The American doesn’t get the national spotlight of the power conferences, which is exactly why it’s worth digging through. With the portal pulling established bats and arms toward bigger stages every summer, the players who stay, or who arrive from JuCo and Division II, tend to be the ones whose best baseball is still ahead of them. Scouts see that talent.
Here are 10 names to know. There’s a first baseman who posted a 1.140 OPS and chased just 13% of the time, a backup catcher who barreled 30% of his batted balls, a reliever who’s already touching 99 in fall camp and a catcher who hit .182 in the spring before slugging .573 in the Appalachian League. Not all of them will break through, but every one has a trait that should get a scouting department’s attention.
Nate Johnson, INF — Tulane
• 2026 (Tulane): 50 G, .277/.406/.432, 43 …