MLB's Jim Callis names Royals catching prospect as candidate for top in baseball

For all the Kansas City Royals' successes at the top of their prospect rankings, things could have gone better for catcher Blake Mitchell.

The Texas native started 2025 strong, earning a non-roster invite to the Royals' spring training camp. He was one of the youngest players on that roster, rubbing shoulders with current stars like shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and catcher Salvador Perez, while getting more eyes and reps with the big-league coaching staff.

However, a broken right hamate in late February not only sidelined him early, but for most of the overall 2025 season. Still, this has not deterred MLB Pipeline's Jim Callis from having confidence in Mitchell in 2026.

Blake Mitchell is still a top catching prospect in the eyes of Jim Callis.

In a recent question-and-answer session regarding baseball prospects, Callis pondered who would be the next top catching prospect after the current wave of top talent graduations. The former Baseball America editor named off players like Carter Jensen, Samuel Basallo, and Harry Ford as prospects who should graduate next season.

That opens up the field for who could supplant Basallo as MLB Pipeline's top catching prospect. While Callis went with Rainiel Rodriguez of the St. Louis Cardinals, he still kept Mitchell as one of the "prospects to watch" in that race.

If fans pull up MLB Pipeline's top 10 catching prospects, they would see Mitchell third in in the catching field and the 48th ranked prospect overall. But the former two-way player's production this year opens up the door for him to slide down those respective rankings.

Even a "down" season from Mitchell looked like a solid prospect, but not what is expected of a Top 100 guy. He posted a 103 wRC+ and .207/.372/.296 line in 49 games with the High-A Quad Cities River Bandits, a far cry from his production in 2024.

Mitchell's first full professional season with the Low-A Columbia Fireflies set a high bar, including earning George Brett Hitter of the Year and a Carolina League All-Star selection. This past season looked like a player who never quite found the pull-side power he displayed, but more of the passive issues remained the same.

Mitchell is very selective when it comes to his swings, resulting in an absurd 20.8% walk rate, but an equally unsightly 32.9% strikeout rate. That tradeoff was pretty acceptable when Mitchell had 18 home runs and 26 stolen bases in 2024, but he was nowhere near those numbers in 2025. Still, this was Mitchell's age-20 season so the first rounder should still have plenty of time to bounce back in 2026 and beyond.

If there is any hope, it is looking at how that spring injury affected Mitchell's season. Beyond the Box Score's Stuart Wallace concluded that players will usually return to their pre-injury power levels following a hamate surgery.

Still, it takes "roughly a full season of at-bats to do so." Mitchell saw roughly half that in High-A and was trending in the right direction as the season progressed in increasing his ISO. Mitchell's September ISO was roughly double his season average, but that is a small sample and a particular stat to monitor. It will take more to prove that Mitchell's struggles this season were injury-related.

Overall, Callis still considering Mitchell in the running is a positive and one that shows his 2025 may be easily forgiveable. But the only way to move on from it is have a stellar 2026 season, whether tat be returning to Quad Cities or making the jump to Double-A Northwest Arkansas.