{"id":66381,"date":"2024-02-07T07:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=66381"},"modified":"2024-02-06T12:40:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T17:40:59","slug":"top-outfield-prospects-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/07\/top-outfield-prospects-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Drafting Baseball&#8217;s Top Outfield Prospects Across the League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2024 baseball season is right around the corner. This year, we are building an All-Prospect team featuring some of baseball\u2019s future stars from the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/top100\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MLB Top 100<\/a> prospect rankings. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/04\/top-infield-prospects-2024\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">top infield prospects<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> already drafted, these are the top outfield prospects who made this year\u2019s All-Prospect team.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Top Outfield Prospects of 2024<\/h2>\n<h3>OF Jackson Chourio (#2 MLB Prospect), Milwaukee Brewers<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scouting grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 65 | Run: 70 | Arm: 50 | Field: 60 | Overall: 65<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Milwaukee Brewers signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=chouri000jac\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jackson Chourio<\/a> as an international free agent in 2021 at just 16 years old. In his first professional season, Chourio climbed the minor league ladder from Single-A to Double-A before his 18th birthday. Last season, Chourio became the fifth teenager in minor league history to join the 20-40 club and the first since Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. in 2017. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chourio has the ability to drive the ball anywhere on the field, as evidenced by his nine home runs to the opposite side in 2023. His elite speed translates well for him in the outfield. The 19-year-old center fielder is more than capable of tracking the ball and playing the gaps. Chourio\u2019s strong defense helped him win a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/biloxi\/news\/jackson-chourio-wins-milb-rawlings-gold-glove-award\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MiLB Gold Glove<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during his breakout campaign in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>OF Evan Carter (#5 MLB Prospect), Texas Rangers<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scouting grades: Hit: 65 | Power: 50 | Run: 70 | Arm: 50 | Field: 60 | Overall: 65<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drafted by the Rangers in 2020, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=carter000eva\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Evan Carter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was unranked and unknown when he was drafted 50th overall. Scouts believed he had five-tool potential coming out of the draft, and he quickly ascended to the Rangers&#8217; lineup. The Rangers called up Carter in September after a .288\/.413\/.450 campaign over three minor league levels. Nicknamed \u201cFull Count Carter\u201d, Evan is disciplined at the plate and has the unique ability to recognize balls and strikes. Carter was a jolt of energy for the Rangers after his September call-up. He dazzled on both offense and defense during the postseason and helped the Rangers win their first World Series. Evan earned his spot on the prospect lineup not just for his bat but for his stellar defense. He spent the bulk of his career in center field with a .988 FPCT% before moving to left with the Rangers. Carter has the speed and the awareness to track balls and play the gaps. He also has the arm strength to play all three positions, which will serve him well in the Rangers&#8217; lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>OF Heston Kjerstad (#32 MLB Prospect), Baltimore Orioles<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 55 | Run: 45 | Arm: 55 | Field: 50 | Overall: 55<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=kjerst000hes\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heston Kjerstad<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles second overall in 2021 after an impressive collegiate career at Arkansas. Kjerstad earned several SEC honors with Arkansas and helped the Razorbacks to the College World Series in 2018. After signing with the Orioles, Heston developed myocarditis, forcing him to miss the entire 2021 season. It didn\u2019t take long for the young outfielder to get back on track, winning the Arizona Fall League MVP in 2022. He is aggressive in the box and makes hard contact with the capability to drive the ball across both sides of the field. Kjerstad racked up 58 extra-base hits for a .303 average between Double-A and Triple-A last year. Kjerstad is an athletic outfielder with good instincts and an above-average arm. Primarily a right fielder, Kjerstad drew 17 starts in left last season. Heston made his big league debut in September and should have a larger role with the Orioles in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Looking Ahead<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2024 All-Prospect team is starting to come together. Three of baseball\u2019s top outfield prospects have taken their place in this year\u2019s All-Prospect team, leaving just two positions left. Pitchers and catchers, you are on deck.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2024 baseball season is right around the corner. This year, we are building an All-Prospect team featuring some of baseball\u2019s future stars from the annual MLB Top 100 prospect rankings. With our top infield prospects already drafted, these are the top outfield prospects who made this year\u2019s All-Prospect team. Top Outfield Prospects of 2024 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":66392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1071],"tags":[258,28242,3640,6506,507,69,1308,1982,259],"class_list":["post-66381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mlb","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-evan-carter","tag-heston-kjerstad","tag-jackson-chourio","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-prospects","tag-ronald-acuna-jr","tag-texas-rangers"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}