Baseball America posted their updated top 200 2026 high school baseball prospect rankings. The list is riddled with Vanderbilt commits.
The commits on the list are:
7. Keon Johnson
13. Noah Wilson
20. Eli Herst
24. Aiden Ruiz
28. Sean Duncan
31. Eric Booth
36. Bo Holloway
58. David Hinojosa
69. Hudson Alpert
99. R.J. Cope
105. Keller Bradley
120. Jimmy Huard
121. Tristan Lange
Yes, you’re reading that right, 13 of Vanderbilt’s 18 commits in the 2026 class are ranked in the top 125 prospects according to Baseball America. Again, you’ve heard me say this before, but this is an absolutely insane collection of talent to have committed at one time.
Now, for what everyone has been waiting for, is this a good or bad thing? I’ll give you the least satisfying answer anyone has ever heard: it’s impossible to know at this point.
If you take this as gospel, then it would appear as if Vanderbilt is destined to lose six or seven of their high school commits from this class.
But that’s just the thing, it’s not gospel, and it is really really hard to predict who lands where this far out of the draft. There are a ton of discrepancies between this list and others I’ve seen. Baseball America is way higher on prospects like Noah Wilson, Eli Hurst, Sean Duncan, Eric Booth, and Hudson Hinojosa than a lot of other publications. At the same time, they are a lot lower on prospects like Bo Holloway, RJ Cope, Hudson Alpert, and Jimmy Huard. It’s not just small discrepancies either, they are very significant.
For example, Bo Holloway is a top 10 player according to perfect game. We effectively would have no shot of landing him according to them. RJ Cope is a top 20 player according to a perfect game, which would mean that we have a very small chance of landing him. According to baseball America, though, Cope will almost certainly end up on campus and Holloway has a good shot at doing so as well (Holcomb was around that 36 mark when we landed him, as have many other prospects who chose to go to college recently).
They are discrepancies the other way as well. Noah Wilson is a borderline top 50 player according to perfect game (meaning a 50%+ chance we’d land him), but number 13 per Baseball America. Next, EJ Booth is a top 80 player according to perfect game (in which case we’d almost certainly land him), but number 31 per Baseball America (in which case it’s 50/50 with a lean towards going in the draft). Finally, Sean Duncan was floating around the 40-60 range in most publications, but now he’s at 28 in this most recent rankings update.
Frankly speaking, we won’t know who is correct until a lot closer to the 2026 draft.
The commits on the list are:
7. Keon Johnson
13. Noah Wilson
20. Eli Herst
24. Aiden Ruiz
28. Sean Duncan
31. Eric Booth
36. Bo Holloway
58. David Hinojosa
69. Hudson Alpert
99. R.J. Cope
105. Keller Bradley
120. Jimmy Huard
121. Tristan Lange
Yes, you’re reading that right, 13 of Vanderbilt’s 18 commits in the 2026 class are ranked in the top 125 prospects according to Baseball America. Again, you’ve heard me say this before, but this is an absolutely insane collection of talent to have committed at one time.
Now, for what everyone has been waiting for, is this a good or bad thing? I’ll give you the least satisfying answer anyone has ever heard: it’s impossible to know at this point.
If you take this as gospel, then it would appear as if Vanderbilt is destined to lose six or seven of their high school commits from this class.
But that’s just the thing, it’s not gospel, and it is really really hard to predict who lands where this far out of the draft. There are a ton of discrepancies between this list and others I’ve seen. Baseball America is way higher on prospects like Noah Wilson, Eli Hurst, Sean Duncan, Eric Booth, and Hudson Hinojosa than a lot of other publications. At the same time, they are a lot lower on prospects like Bo Holloway, RJ Cope, Hudson Alpert, and Jimmy Huard. It’s not just small discrepancies either, they are very significant.
For example, Bo Holloway is a top 10 player according to perfect game. We effectively would have no shot of landing him according to them. RJ Cope is a top 20 player according to a perfect game, which would mean that we have a very small chance of landing him. According to baseball America, though, Cope will almost certainly end up on campus and Holloway has a good shot at doing so as well (Holcomb was around that 36 mark when we landed him, as have many other prospects who chose to go to college recently).
They are discrepancies the other way as well. Noah Wilson is a borderline top 50 player according to perfect game (meaning a 50%+ chance we’d land him), but number 13 per Baseball America. Next, EJ Booth is a top 80 player according to perfect game (in which case we’d almost certainly land him), but number 31 per Baseball America (in which case it’s 50/50 with a lean towards going in the draft). Finally, Sean Duncan was floating around the 40-60 range in most publications, but now he’s at 28 in this most recent rankings update.
Frankly speaking, we won’t know who is correct until a lot closer to the 2026 draft.
