Image credit:Kris Bryant (Photo by Tom DiPace)

Since Baseball America released its inaugural Top 100 Prospects ranking in 1990, 31 different players have held the title of No. 1 prospect in baseball.

While no prospect ranking is ever a guarantee of major league success, being named the No. 1 prospect is generally a harbinger of good things to come.

Seven No. 1 prospects went on to win Most Valuable Players awards in their careers (Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Bryce Harper, Josh Hamilton, Joe Mauer, Kris Bryant and Ronald Acuña). Six won Rookie of the Year awards (Harper, Bryant, Acuña, Ben Grieve, Corey Seager and Gunnar Henderson). In all, 23 of the 31 players (74%) became all-stars—a percentage that only figures to grow as recent No. 1s Henderson and Jackson Holliday progress in their careers.

Aside from Holliday, who has yet to make his major league debut, the only No. 1 prospect to never reach the majors was Yankees lefthander Brien Taylor. Otherwise, every player who ranked No. 1 between  1990-2017 played at least eight seasons in the majors, with the more recent selections still too early in their careers to reach that threshold.

Holliday is the third straight Orioles player to be named the No. 1 prospect, the first time a team has had the No. 1 prospect three years in a row. The 1996-97 Braves (Andruw Jones), 2004-05 Twins (Joe Mauer), 2011-12 Nationals (Bryce Harper) and 2019-20 Rays (Wander Franco) all had the No. 1 prospect two years in a row when the same player repeated. Prior to the Orioles, the Cardinals were the only team to have different players rank No. 1 in consecutive years with J.D. Drew in 1999 and Rick Ankiel in 2000.

A No. 1 ranking is no guarantee of future stardom. But more often than not, stardom does await the player crowned as the best up-and-coming prospect in the game.

Baseball America subscribers can find the all-time No. 1 prospects below.

Baseball America No. 1 Prospects