcats with a home run and three doubles. He cooled off over the final month of the season, but that is to be expected considering this was the first time he’s ever played over 40 games. I’m extremely bullish on Caceres for 2026.
Josh Hartle, 22, LHP
As frustrated as Cleveland fans are about the gambling situation with he-who-must-not-be-named, a silver lining to that disaster was Josh Hartle, one of the minor league players acquired in last year’s Spencer Horwitz trade with Pittsburgh. A southpaw standing 6-foot-6, Hartle was a third round pick by the Pirates in the 2024 MLB Draft. All in all, he was the most impressive pitcher in Cleveland’s minor league system in 2025. Over a span of 22 starts with High-A Lake County in his age-22 season, Hartle impressed with a 2.35 ERA while striking out 8.7 batters per nine innings and walking 3.2 per nine. Opposing hitters batted just .195 against him and he had an elite 1.05 WHIP. For his efforts, Hartle was named the Midwest Leauge Pitcher of the Year.
Fallers
Welbyn Francisca, 19, SS
I had extremely high expectations for Francisca entering 2025. He had impressed in the Dominican Summer League in 2023, then dominated the Arizona Complex League in 2024 and looked great in 29 games at Low-A in late 2024, even earning Carolina League player of the week at one point that season. The reason I have Francisca listed first on this list is because almost everyone posted below him dealt with some sort of serious injury this year. Francisca didn’t. After posting at least a 140 wRC+ at every level he’d played at (including his first sting at Lynchburg in 2024), Francisca had a miserable 88 wRC+ while spending his entire 2025 campaign repeating there. He slashed just .229/.320/.302 while playing 98 games with the Hillcats in the heart of their batting order. The lone bright spot was his 45 stolen bases. Hopefully he can figure out what went wrong this offseason.
Jaison Chourio, 20, OF
With an older brother who’s becoming a young star in Milwaukee and having been named the Carolina League MVP in his age-19 season in 2024, hopes were high for Jaison Chourio in 2025, but injuries slowed his development. His 2024 season ended with a fractured wrist last August. After a slow start to 2025, Chourio suffered a shoulder strain in early May, then re-injured the shoulder on a swing while on a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League. It seemed like Chourio could never quite put the shoulder injury behind him as his power numbers were practically nonexistent this season. Chourio hit just two home runs and collected just nine extra base hits, good for a .049 ISO. Despite his struggles, he still showed a great eye at the plate with a 19% walk rate, which helped him keep his wRC+ above average at 103 for the season. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that Chourio can stay health next year when he moves up to Double-A.
Juan Brito, 24, 2B
The 2025 season was supposed to be Juan Brito’s year. Cleveland had just traded away Andres Gimenez and the second base job was wide open for the offense-first middle infielder. Unfortunately after a strong start to the 2025 campaign, slashing .291/.406/.491 through 16 games at Triple-A Columbus, Brito injured his thumb and it required surgery. He didn’t return until mid-June and he never regained his form, putting up a miserable 65 wRC+ over six games before sustaining a serious hamstring injury that eventually required season-ending surgery. With former No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana impressing at Triple-A at the end of 2025, any further bad luck with injuries will likely see him leapfrogged.
Andrew Walters, 24, RHP
I expected Walters to be a critical component of the back end of Cleveland’s bullpen in 2025, but it never happened. He started the year in Triple-A Columbus and was promoted back to Cleveland in May, but he lasted just two appearances before leaving a game in serious pain. He underwent surgery to repair his latissimus dorsi in June and missed the rest of the season. I’m hoping he’ll be able to recover and help Cleveland in 2026 but 2025 was a lost campaign for Walters.
Doug Nikhazy, 26, LHP
Nikhazy was the starting pitcher for Cleveland in its first ever prospect showcase game in 2024 and after looking spectacular at both Double-A (3.17 ERA) and Triple-A (2.87 ERA) in 2024, putting himself in line to contribute to Cleveland’s 2026 rotation, Nikhazy regressed considerably this past year. He spent almost the entire year at Triple-A, posting an ugly 5.02 ERA with an even uglier 5.28 FIP over 21 appearances and 19 starts. His MLB debut against the Red Sox in April was one he’d probably like to forget, failing to get an out in the second inning while walking six and allowing six runs (five earned) in one inning pitched. I’m not sure what the future holds for Nikhazy at this point, especially with Cleveland returning six solid starting pitchers from the 2025 season already for the upcoming season.
Matthew Wilkinson, 22, LHP
With one of the best nicknames in baseball and after exploding up the prospect charts following a stellar 2024 season, Matthew “Tugboat” Wilkinson could not repeat his success while repeating at High-A Lake County this past season. After being one of the top strikeout artists of all of MiLB in 2024, Wilkinson’s strikeout rate dipped from 13.2 to 10.1 per nine innings this year while his walk rate increase from 2.8 to nearly 3.9. Wilkinson also saw his ERA climb from 1.90 to 4.24 and his FIP go from 2.69 to 4.17. The lone bright spot for Tugboat was the fact that he stayed healthy all season and made all 25 of his starts. Hopefully he can make an adjustment in the offseason and find what was working so well for him in 2024.
Franco Aleman, 25, RHP
Like Andrew Walters, Aleman was expected to be a major contributor to Cleveland’s bullpen in 2025 after being added to the club’s 40-man roster, but injuries and some serious ineffectiveness never allowed that to happen. Aleman had posted an elite 1.99 ERA in 2024, but his start to the 2025 season was delayed due to a left hip inguinal hernia that required surgery in February. Upon his return, he never seemed like the same pitcher. His strikeout rate remained solid at 14 per nine innings, but his walk rate increase drastically and his ERA ballooned to an ugly 7.85 over 37 appearances. Batters had a ridiculous .420 BABIP against him as he was downright crushed by opposing hitters.
