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.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Daylen Lile (40-man), Dylan Crews (40), Robert Hassell III (40)
We saw Lile at our 2020 Louisville Super Regional, where there wasn’t a future grade below 50 dropped on him besides a 45 for throwing. Overall, the scouting report was a glowing one, which read in part: “Definitely one of the better hitters I’ve seen in a couple years. Reminds of Trent Grisham with more power and speed. Much more ahead for this young hitter.”
Crews time with FSS began with a Scout Day as a part of his Scorpions team in May of 2019, and continued on a much more public stage at that year’s FSS National Tournaments.
Alongside fellow highly touted teammates Zac Veen and Drew Romo, Crews stood out throughout the entire event, identified by the FSS scouting staff at the time as a no-doubt pro prospect with a showing that included multiple homers, including the one shown above.
It set him up as a no-brainer invite to that year’s International Week event, which was to be held in Boston for the first time. Crews continued to dazzle, smashing a long double off the Green Monster at Fenway Park, racking up future grades of no less than 60 in all but one category — throwing — on his report after that event, one that identified him as a likely late first round draft pick as a prep bat. Entering his third big league season atfer being drafted second overall in 2023 out of LSU, this could be the highly-anticipated breakout year for the 23-year-old Golden Spikes Award winner.
Hassell was seen all the way back in 2018 at the Music City Nashville event, where he was still a two-way player before the San Diego Padres took him with the eighth overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. One of the key returns in a blockbuster deal with the Washington Nationals just two years later, he debuted in the big leagues last season and is firmly in the mix to start the 2026 season in the big leagues.
MIAMI MARLINS
Owen Caissie (40) Robby Snelling (NRI)
Caissie, a 23-year-old Canadian-born outfielder Owen Caissie, who we saw at an Ontario Blue Jays Scout Day back in 2019, was the centerpiece of the return from the Chicago Cubs alongside Cristian Hernandez and Edgardo DeLeon in exchange for frontline starter Edward Cabrera.
Caissie, a 2025 Futures Game participant, was drafted in the second round by the San Diego Padres one year after we laid eyes on him, going 45th overall in 2020. After being dealt to the Cubs in another blockbuster deal, he subsequently made a quick ascent through Chicago’s system, hitting .286 with 22 home runs and 55 RBI before earning his first big-league call-up in mid-August, where he appeared in 12 games before a concussion ended his year prematurely.
Considered the No. 47 overall prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, Caissie is given 60 grades for both his throwing arm and power at the plate from the left side, which not so coincidentally exactly match the future grades that CEO and FSS founder Jeremy Booth put on him back in 2019.
While projecting then that Caissie would be an everyday big leaguer even back then, Booth wrote at the time that he “has some athletic upside and a quiet demeanor to him that says confidence,” and that at the time Caissie was “a little bit of a project, but when it comes together it’s easy to dream on; .275, 25, 90 with some swing and miss but walks as well. Will learn his zone as he plays and likely be underappreciated at times, but a grinder that helps on both sides of the ball and a winning player,” ultimately comparing him to Bobby Kielty, who enjoyed a seven-year big-league career that concluded with winning a World Series back in 2007.
Although Snelling never attended a signature event with the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series, his history with the organization is both lengthy and decorated.
It’s one that starts all the way back in 2017 when he attended the Los Angeles combine and extends all the way through to 2021, when he was named the MVP of the 2022 grad class national tournaments as a member of NorCal.
In-between those two points, Snelling was seen multiple times, including the NorCal World Series in 2019, the Music City Classic later that year, and several regional combines. On the FSS radar for many years at that point, his most recent scouting report included notes from the development staff at that time, a group that liked his “loose whippy arm and…good balance and separation at the top of your delivery,” one that they noted was repeatable; he also pounded the bottom of the zone, showed good command of a curveball that was sharp and had late movement, and a changeup that featured significant arm side run.
Still a two-way player at the time who also earned high marks at the time for what he could do with the bat — the scouting staff called him a potential “middle of the lineup hitter” — Snelling became a name to watch in Lake Charles that year, and helped NorCal all the way to the title with two pitching performances on a stacked team that also included Henry Bolte.
Snelling was invited to the Main Event that year, but was unable to attend due to a football commitment…you may recall he famously was committed to play both sports at The University of Arizona, but ultimately switched to LSU to follow Jay Johnson there.
Snelling, of course, never got there, needing a reported $3 million signing bonus to get him out of that commitment from the San Diego Padres, who took him with the 39th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. It was, at the time, a significant amount to give a prep arm, but now looks like a steal with what he’s gone on to accomplish. After being a big part of a trade between the Padres and Miami Marlins in 2024, Snelling has established himself as one of the game’s top pitching prospects, and is projected by many to make the Opening Day roster for his MLB debut this year after splitting last season between Double-A and Triple-A.
NEW YORK METS
Nolan McLean (40), Jonah Tong (40)
McLean came through the Future Stars Series as a two-way player, starring with the Dirtbags at the 2019 National Tournaments before going the college route with Oklahoma State and then to the New York Mets organization, where he remained a two-way player before shifting to pitching-only late in the 2024 season.
“I was just being a baseball player first, and that’s what I wanted to do my whole life,” McLean told FSS Plus back in 2024. “I didn’t realize it was that uncommon in college too, not a lot of guys do it, but I told our head coach from the first day, I was like, ‘Hey, I want to do both.’ I obviously can hit, which is what I was going to school for, and once I got on the bump for a little bit, he saw it was pretty good there too. We worked it out, and happened to be that it was out of the ‘pen while playing a position too. Pro ball will be a little different with the starting role, but it’s something that I definitely want to continue.”
Since focusing solely on pitching, McLean’s rise has been meteoric; he’s universally regarded as the best prospect arm in the game, and dazzled in eight big league starts with the Mets, going 5-1 with a 2.08 ERA, emerging as a potential top-of-the-rotation arm in Queens.
Tong, seen at a Baseball Ontario Scout Day in 2021, was a steal in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Draft by the Mets, and put together an all-time great season in the minors last year, posting a 1.43 ERA over 22 starts between Double-A and Triple-A before a late season promotion to the big leagues. He figures to, at minimum, factor into the picture to make the team’s Opening Day rotation in 2026.
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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