Saturday, October 24

Every year at the start of the playoffs, MLB Pipeline breaks down the sources of all the players on each of the 12 teams in our How They Were Built feature. The Guardians led the way with 16 homegrown talents, the Padres paced the field with 12 free agents and the Rays were tops with 17 trade acquisitions.

Now that the League Championship Series have arrived, it got to me wondering -- like it did a year ago -- about which teams originally signed the most players still competing to make it to the World Series?

The four teams still alive not surprisingly discovered the most LCS talent, both in terms of quantity and quality (as measured by Wins Above Replacement, Baseball Reference style). The Guardians lead the way with 21 players who combined for 46.9 WAR, followed by the Brewers (13 and 38.0), Dodgers (nine and 14.2) and Rays (six and 11.1). The Padres actually matched Tampa Bay with six LCS players, which also equaled the number of homegrown guys on San Diego's playoff roster.

The Guardians originally signed 11 of their 12 best players, including Parker Messick, Steven Kwan, Chase DeLauter, Gavin Williams, Cade Smith (a nondrafted free agent), Travis Bazzana, Brayan Rocchio and José Ramírez. They also landed Junior Caminero with an $87,500 bonus out of the Dominican Republic in 2019 but regrettably dealt him to Rays for Tobias Myers two years later. Cleveland actually found more LCS Rays (five) than Tampa Bay did (four).

The Brewers also signed and developed most of their biggest stars, such as Brice Turang, Jacob Misiorowski, Jackson Chourio, Garrett Mitchell and Logan Henderson. And they too sent a key contributor to the Rays, dealing 2018 sixth-rounder Drew Rasmussen along with J.P. Feyereisen for Willy Adames and Trevor Richards five years ago.

By contrast, the Dodgers imported most of their key cogs -- Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman -- with Andy Pages the lone exception. The Rays traded for Caminero, Rasmussen, Liam Hicks, Victor Mesa Jr., Bryan Baker, Yandy Díaz and Tyler Wells, and they signed Nick Martinez as a free agent. Tampa Bay does have a trio of homegrown players in its lineup with Taylor Walls, Chandler Simpson and Jonathan Aranda.

For the second straight year, the Padres led all non-LCS teams with six signees: Jake Bauers, Trevor Megill, Joey Cantillo, Robert Gasser, Erik Sabrowski and Austin Hedges. Twenty-seven of the 30 big league organizations signed at least one LCS participant, with only the Blue Jays, Cubs and Nationals getting shut out.

Three Japanese teams are represented, all by the Dodgers: Chiba Lotte (Roki Sasaki), Hokkaido (Ohtani) and Orix (Yamamoto). Ohtani (Angels), Skubal (Tigers), Muncy (A's) and Betts (Red Sox) -- again, all Dodgers -- were the top performers signed by clubs that didn't advance to the LCS.

Below are the 10 players with the most WAR in the LCS and their original organizations:

Brice Turang, 2B, Brewers, 7.3 WAR (Brewers, first-round pick, 2018)

Jacob Misiorowski, RHP, Brewers, 6.5 WAR (Brewers, second-round pick, 2022)

Shohei Ohtani, DH/RHP, Dodgers, 6.5 WAR (Hokkaido, NPB first-round pick, 2012)

Parker Messick, LHP, Guardians, 6.3 WAR (Guardians, second-round pick, 2022)

Andy Pages, OF, Dodgers, 6.0 WAR (Dodgers, international free agent/Cuba, 2018)

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP, Dodgers, 5.9 WAR (Orix, NPB fourth-round pick, 2016)

Junior Caminero, 3B, Rays, 5.7 WAR (Guardians, international free agent/Dominican Republic, 2019)

Steven Kwan, OF, Guardians 5.3 WAR (Guardians, fifth-round pick, 2018)

Jackson Chourio, OF, Brewers, 4.9 WAR (Brewers, international free agent/Venezuela, 2021)

Drew Rasmussen, RHP, Rays, 4.7 WAR (Brewers, sixth-round pick, 2018)

Who is the highest-drafted player in the Arizona Fall League this year?

A. Frank Mozzicato

B. Braylon Payne

C. Bryce Rainer

D. Zion Rose

• The Pipeline crew selected hitters and pitchers of the year for every organization, headlined by Brewers corner infielder Andrew Fischer and Mariners left-hander Kade Anderson.
• Blue Jays outfielder Jake Cook has been a full-time position player for just two years -- and now he features some of the best all-around tools in the Fall League. Jesse Borek has the story.
• Kenya Huggins, who's pitching in the AFL, told Jonathan Mayo he got the greatest gift of all when the Reds traded him to the Athletics: the mentorship of three-time World Series champion Dave Stewart.

On Oct. 13, 2006, Athletics second baseman Mark Kiger became the first player to make his big league debut in the postseason when he entered Game 3 of the American League Championship Series as a defensive replacement. He did the same in Game 4 as the Tigers finished off a four-game sweep -- then never played in a regular-season game in the Majors. Since Kiger, five more players have appeared in their first big league game in the playoffs: Adalberto Mondesi (2015), Alex Kirilloff (2020), Shane McClanahan (2020), Ryan Weathers (2020) and Chase DeLauter (2025). Bugs Holliday played in his first Major League contest during the 1885 World's Series between the National League and American Association champions, though MLB doesn't recognize that matchup as part of postseason history.

D. Zion Rose

The Royals made Rose the sixth overall pick in this year's Draft, sent him to High-A for his pro debut and now have him getting more at-bats with the AFL's Surprise Saguaros. Kansas City also has the second-highest-drafted player in the developmental circuit in Mozzicato, the No. 7 choice in 2021. Rainer went 11th overall (Tigers) and Payne 17th overall (Brewers) in 2024.

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Contact Jim.Callis@mlb.com

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