MLB All-Star Game 2022: New wave of talent dazzles at Futures Game

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

LOS ANGELES — There was a changing of the guard Saturday at the MLB All-Star Futures Game. 

The consensus top-five prospects in baseball before this season — Adley Rutschman, Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodríguez, Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene — are all now in the big leagues. 

Rodríguez made the All-Star team as a rookie. Rutschman is starting behind the plate for the red-hot O’s. Witt is ripping laser beams all over the diamond in K.C. 

The future stars of the past are now major-leaguers of the present … or something. 

That created somewhat of a void atop the prospect rankings and meant Saturday’s Futures Game at Dodger Stadium was an opportunity for a new batch of talented youngsters to establish themselves as the next “next generation.” And while most of the top picks in Sunday’s MLB Draft are years away from contributing at the big-league level, there were a plethora of players playing in the Futures Game who could make an impact as soon as next season. 

With that in mind, here are four major takeaways from the 2022 Futures Game. 

The Mets have the top prospect in baseball 

Technically, Greene, the Detroit Tigers outfielder, still classifies as a prospect, but he’ll soon lose rookie status and will officially “graduate” from prospect lists. 

Whenever that happens, it will leave Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez atop the rankings and during pre-game batting practice on Saturday, Álvarez showed why. The stocky 20-year-old was absolutely crushing the ball to all fields, putting his impressive power on display. 

In the game itself, Álvarez had a walk and grounded out in his only other at-bat (granted it was a 100-mph groundout), but his pre-game performance was a great reminder just how dynamic of a prospect he has become. 

While he’s not a superb defensive catcher, he’s perfectly fine back there and has a bat that would make him a promising player at any position, but is downright magnificent for a catcher. 

Four years younger than the average player, Álvarez destroyed Double-A anyway this year to the tune of a .922 OPS in 67 games. He got a deserved call-up to Triple-A a few weeks ago. 

Whether the Venezuelan backstop gets the call down the stretch this year — it’s rare for contending teams to call up young catchers in the heat of a pennant race — or makes his debut next year, Álvarez is a guy Mets fans can legitimately be excited about. 

Masyn Wynn might have the best infield arm ever 

Cards shortstop prospect Masyn Winn still can’t legally purchase an adult beverage, but he has shot up prospect lists this year, thanks to a .300 average and 25 steals across two levels. But even though Wynn’s bat has opened eyes this season, his arm is the real jaw-dropping aspect of his game. 

In the second inning of the Futures Game, Wynn scooped up what looked to be a routine grounder off the bat of Astros catcher Yainer Diaz. He gathered, took a few shuffles toward first base and then unleashed a brain-melting 100.5-mph throw. It was the single hardest infield throw ever tracked by Statcast.

After the game Wynn admitted that he was trying to throw it as hard as he could. 

“That’s probably the hardest ball I’ve ever thrown,” he told FOX Sports “I was definitely trying to let it loose.” 

It shouldn’t come as a shock that Wynn was getting looks out of high school as a pitcher, but to see a player hit triple-digits throwing one across the diamond is just wild. 

Wynn is truly a different style of prospect; great bat to ball skills, good not great power, superb speed and obviously, a rocket arm. 

The Jasson Dominguez Hype Train continues 

Yes, Yankees prospect Jasson Dominguez is good at baseball. Let’s get that out of the way. 

But at times, the hype around the 19-year-old outfielder has surpassed the reality of his skillset. Part of that is he’s a member of the most popular baseball organization in the world, part of that is because he received a ton of attention as an amateur player in the Dominican Republic and part that is just people generally overvalue prospects. 

A “Jasson Dominguez 2020 Bowman Sapphire Padparadscha PSA 9” card is currently available on eBay for $199,999.99. (Good thing it’s not 200K). 

At the Futures Game, Dominguez only tossed more coal into the engine of his own hype train by smashing a 107-mph, 415-foot bomb in the top of the third. 

There was a magical laser beam 

Only 13 players have hit a home run 116-mph or harder this season — 116-mph is truly in the frozen-rope category. Ronald Acuña Jr. has done it only twice this year, Aaron Judge just three times. 

And at the Futures Game, Twins outfield prospect Matt Wallner joined the club by zipping his own 116-mph big fly down the line in right. 

Wallner is a mountain of a man, a behemoth outfielder with top of the scale raw pop who might need to shift to first base of designated hitter down the road. 

That’s a problem for another day though, because on Saturday, Wallner joined a very exclusive club. 

There are precious few humans on earth who can hit a ball 116; Matt Wallner is one of those humans.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.