There's no sugarcoating it: 2023 was a historic MLB draft class, and 2024 is merely a normal one. The top tier of a draft is what makes the whole draft class look good. Having five clear top talents (Paul Skenes, Dylan Crews, Max Clark, Wyatt Langford, Walker Jenkins) who were all candidates for the No. 1 overall pick made the whole class look better, when the rest after that top group were pretty normal.
The 2024 class has a normal top of the class, in that there are a couple prospects who are seen as consensus types to go on a minor league top 100 upon being drafted because of ability and performance but with some lack of ceiling. The rest of the class is solid, but the lack of exceptional talent at the top hurts the perception of the entire group.
It's worth noting there is only one high school player in the top 23 spots in these rankings. To be fair, Jackson Holliday was seen as a mid-first-round talent at best at this juncture two years ago, and he's now the top prospect in baseball. I'd expect more prep players to break into the top half of the first round, maybe as soon as a few weeks from now when the key final events of the summer conclude.
Let's dive into my initial top 50 prospects for the 2024 MLB draft, plus another 50 with Day 1 upside who could move up this list in the coming months.