The middle infield position always feels like a top-heavy one. Routinely you see a handful of the top fantasy performers occupying a middle infield spot, especially shortstop, but then there is usually a significant drop off from there. Let’s dive in to see which MiLB players are trending up or trending down to start the year.
Be sure to head over to the Pitcher List dynasty page to check out other helpful articles such as the dynasty performance report for outfielders!
Dynasty Risers
Kevin McGonigle, 2B/SS, DET
The Detroit Tigers selected McGonigle out of Monsignor Bonner High School with the 37th overall pick in the 2023 draft. All he’s done since then is perform.
The second baseman/shortstop got into 21 games last season, split between the CPX and Single-A. Again, it was just 21 games, but he hit well in the small sample, batting .315 with five extra-base hits, including a home run while swiping eight bags.
So far in 2024 McGonigle has more than backed up that performance. He kicked off the campaign at Single-A, triple-slashing a .326/.407/.470 with four home runs and 20 steals in 60 contests. That’s not too bad for a 19-year-old. Perhaps more impressively, McGonigle walked a good amount more than he struck out, taking his base on balls at a 12.9% clip compared to being sent down on strikes just 8.9% of the time. The knock on McGonigle coming into the season is that he may not have much power. His four home runs in 62 games haven’t exactly dispelled those arguments, but his .143 ISO is certainly passable and McGonigle hits the ball hard—his home run totals should uptick at least somewhat in the coming seasons.
McGonigle’s performance has earned him a recent promotion to High-A. His 2024 thus far has already skyrocketed him up rankings, and a strong showing in High-A will only lead to his stock rising even more. If you’re looking to acquire him, time may be running out.
Kristian Campbell, 2B/SS/OF, BOS
Mmm Mmm Good. It’s not common for a prospect to perform well enough in High-A that they earn an early-season promotion to Double-A in June, just to then hit significantly better at the more difficult stop. But that’s exactly what Campbell has done in 2024.
The Red Sox took Campbell in the fourth round of the 2023 draft and so far that is looking like an absolute steal. As previously mentioned, the 22-year-old made quick work of High-A, triple-slashing .306/.418/.558 with eight home runs and three steals in 40 games. That earned Campbell a promotion to Double-A Portland (which is full of Boston’s top prospects), and Campbell has become perhaps the best hitter at the entire level. Through 38 games there, the versatile defender is triple-slashing .390/.491/.582 with four home runs and 10 steals. His BABIP is a laughable .459, which is absolutely going to regress, but there is no doubt that Campbell’s bat is for real. All in all between the two levels, Campbell is hitting .347 with 12 home runs and 13 steals in 78 games.
Boston has had some success developing their bats in recent years and Campbell looks to be the next to fall in line. He’s a top-100 prospect and rising.
Honorable Mentions
Termarr Johnson, 2B, PIT: Johnson started out the season ice cold. Through May and Johnson’s first 47 games at High-A this season, the 20-year-old was hitting just .200 with three home runs and six steals. It was a discouraging start for a player that many pointed to as a big riser in 2023. Since then? Johnson has been one of the best hitters at High-A, triple-slashing .297/.408/.480 with seven home runs and eight steals in 38 games. All of a sudden Johnson’s overall triple slash (.248/.394/.399) is looking fairly similar to what we saw a year ago, and it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to see him get the bump to Double-A sometime in August. If he does, he may struggle initially given his patient approach at the plate leading to a high number of strikeouts.
Emil Morales, SS, LAD: Morales was the highlight signing of the 2024 international signing period for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he has not disappointed out of the gate in the Dominican Summer League. Through 30 games, Morales has triple-slashed .323/.470/.596 with seven home runs and eight steals while walking 20.5% of the time. Morales has big, easy power and it’s not too early to get in on him, despite the fact that as a teenager playing in the DSL he is likely five years away from making a big-league debut. The DSL has a little less than a month of games left and if Morales continues to rake at this level the rest of the way, he will be a consensus top-75 prospect by season’s end.
Dynasty Fallers
Colson Montgomery, SS, CHW
Montgomery’s stock took off in 2023, despite the fact that he only played in about half of a season’s worth of games. As a 21-year-old, he lit up High-A in 17 games, triple-slashing .345/.537/.552 with three home runs and a 24.4% walk rate. He also more than held his own in 37 Double-A contests, finishing with a .427 OPS.
It’s been a bit tougher sledding this season, though. Through 83 games, Montgomery is hitting just .214 and striking out nearly 30% of the time. Of course, as a 22-year-old in Triple-A, he is young for the level and his overall numbers (.713 OPS, 12 home runs, seven steals) aren’t terrible. But there are some concerns here – the walk rate, while still at an above-average 12.3%, is a noticeable dip from what we saw in previous seasons while his aforementioned strikeout rate has climbed significantly. It’ll be important to keep an eye on those numbers in the next month or so to see if they regress toward one another.
Coming into the season, Montgomery was considered by many to be a top-25 prospect. It’s possible that was too premature and the shine on him has disappeared a little bit in 2024. Zooming out and there is a strong case to be out on Montgomery as a top prospect. Overall, he hasn’t been a strong hitter at either upper-level stop. He’s a career .218 hitter at Double-A and .214 at Triple-A. Yes, he’s been young for the levels but at some point the results do matter.
The down performance combined with some prospect fatigue has his stock at the lowest it’s been in at least two years. For those in on Montgomery, it’s the right time to buy in case he does turn things around in August.
Jacob Gonzalez, SS, CHW
Gonzalez has only been in professional baseball for about a year but he’s been one of the more interesting cases of perceived value in recent memory. Flashback to the 2023 draft, and Gonzalez went 15th overall to the White Sox. A mid-first-round pick, especially one in a class that is considered to be one the better draft classes we’ve seen, is supposed to provide excitement. But that’s not exactly what happened with Gonzalez. Many felt that Gonzalez was a bit of a reach for the White Sox, and for dynasty baseball purposes Gonzalez had the profile of a better real-life prospect than fantasy one.
His stock continued to fall once the shortstop got into game action. In 37 games last summer, with most coming at Single-A, the then 21-year-old hit just .211 with a .054 ISO. The pick was looking like an immediate bust for Chicago.
But then Gonzalez burst out of the gates in 2024, triple-slashing .273/.364/.399 with three home runs and seven steals in 36 High-A games. The fact that Gonzalez was producing, and now doing it at a higher level than he played at the season before, had some re-evaluating the 15th overall pick. Following those 36 contests, Gonzalez earned a promotion to Double-A.
He’s been struggling there, hitting just .227 with a .079 ISO. It’s been even tougher since the start of July – Gonzalez is hitting a lowly .165 since the calendar flipped. The jump from High-A to Double-A is a big one, so an adjustment period was expected, but after we saw Gonzalez’s stock start to rise this spring, it’s now falling back to where it was preseason.
Honorable Mentions
Colin Houck, SS/3B, NYM: The Mets took Houck with the 32nd overall pick last July, but so far the 19-year-old is not looking much like a back-end first-rounder. Through 82 games at Single-A Houck is hitting just .207 while striking out close to 40% of the time. He hasn’t shown much power either, with a .095 ISO. Houck wasn’t necessarily seen as one of the top guys of the deep 2023 class, but in 12 months he’s gone from a guy to keep an eye on to one that dynasty managers can ignore entirely for the time being.
Dawel Joseph, SS, SEA: It’s such a small sample and Joseph is so young (barely 17 years old) that including him here, even as an honorable mention, can look foolish a month from now. That being said, Joseph has been bad and there is no way to argue otherwise. Through 33 DSL games, the shortstop is hitting just .123 and striking out close to 30% of the time. It’s not really his fault, but given the recent track record that Seattle has had with international signees and lower-level bats, many were looking to Joseph as a possible breakout and pop-up prospect in 2024. That’s looking highly unlikely so far, but as mentioned before, his career just started, so let’s not punt on him entirely.