We’re closing in on the end of an exciting 2024 season. The bulk of the Minor League playoffs are looming, we’ve seen some September callups and we even got the Arizona Fall League schedule, a signal that one of our favorite times of year is looming.

The questions haven’t let up or dropped in quality, I’ll tell you that much! So let’s dig in for this week’s MLB Pipeline Inbox!

Where would Rutschman/Witt rate against the other 1-2 picks in draft history? -- @Royalsdlh

I really like this question, like a lot. So I dug in, like a lot, and made a spreadsheet of every 1-2 pick in history (dating back to 1965) with their career WAR. Before I really answer the question, I wanted to point out that 6.8 percent of all players taken in the top 2 (118 total picks, obviously not counting 2024 yet for this part) never made it to the big leagues at all. And there were 3.3 percent who didn’t sign. Even those who made it to the highest level didn’t exactly live up to expectations, with 13.3 percent of the 120 selections with negative WAR to date.

Amazingly, Adley Rutschman and Bobby Witt Jr., taken at the top of the 2019 Draft, already rank 29th overall in combined WAR (27.2) entering games on Thursday. That means they’re in the upper half of the 60 duos, pretty good given how little time they’ve spent in the big leagues.

Now, some of those pairings are very one-sided, with a Hall of Famer picking up nearly all of the WAR. So if you look at picks who both reached double digits in WAR, as Rutschman and Witt have, they rise to No. 16. Impressive, right?

Maybe it’s recency bias, but I think I might put them at the top of such a list. I think it might look like this:

1. 2019: Adley Rutschman (12.9 WAR) and Bobby Witt Jr. (14.3)
2. 1985: B.J. Surhoff (34.4) and Will Clark (56.5) – coincidentally, Bobby Witt Sr. went No. 3 this year
3. 2012: Carlos Correa (44.2) and Byron Buxton (24.2)
4. 2015: Dansby Swanson (22.2) and Alex Bregman (38.6)
5. 2005: Justin Upton (32.3) and Alex Gordon (34.4)
6. 1999: Josh Hamilton (28.2) and Josh Beckett (35.7)

What are your predictions for 2025 AL and NL Rookie of the Year? -- @StevieDAles97

There’s no real algorithm for this, other than finding players who have rookie status and opportunity. Could Samuel Basallo (MLB's No. 10 prospect) hit enough to contend? Sure, but will he get up to play enough to earn consideration? That’s less certain.

I’ll throw out some hitters and pitchers in each league. Starting in the AL, Basallo might not get enough time in Baltimore, but I think Coby Mayo (MLB's No. 9 prospect) will. His first taste of the big leagues hasn’t been great, but he’ll use that to help him make adjustments for next year. He has a career .925 OPS in the Minors (.543 SLG), and that was up to .981 (and .604) this year. Give him the ABs and he’s going to be a run producer. Jacob Wilson’s injury should mean he’ll be eligible for the A’s and count me as one who thinks it’s going to work. Pitching-wise, I’ll roll the dice now that the Tigers’ Jackson Jobe (MLB's No. 7 prospect) gets enough innings to contend.

Over in the NL on the mound, I’ll give Rhett Lowder (MLB's No. 34 prospect) the nod after he figured things out in Double-A and is getting his big league feet wet with the Reds now. Dylan Crews has to be the frontrunner at the plate for now. I’d like to see Jordan Lawlar healthy and get a shot in Arizona, and I’ll throw out Matt Shaw as someone to watch.

The Orioles have shown they can develop hitters over the recent years but the development of pitching hasn’t been as good as some would have liked. Is there anyone in the pipeline (lower than Triple-A) we haven’t heard about but has impact arm potential? -- @cs12202

There is no question the Orioles have developed more hitters than pitchers during this renaissance, using the large pool of bats to get impact players to the big leagues and to help bring in needed arms via trade. Even now with the system a bit thinned out because of that, seven of the organization’s top 10 among the current Top 30 are hitters.

I’ll throw out the necessary caveat regarding pitching prospects: so much can go wrong from the lower levels to the big leagues -- it’s really tough to predict. And to be fair, it seems like there are fewer pitching prospects almost everywhere, with the lowest number of Top 100 pitchers we’ve ever had when we did our re-rank last month. (The exception might be the Pirates, who are kind of the anti-Orioles in that they’ve done very well in developing pitching, but not as well on the hitting side of the ledger.)

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I’ll throw out some names, starting with two guys in the top 10 in Juan Nuñez and Luis De León, though Nuñez’s shoulder issue might make you pause. De León made it to High-A this year, and has been uneven there, but he’s tall, projectable and left-handed. Keep an eye on newly acquired Patrick Reilly, because his raw stuff is as good as anyone’s in the system, but there’s reliever risk. The guy who might intrigue me the most is Keeler Morfe (No. 27) who is 5-foot-8, but throws 100 mph with a good hard slider and improving changeup. He doesn’t have much on his résumé, but based on the power repertoire, he’s worth tracking.

On a recent podcast, one of you said Trey Yesavage may have been #101 when the list came out. Well it looks like we will have (barring injury) 2 more graduations soon. So what are Trey's chances of making the top 100 before season's end? -- @KyleWeatherly6

It does look like we’re going to lose Brooks Lee and Junior Caminero from the Top 100 if things keep going at this rate. We might also lose Zebby Matthews based on service time, and we’re tracking Jace Jung, too. So it’s possible we’ll get four replacements.

When we completed our rerank last month, we had the lowest number of pitchers on the list since we started doing Top 100 lists. It’s been good that since, we’ve added four arms: Jarlin Susana, Kumar Rocker, Thomas Harrington and Cam Caminiti. Caminiti was ranked No. 15 on our Draft Top 250; Yesavage was No. 11, which might confuse some folks. I’ve found Yesavage a little hard to place because of the injury and because he went later in the Draft than expected. But I don’t think you’ll have to wait too much longer. I fully expect that the East Carolina product will get added to our Top 100 before the season is over.