Today ESPN and writer Kiley McDaniel – who is a former Braves scout, put out their Top 100 Prospect list for the 2026 season found here. Once again Cam Caminiti leads the way, but for the first time this year Didier Fuentes is also included, along with JR Ritchie making the third of the four big Top 100 lists.
Caminiti came in at #53, on the 50 FV tier – the eighth highest ranked prospect on that tier. McDaniel listed him as the type of prospect who is “Smooth, projectable, athletic lefty with three good pitches who could make the leap at any moment.” The most promising comment was that “Caminiti’s scouting report — 92-95, touching 97 mph with solid shape, an improving but roughly average sweepy slider, and a roughly average changeup — isn’t overwhelming at the moment, but he’s the right kind of prospect with the right markers for future growth and scouts are expecting a breakthrough in the next few years”.
McDaniel also noted that “a young pitcher who got into the mid-90s among the earliest in his class but chose to develop as a strike thrower with multiple average-or-better pitches rather than a velo-chasing circus act also speaks to Caminiti’s mindset and maturity. He tweaked and improved his breaking ball when he was told it was a weaker part of his scouting report during the draft process, another key marker for projecting future improvement.”
As for 2026 McDaniel mentioned this change “I thought Caminiti should add an upper-80s cutter to round out his repertoire and asked someone who would know, and it turns out we’ll be seeing that in 2026; the early data looks positive.” He closed with this note on Cam’s upside: “If he doesn’t take a big step forward, Caminiti will still be a solid back-end starter, but there’s front-line potential if everything clicks.”
Fuentes came in at #88, with the type of “Fastball-dominant starter who probably has enough off-speed to be a third/fourth starter.” Fuentes fastball velocity and movement is praised, with the concern being “his other pitches (sweepy slider, slurve, cutter, splitter used in that order) are the concern here. None of them are better than average pitches, though they’re all 45- or 50-grade offerings that play a role in getting weak contact and keeping hitters honest.”
McDaniel used a pair of very interesting comps to close out his talk on Fuentes, saying his “release profile is similar to Bryan Woo and his stuff is similar to Joe Ryan, so this somewhat unusual profile is one that sleeper prospects have used to become standout starters; Fuentes could be next.”
Ritchie was directly behind Fuentes at #89. His type is listed as “Six-pitch righty with starter traits fully back from elbow surgery and ready to join the big league rotation.” McDaniel noted that “His draft report was that of physical projection and command with average to above raw stuff, and that’s still basically the report.” He went on to talk about the upside and closed by saying “A tick more arm speed or a tick more velocity would make Ritchie a mid-rotation starter, but he’s more of a solid fourth starter as described; often the second full year after elbow surgery is when everything comes back.”
Read the full article here