Saturday, October 24

Every year at MLB Pipeline, we take a look at the manner in which playoff teams were assembled in our How They Were Built story. Now that we're at the Championship Series stage, I was curious about approaching this from a different perspective:

Which teams originally signed the most players still fighting for a World Series berth?

It should come as no surprise that the four teams who discovered the most LCS players, in terms of both quantity and quality (as measured by 2025 Wins Above Replacement, Baseball Reference style), are the same four clubs that are still alive. The Mariners signed 10, followed by the Blue Jays and Dodgers with nine each and the Brewers with seven. Seattle also leads with 26.1 WAR, with Milwaukee in second at 16.8 and Los Angeles and Toronto tied for third at 14.2.

The Mariners signed and developed their three best performers this season: Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Brian Woo. The Dodgers imported their top three -- Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts -- with Will Smith their best homegrown product.

Freddy Peralta and Brice Turang tied for the most WAR among Brewers at 5.5 -- and I had totally forgotten that Seattle originally signed Peralta for $137,500 out of the Dominican Republic in 2013. Three of Milwaukee's best four players were imported, as were five of the Blue Jays' top six. George Springer edged homegrown Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as Toronto's top performer.

Among non-LCS teams, only the Astros ranked in the top three in terms of total (five) and WAR (10.8). Houston drafted Springer, Myles Straw, Kiké Hernández and Tyler Heineman, and signed Teoscar Hernández on the international market.

The Padres signed the most LCS participants of any non-LCS club with six: international find Andrés Muñoz and draftees Eric Lauer, Trevor Megill, Matt Brash, Jake Bauers and Robert Gasser. The Guardians tied the Astros for the second-most with five, getting Ernie Clement, Nathan Lukes and Shane Bieber via the Draft and Carlos Vargas and Anthony Santander internationally.

The Braves rank second behind Houston with 10.3 WAR, with three significant players in William Contreras, Freddie Freeman and Caleb Durbin, along with Justin Dean. The Angels are third with 8.5 WAR, most of which comes from the best player still in the playoffs (Ohtani) but also includes American League Division Series hero Leo Rivas.

Twenty-nine of the 30 MLB teams originally signed at least one LCS participant, with the Royals the lone team to get shut out. Three foreign clubs can claim one player each: the Chiba Lotte Marines (Roki Sasaki) and Orix Buffaloes (Yamamoto) from Japan and the Nexen Heroes (Hyeseong Kim) from Korea.

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

Shohei Ohtani, DH/RHP, Dodgers, 7.7 WAR (Angels, international free agent, 2017)

Cal Raleigh, C, Mariners, 7.3 WAR (Mariners, third-round pick, 2018)

Julio Rodríguez, OF, Mariners, 6.8 WAR (Mariners, international free agent, 2017)

Freddy Peralta, RHP, Brewers, 5.5 WAR (Mariners, international free agent, 2013)

Brice Turang, 2B, Brewers, 5.5 WAR (Brewers, first-round pick, 2018)

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP, Dodgers, 5.0 WAR (Orix, NPB fourth-round pick, 2016)

Mookie Betts, SS, Dodgers, 4.8 WAR (Red Sox, fifth-round pick, 2011)

George Springer, OF, Blue Jays, 4.8 WAR (Astros, first-round pick, 2011)

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, Blue Jays, 4.5 WAR (Blue Jays, international free agent, 2015)

Will Smith, C, Dodgers, 4.5 WAR (Dodgers, first-round pick, 2016)

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

A. Charlie Condon

B. Rhett Lowder

C. Blake Mitchell

D. Hagen Smith

• Jonathan Mayo wrote a very cool story about Trey Yesavage's path from overlooked high schooler to first-round pick to postseason star.
• The Pipeline crew identified Hitting and Pitching Prospects of the Year for every organization.
• Week 1 of the Arizona Fall League is complete, and Joe Trezza breaks down the top performers.

Rays rookie Randy Arozarena homered in a 4-3 loss to the Astros in Game 4 of the 2020 American League Championship Series on Oct. 14. The 375-foot shot off a Zack Greinke curveball in the fourth inning is the fifth of the postseason for Arozarena, who had struggled in the Cardinals system before being acquired along with José Martínez in a trade nine months earlier for Matthew Liberatore, catching prospect Edgardo Rodriguez and a supplemental second-round pick. Arozarena will go on to win ALCS MVP honors and total a record 10 homers in a single postseason as the Rays lose the World Series to the Dodgers in six games. He slashed .377/.444/.831 in 20 playoff contests, also setting records for hits (29) and total bases (64).

A. Charlie Condon

The Rockies made Condon the third overall selection in the 2024 Draft after he won the Golden Spikes Award and led NCAA Division I in batting (.433), slugging (1.009), OPS (1.565), homers (37), extra-base hits (58) and total bases (233) as a Georgia redshirt sophomore. The White Sox took Smith two picks later. The year before, the Reds drafted Lowder at No. 7 and the Royals took Mitchell at No. 8.

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Contact Jim.Callis@mlb.com

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