As the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series gets set to embark on a tenth year, it’s fair to say that there’s been more than our fair share of players that have benefited from our focus on develop and made their way to the next levels. For many, that’s included professional baseball.
The New Balance Future Stars Series is widely regarded as the premier and unquestioned leader in player identification and development in baseball. FSS specializes in identifying undervalued talent and advancing players to college baseball, professional baseball, and Major League Baseball careers through a proven blend of elite scouting, analytical forecasting, and objective performance data.
FSS has long been recognized for its ability to marry the analytical and objective with the human and subjective, projecting not only what players are today, but what they are capable of becoming. That philosophy has driven success in draft forecasting, competition matching, and long-term development through a national and international network of partners.
Over the past three years, FSS alumni have comprised approximately 35% of MiLB’s Top 100 prospects, 16% of MLB Draft selections, and one-third of MLB Draft Combine participants, underscoring the organization’s central role in modern talent identification. Collectively, players identified and developed through Future Stars Series platforms have earned signing bonuses nearing half a billion dollars.
With that said, it’s time to take a look at the players to be keeping an eye on as Spring Training gets underway in the big leagues, with a wide variety of players in camp as members of 40-man rosters or as non-roster invitees (NRI), many of them with a chance to make the Opening Day roster.
MILWAUKEE BREWERS
Kyle Harrison (40), Cooper Pratt (pictured) (NRI)
Harrison has been something of a hot commodity of late, with the big leaguer having been dealt twice in the last 12 months; first, he went to the Boston Red Sox in June after five-plus seasons in the San Francisco Giants organization, and is now with the Milwaukee Brewers, who acquired him in February in a multi-player deal. We saw him at the NorCal World Series in 2018, where Jeremy Booth had him labeled as an impact big leaguer even back then on his scouting report.
Pratt is someone we’re certainly far more familiar with, as he’s one of the more highly touted FSS alums in the history of the organization. A standout from the 2022 National Combine who put his name on the map with a memorable homer at that year’s Main Event, the Brewers infield prospect is universally considered a Top 100 prospect in the game and a bargain for the Brewers in the sixth round of the 2023 MLB Draft. Ranked as the No. 50 prospect in the game by Baseball America and No. 64 by MLB Pipeline, the 21-year-old spent all of last season in Double-A, and may be ticketed to start this year there, albeit likely for a brief time if that’s how it ends up going, as he’s steadily moved up the organizational ladder.
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Tink Hence (40), Cooper Hjerpe (40), Pete Hansen (NRI)
Hence appeared at three events for the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series over the course of two years, starting with a Sticks Scout Day back in 2018.
But it was with the Sticks at the following year’s National Tournaments where he really gained attention, where he faced a loaded Scorpions team that featured players like future second overall pick Dylan Crews and fellow first-rounders Zac Veen and Drew Romo. At the time, his scouting report after the event was a glowing one, with the FSS staff saying “he does everything easy,” while lauding a fastball that “has sneaky life with a smooth delivery.” It went on to read that “he puts hitters to sleep then ties them up, pitches to both sides of plate and his curveball has good shape with depth 12-6 and late bite…a knee buckler at times.”
Hjerpe was on a loaded 2018 NorCal team that included future fellow big-league draft picks Brock Jones and Glenallen “GJ” Hill, Jr. Selected to International Week that year but unable to attend due to fatigue, Hjerpe went on to star for Oregon State and was ultimately taken by the Cardinals with the 22nd overall selection in 2022. Injuries have also limited the southpaw; he’s thrown just 93 1/3 pro innings and missed all of last season due to Tommy John surgery.
Hansen, who starred for NorCal at the 2018 New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series 2019 class National Tournament, was selected by the Cardinals with the 97th overall pick of the 2022 MLB Draft after starring at the University of Texas. At the time of the pick, Booth weighed in with this: “Starter. Fourth starter in a rotation, probably the easiest one to scout that we’ve got. Sometimes you’ll get 87-88, sometimes you’ll get 93-94. Most of the time, it’s 90-91. But you’ve got feel, you’ve got breaking ball, you’ve got deception, you’ve got pitchability. There’s a bunch of guys that pitched for a while in the big leagues who looked just like him, and he’s a starter, no doubt.”
PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Jared Jones (40, IL), Konnor Griffin (NRI), Termarr Johnson (NRI)
Jones, a California native who we saw in 2020 down in Mexico, will begin the season on the IL after undergoing internal brace surgery in May of 2025. He has not pitched since 2024, when he made 22 big league starts for the Pirates.
Griffin is the universal top prospect in baseball, not long after we saw him at our National Tournaments in Louisiana. The ninth overall pick by the Pirates in 2024, Griffin rocketed through Pittsburgh’s system last year, finishing in Double-A. There’s been chatter that he has a legitimate chance to break camp this year in the big leagues, but could also be ticketed for a return to the minors as well. Last year, he hit .333 with 21 homers, 94 RBI and 65 steals between three levels.
An alum of the 2021 Atlanta Regional Combine, Johnson ran a 6.8 60 yard dash at the time as a highly touted amateur prospect, and was taken 4th overall by Pittsburgh in 2022. He spent all of last season at Double-A Altoona, hitting .272 with nine homers, 35 RBI and 20 steals.
CINCINNATI REDS
Edwin Arroyo (40), Cam Collier (NRI)
After a strong showing for the World Team at what was the last International Week event before the name change, Arroyo performed well, recording a hit at Fenway Park in Game 2 of the series. He was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the second round in 2021, but was traded as part of a blockbuster package of four players to the Reds at the trade deadline in 2022 in exchange for Luis Castillo. Arroyo’s stock fell after he missed the entirety of the 2024 regular season due to a labrum injury in his shoulder, but he rebounded nicely in the Arizona Fall League later that year and performed well at Double-A Chattanooga in 2025, hitting .284 with three homers and 40 RBI and 12 stolen bases while serving as the team’s primary shortstop.
Collier delivered a stunning, two-homer performance at the 2020 National Combine in Lake Charles, Louisiana as a 15-year-old in his FSS signature event debut, with one blast so prodigious that it was featured in a national New Balance commercial.
Between that and appearances at International Week in Fenway Park in 2020 and the Main Event the following year at Citi Field, Collier has plenty of good memories to look back on when he needs to.
“I was always talk about that first Future Stars event,” Collier told FSS Plus several years ago. “That was my first time seeing that type of velo, and that jumpstarted it all for me, because once I knew I could handle it and knew I could handle it, it gave me the confidence to just keep going. I always look back at that event, I always look at the videos. Without that, it probably would have took more time for me to know that I’m ready and I didn’t have to be scared of it.”
Collier, who went 18th overall to the Reds in 2022, spent a lot of last season working his way back from injury, but spent the majority of his year in Double-A, where he may return to start 2026 at just 21 years old.
CHICAGO CUBS
Jonathon Long (NRI)
Jonathon Long is knocking on the door of the big leagues with the Chicago Cubs organization, just a few years after playing for Trombly Baseball at our 2019 National Tournaments. A two-way player at the time, our scouts liked the now-23-year-old better as a hitter, and that’s a prophecy that’s also paid off; Long was described at the time as having a “solid hitting foundation with sound fundamentals and rhythm to swing…strength to swing with gap ability and power potential to the pull side. Fair actions defensively with solid range and first-step quickness.”
A ninth-rounder after a standout college run at Long Beach State, Long has looked like an absolute steal for the Cubs; he smashed 20 homers and drove in 91 runs for the Cubs Triple-A team last year, and is also set to play for Chinese Taipei in this year’s World Baseball Classic.
About New Balance Future Stars Series
The New Balance Future Stars Series presented by Program 15 is a global platform for amateur baseball development and scouting, powered by a commitment to impact, integrity, and player-focused innovation. Its alumni can be found throughout professional baseball, and its events and partnerships have reshaped how talent is identified, nurtured, and celebrated.
Connect with New Balance Future Stars Series by visiting our website, www.futurestarsseries.com, by visiting our YouTube page, and by checking out the social media channels below.
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Since 2003, he has covered multiple World Series and has worked high-profile events ranging from the MLB All-Star Game to the World Baseball Classic. In addition to his role working for the Future Stars Series that he's held since 2017, Ashmore currently serves as the beat writer of the Double-A New York Yankees affiliate, the Somerset Patriots, as well as national hockey writer and New York Jets game day beat reporter for The Trentonian.
A regular contributor to Baseball America, Ashmore has worked eight Super Bowls, 12 Stanley Cup Finals, the 4 Nations Face-Off, the NBA Playoffs, College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Frozen Four, Daytona 500, major UFC events and much more as he approaches 3,300 games covered in his career.
An avid trading card enthusiast, he lives with his wife, Sarah, their son, future No. 1 overall draft pick in 2042, William, their beloved dog, Bailey, and occasionally well-behaved cat, Smokey.
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