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Red Sox duo, young pitchers top MLB prospects to watch, collect in 2025
This is the time of year where baseball card collectors get really excited.
That excitement comes with the arrival of spring and the start of a new baseball season. It is also once again centered on what rookies to speculate on in 2025.
One way to gauge which rookies will have a standout year is following who Major League Baseball executives think will lead the way this season. In the annual MLB Pipeline Executives poll, a majority of team executives named budding Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony the top prosect going into this season.
Anthony and fellow Red Sox rookie teammate Kristian Campbell, who made the team's Opening Day roster, could make Boston very competitive this season.
“They’re physical guys,” Red Sox hitting coach Pete Fatse said of Anthony and Campbell during January’s Fenway Fest held at Boston’s home ballpark. “Big, physical, athletic guys. I think that’s been my first impression since I met them seeing them around the complex in Fort Myers. They’re great kids, too. They’re extremely invested in their own development, which is huge.”
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Both players—but above all Anthony—could garner lots of attention from card collectors if they can put up big numbers this season.
“Anthony is the best position prospect in baseball because he’s a complete offensive package,” said Jim Callis, who covers the MLB Draft and prospects for MLB Pipeline and MLB.com. “He has a quick left-handed swing, growing strength and makes better swing decisions than most players his age, which allowed him to lead the Double-A Eastern League in slugging and OPS last year at age 20, then produced even better numbers following a promotion to Triple-A. He looks like the type of guy who could bat .300 with 30 homers and plenty of walks in his prime.”
Second on the list is Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews, 22, who made his MLB debut last season. Crews, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft, hit .218 last season and has all the tools to become a superstar. Whether he can live up to his potential remains to be seen. It’s something all collectors will need to consider when they open 2025 Topps baseball products, starting with Series One.
Offense isn’t the only gauge for rookie success—both on the field or when it comes to card prices—after Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes was named NL Rookie of the Year. In addition, Skenes’ rookie cards, including his Topps MLB Debut patch card, soared in both price and popularity.
One of the biggest prospects in terms of pitchers is Detroit Tigers hurler Jackson Jobe, ranked fourth overall on the executive poll.
Can someone like Jobe, a year after Skenes burst onto the scene, be a top American League rookie in a sport where hitters get most of the love?
“Jobe could win Rookie of the Year, though I think it's somewhat more difficult for pitchers because they're more dependent on their team for success than hitters are,” Callis said. “He certainly has the stuff for it: Mid-90s fastball with tremendous carry, one of the best sliders you’ll see, an advanced changeup and an effective cutter. He has more feel for pitching than a typical 22-year-old as well.”
There are also players to watch for who are known, at least in terms of getting hobby love, but have yet to shine. New York Yankees outfielder Jasson Dominguez, who made his major league debut in 2023, is one of those players. Just 21, he has been a player collectors have been speculating on since he was in the minors.
Dominguez played in just 18 games last season, amassing 56 at-bats, 10 hits and four RBI for a batting average of just .179. While his rookie cards officially appeared in 2024 Topps products, collectors will have to wait until this season to see if Dominguez can live up to expectations. If he does, his cards, including those in this year’s products, will rise in value.
“With Dominguez, it's all about consistency, which is understandable given his youth,” Callis said. “He has big power, a disciplined approach, speed and savvy on the bases and the tools to be a good center fielder. He also can get overly passive at the plate and have defensive lapses.”
Dominguez required Tommy John surgery in 2023 and suffered an oblique strain last season. That means Dominguez remains eligible to win AL Rookie of the Year in 2025 should he have a standout season. He has a real chance to become a regular in the lineup—barring injury—since the Yankees lost Juan Soto to the crosstown rival Mets this past winter.
At the same time, Callis called Dominguez “the most hyped international amateur signing ever, and even though it feels like he's been around forever because he signed in 2019, he turned 22 in February.”
From players like Dominguez who have not played enough to one who has never even set foot on a mound in this country until this coming season, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ newest Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasaki looms large over this rookie class.
The arrival in recent years of Japanese pitchers like Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto helped Los Angeles win the World Series last year. Sasaki allowed just one run on one hit with three strikeouts and five walks in his major league debut in the MLB Tokyo Series.
“He’s the most coveted young pitcher in the world because he can show you a double-plus fastball and splitter to go with a plus slider and control,” Callis said. “He has been handled very carefully in Japan and his stuff ticked down a bit in 2024, but he’s still special. He's the best Japanese player to come to the United States since Ohtani and has comparable stuff at the same stage of their careers.”
Sasaki’s arrival this past winter has generated plenty of hype around him and his future cards. As a result, the hobby (both in the United States and Asia) could be inundated with Sasaki mania over the coming months and years to come.
Also See: Hobby Wizardry by Ozzie Smith
Clemente Lisi
