We're in the midst of a changing of the guard at the top of minor league prospect lists. Adley Rutschmann, Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodriguez had ruled these lists for months, and when they graduated early in the year, they left a pretty open field. Two months ago, I handicapped what the top of an updated list would look like, with the caveat that it would change more as we eventually got to this official post-trade-deadline update.
Turns out that caveat was necessary. At that point, I had a group of eight under consideration for the top spot (Riley Greene has since graduated, and C.J. Abrams and Gabriel Moreno are both close) and settled on Francisco Alvarez as the top prospect -- but it was literally more by process of elimination than because there was a clear No. 1 at the time. I didn't even include Orioles SS Gunnar Henderson in that top group -- he was in the next tier, with Jordan Walker, Marcelo Mayer, Jordan Lawlar et al -- but Henderson is now squarely in the conversation for the top spot. I'll elaborate below on what has changed for these players since that update.
There are a number of intriguing risers who didn't make the top 50 or the next-best list below the ranking, largely pitchers who will go in the 76-125 area (i.e. the bottom of the 50 FV tier) on this winter's list, and many of them are players who moved at the deadline.
