GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Nolan Jones and Triston McKenzie showed the world just how close their bond is last year when Jones found a way to watch McKenzie’s big league debut from the top of a parking garage across the street from Progressive Field.

It’s a friendship that has developed as the two worked their way through the Indians’ Minor League system, but it’s a bond that may have grown even tighter when Jones and McKenzie were stuck together in 2019, rehabbing separate injuries. With the pair comes unwavering support and playfully picking on each other. But at the end of the day, it’s easy for them to sit back and appreciate seeing their names side by side in the most recent edition of MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 prospects for the Indians.

• Here are Cleveland's 2021 Top 30 prospects

The list was released on Wednesday morning, and each of the top four prospects are in big league camp with the Tribe. The top three are also ranked among MLB’s Top 100 prospects list, including Jones (No. 1 for the Tribe and No. 36 in the Top 100), McKenzie (No. 2 and No. 51) and shortstop Tyler Freeman (No. 3 and No. 98).

• MLB Pipeline's Top 100 prospects

There’s been a tight race between Jones and McKenzie, who was the Tribe’s top prospect in 2018, for the No. 1 spot, but the pitcher reminded everyone on Wednesday that Jones is still "No. 1.”

“The prospect stuff, he's always rooting me on,” Jones said of McKenzie at the beginning of camp. “I called him 'No. 1' for my first two years and now he kind of calls me it all the time. We're always rooting for each other, and I see how hard he works.”

“He was a second-rounder,” McKenzie said. “And I would always make fun of him for [being drafted so early]. And he was always like, ‘But you’re a first-rounder.' So whenever I was hurt, my ranking dropped and I said, ‘Look, see, you deserve that No. 1 ranking.’”

Whenever Jones and McKenzie talk about each other in any interview setting, the joke of being No. 1 is bound to come up. It’s something that the two will go back and forth on until the friends are at the big league level for good. McKenzie has already made a compelling case to break camp in the Tribe’s rotation this season, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Jones works his way into the Indians’ lineup -- either in the outfield or at first base -- before the 2021 season comes to a close.

For two people who desperately just wanted to get back on the field in perfect health in 2019, it would be a day of celebration for them both to be on the big league roster. And McKenzie has never hid his excitement to watch Jones finally get his chance.

“I mean, I think I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again,” McKenzie said. “It’s just like seeing someone in rehab and going through some of those struggles in rehab with Nolan, and seeing him when he’s at the point where he’s very frustrated just not being able to go out there, not being able to perform at the level he knows he’s capable of being able to play.

“And [the fact] that the rankings came out and validated the player that he knows he can be is very satisfying for me just to watch. Just to see him when he was at the lowest of lows and know that I see it, he has it [in] himself and other people see the potential he has.”

Jones had to work his way back after having thumb surgery during the 2019 Arizona Fall League season, while McKenzie was trying to bounce back from upper back and pectoral strains.

“I feel like it’s definitely harder in rehab to get outside yourself,” McKenzie said. “But I feel like that’s a lot of what made the process special between me and him, getting outside of our own struggles and focusing on the guy next to you.”

McKenzie was the Tribe’s top prospect first, and Jones could sit back and see how he handled it. McKenzie has already gotten up to the big league level and hopes to stay there in 2021, while Jones is hoping to follow in his footsteps once again. But the one thing the two agree on is that being a team’s top prospect doesn’t add any extra pressure.

“I don’t care what prospect number I am,” Jones said. “I want to go out and I want to play, I want to perform. I don’t put any added pressure, and I don’t think anybody in here does either for whatever that label says.”