Everyone agrees that Chicago Cubs shortstop prospect Addison Russell is one of the best prospects in the game at any position. So the fact that MLB Pipeline placed him among the top three shortstop prospects is no surprise. What is interesting, though, is that everyone seems to be in agreement that Russell is a consensus top ten prospect in all of baseball – maybe even top five (Keith Law just ranked him fourth) – and that somehow makes placing him third on the shortstop list feel like an insult.
It’s really not, though, when you consider that he’s behind only Carlos Correa (in the running as one of the top two or three prospects in baseball, together with Kris Bryant and Byron Buxton) and Francisco Lindor (whom everyone acknowledges is a top 5/10 prospect in the game). So, placing Russell third at the position is really just picking nits, because that’s what you have to do with these kinds of elite talents.
The placement suggests that Russell will probably be in the 6 to 10 range when MLB.com’s updated top 100 list comes out, rather than the top 5. That’s not a horrible thing, mind you, but it’s interesting to consider that Baseball Prospectus ranked Russell the better prospect over Kris Bryant. So, wherever you place Russell in the shortstop group, we’re talking about super elite talents.
You can watch the video on Russell here from MLB.com:
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