To qualify for the list, a player needed either 50 at-bats or 15 innings pitched. While those standards still left a sizeable pool of players from which to choose, there were a few talented prospects who impressed in their brief time in the league and might have made the list if they had gotten a few more innings or at-bats.
Below, we’re highlighting five more DSL names who impressed this season.
Sadbiel Delzine, RHP, Red Sox
If he’d qualified, Delzine would be right there with Kendry Chourio and Kevin Defrank in the conversation for the best pitching prospect in the DSL. Alas, an injury limited him to just 9.1 innings in the regular season before he re-emerged during postseason play.
At his best, Delzine showed a loose arm and a projectable body already capable of generating upper-90s velocity with his fastball. He backed it with a nasty curveball in the 79-84 mph range and a slider that came in a few ticks hotter. The heat was there when he returned to the mound, but the command of his pitches and synchronization of his body was a bit off-kilter.
Delzine will be one to follow next summer in the Florida Complex League.
Adrian Peña, RHP, Marlins
Peña pitched just 8.2 innings in the DSL but should definitely be on the radar as part of Miami’s cachet of high risk/high reward arms bubbling in their system’s lower levels.
There’s zero question Peña has to throw more strikes—he walked 13 of the 39 hitters he faced this summer—but his pure stuff is too good to pass up. He has a lively fastball that already bumps 98 mph, and he backs it primarily with a changeup in the high 80s with roughly 7 mph of separation, on average, from his fastball. Peña’s slider and changeup each drew praise as an amateur, but he didn’t throw either pitch during any of his DSL outings.
Peña will look for a reset next summer.
Warren Calcaño, SS, Royals
Calcaño began the DSL schedule on fire before an injury ended his season roughly two weeks after Opening Day. When he was on the field, Calcaño showed plus defense at shortstop and the quick-twitch athleticism to remain there as he moves up the ladder.
Though not the most physical player you’ll find, Calcaño has enough remaining projection and bat control to foresee a future as a player who will hit toward the top of a lineup while providing on-base skills and doubles power. He would have comfortably fit among the league’s best prospects had he remained healthy.
Adrian Torres, LHP, Dodgers
The Dodgers’ international signing class was a little bit lighter than most years because of the time and money they allotted for Roki Sasaki, but Torres showed well in limited action and might be one of the better players to emerge from the group of players Los Angeles inked in 2025.
The 17-year-old pitched just 9.1 innings before landing on the full-season injured list. When healthy, he brought his fastball up to 97 mph and backed it with a nasty curveball in the low 80s. In fact, no hitter who swung at any of the 25 curveballs Torres threw this season made contact.
Edelson Canelon, RHP, Marlins
Canelon signed with Miami this past January and pitched just 7.1 innings in the DSL. Nevertheless, scouts who saw him came away impressed enough to project a major league role in a few years.
Canelon worked with two pitches: a four-seamer that peaked at 95 mph and short, sharp slider in the mid 80s. He could stand to sharpen the command of his fastball, but his breaking ball was effective enough to draw a 63% miss rate over the small sample size.
He’ll need to show plenty more—including a deeper arsenal—to be a starter, but the ingredients are there to project a bullpen role one day.
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