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Franklin Arias, SS, Boston Red Sox (Double-A Portland)
Arias is one of the more obvious prospect breakouts in the first half of 2026. He’s jumped his slugging percentage almost 200 points over 2025, and while Portland is a much better place to hit than the Red Sox A-ball affiliates, it doesn’t completely explain Arias’s ballooning slash line. He has a very exaggerated, long stride at the plate, really driving forward towards the pitch. He’s got a pretty direct hand path with some late lift to the swing, allowing him to scoop pitches at the bottom of the zone, but Arias strikes a pretty good balance between creating loft in his contact and keeping the barrel in the zone long enough to minimize swing and miss. And indeed he’s walked almost as much as he’s struck out this season.
There’s a little bit of righty Carson Benge to his swing—the current one, not the bad early-season one—but it’s even whippier and less top-hand dominant, although the late updraft in Arias’s stroke can lead to topped contact and issues with spin diving out of the zone. That’s all to say, he’s not a true-talent .990 OPS hitter, but he’s a very good offensive prospect and Fenway will suit his game just as well as Portland. Defensively, Arias is a reasonably slick shortstop with a good first step, hands and actions. He’s graceful around the bag and while his arm strength is only above-average, it’s enough for the six. His internal clock can be a bit too slow—it hasn’t caught up to the game speed bump in the upper minors quite yet—but that should come with time, and Arias looks more like a starting major-league shortstop than he did this time last year. Despite the gaudy slash line, this feels more like a Top 10 prospect than a candidate for number one at midseason. I just have some lingering questions of exactly how much power this swing will produce at the highest level—that is to say, I think it’s more average than plus—but Arias is pretty clearly one of the best position player prospects in baseball at the moment. —Jeffrey Paternostro
