The 2024 MLB season saw one of the most anticipated prospect debuts in recent memory when Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander and No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft Paul Skenes burst onto the scene in April and steamrolled big league hitters en route to NL Rookie of the Year honors.

It was reminiscent of Stephen Strasburg arriving on the scene to major fan fare for the Washington Nationals more than a decade earlier in 2010, and over the years every team has had at least one highly-touted prospect who generated a similar level of hype.

Ahead we have highlighted the most hyped prospect in the history of each MLB franchise, focusing on the late 1980s as the start of MLB prospecting as we know it today and running through Skenes' arrival in 2024.

It's a mix of players who lived up to the hype and developed into bona fide superstars, guys who fell short of expectations but still carved out solid careers, and full-blown busts.

American League East

Baltimore Orioles: RHP Ben McDonald

Before ever starting his pro career, McDonald served as the ace for Team USA in the 1988 Olympics, helping to deliver gold with complete game victories over South Korea and Puerto Rico. He then won 1989 Golden Spikes honors before going No. 1 overall in the 1989 draft, and jumped straight into the Orioles rotation in 1990 with a 2.43 ERA in 118.2 innings. He ended up having a productive nine-year career in the big leagues, logging a 3.91 ERA in 1,291.1 innings, but never quite delivered on his ace of the future billing.

Boston Red Sox: RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka

The legend of Dice-K and his mysterious gyroball was the buzz of the 2006-07 MLB offseason, and the Red Sox ultimately signed him to a six-year, $52 million contract after winning negotiating rights with a $51.1 million posting fee. The early returns were great, as he helped the Red Sox win a World Series as a rookie and then went 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA in 167.2 innings the following year, but injuries limited him to 296 innings over the final four seasons of his contract and 2008 ended up being his peak.

New York Yankees: LHP Brien Taylor

Viewed as a generational talent when he was taken No. 1 overall in the 1991 draft, Taylor immediately became the No. 1 prospect in baseball heading into the 1992 season. He looked the part during his first two seasons in the minors, but suffered a major shoulder injury during the 1993-94 offseason defending his brother following an altercation at a bar. He missed 1994 recovering from shoulder surgery and was never the same, failing to advance above Single-A over the next four years before retiring.

Tampa Bay Rays: LHP David Price

Price was the best player in college baseball during the 2007 season, going 11-1 with a 2.63 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 194 strikeouts in 133.1 innings as Vanderbilt's ace and taking home Golden Spikes honors. He was a no-brainer as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft, and five years later he won AL Cy Young after developing into one of the best pitchers in baseball. The Rays whiffed on a lot of early picks in the 2000s, but this one was a slam dunk.

Toronto Blue Jays: 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The No. 1 prospect in baseball prior to the 2019 season and the first prospect ever given an 80-grade hitting tool by MLB.com, Guerrero had the raw tools to back up his Hall of Fame bloodlines. He was so hyped that when he hit .272/.339/.433 with 26 doubles, 15 home runs and 69 RBI in 123 games as a 20-year-old rookie in 2019, casual fans were quick to label him a disappointment. Now he is one of the game's brightest offensive stars and the face of the franchise in Toronto.

American League Central

Chicago White Sox: OF Joe Borchard

A two-sport athlete at Stanford who threw for 1,064 yards with 10 touchdowns in two seasons as a quarterback on the Cardinal football team, Borchard was given a $5.3 million signing bonus as the No. 12 overall pick in the 2000 draft that was the largest draft bonus ever handed out at the time. He had serious raw power, but never made enough consistent contact to tap into it.

Cleveland Guardians: OF Manny Ramirez

Ramirez sent the hype train flying out of the station when he hit .326/.426/.679 with 19 home runs and 63 RBI in 59 games in his pro debut as a 19-year-old in rookie ball. Two years later, he made his MLB debut shortly after his 21st birthday, joining a stacked Cleveland offense and quickly becoming a star. He had a 152 OPS+ with 236 home runs and 804 RBI in eight seasons with the team before leaving for Boston in free agency.

Detroit Tigers: 1B Spencer Torkelson

Torkelson launched 25 home runs as a true freshman at Arizona State, breaking Barry Bonds' school record in the process while quickly moving to the top of 2020 draft boards. He followed that up with a similarly impressive sophomore season and did nothing to hurt his status during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign before going No. 1 overall to the Tigers. The 25-year-old has not been the instant star many were expecting, though he does have a 31-homer season on his resume.

Kansas City Royals: 3B Alex Gordon

Gordon won 2005 Golden Spikes honors at Nebraska, went No. 2 overall in that year's draft, and two years later he was the Royals everyday third baseman. He was shaping up to be a bust after logging just 4.6 WAR in 408 games over his first four seasons when he was shifted to left field, and he responded with a 7.3-WAR season in 2011. That was the first step in becoming a franchise icon, and with eight Gold Gloves, three All-Star selections and 34.5 WAR in 14 seasons he ended up being one of the best homegrown players in franchise history.

Minnesota Twins: C Joe Mauer

The USA Today High School Player of the Year in both baseball and football during his senior year at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Mauer was committed to play football at Florida State before the Twins drafted the local kid No. 1 overall in 2001. Even with his accolades, it was a controversial pick as USC right-hander Mark Prior was viewed as a sure-fire future ace, but Mauer lived up to the hype and put together a 15-year Hall of Fame career spent entirely in a Twins uniform.

American League West

Athletics: RHP Todd Van Poppel

Van Poppel was a candidate to go No. 1 overall in the 1990 draft, but the Texas high school star wound up slipping to No. 14 overall due to his bonus demands. He began the 1991 season as baseball's top prospect and received a September call-up that year still a few months shy of his 20th birthday. Shoulder issues sidelined him the following season, and while he ended up making 359 appearances over an 11-year career, he never came close to meeting expectations with a 5.58 ERA in 907 career innings.

Houston Astros: RHP Mark Appel

Appel rebuffed the Pirates as the No. 8 overall pick in the 2012 draft, returned to Stanford for his senior season, then went No. 1 overall the following year in a draft class that saw Kris Bryant taken with the No. 2 pick. Who would have guessed it would be almost a decade later when he finally made his MLB debut with six relief appearances out of the Phillies bullpen? A year after nailing Carlos Correa at No. 1 overall, the Astros had one of the biggest misses in draft history.

Los Angeles Angels: RHP/DH Shohei Ohtani

Everyone had an opinion on whether Ohtani's unique two-way skill set would work in the majors, but even the most optimistic of projections came up short for a player who is now the undisputed face of baseball and a true unicorn in the sport. Years from now, scholars will look back and wonder how Mike Trout and Ohtani spent six years together as teammates and never even made the playoffs.

Seattle Mariners: OF Ken Griffey Jr.

There is a case to be made that Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez are the two most hyped prospects in baseball history, so it's a coin toss who deserves to be the pick here. As a baseball card collector, Griffey's hype transcended the field of play and his 1989 Upper Deck rookie card helped drive the hobby boom during the 1990s, so he gets the nod for me. Both players lived up to being No. 1 overall picks with legendary careers.

Texas Rangers: SP Yu Darvish

The Rangers paid a $51.7 million posting fee to win negotiating rights after Darvish was posted by the Nippon Ham Fighters, then signed to a six-year, $60 million contract. He made an immediate splash, going 16-9 with a 3.90 ERA and 221 strikeouts in 191.1 innings, and he has put together a fantastic 12-year career stateside after logging a pristine 1.99 ERA in 1,268.1 innings in Japan.

National League East

Atlanta Braves: OF Andruw Jones

Jones was the first prospect ever to be No. 1 on the Baseball America Top 100 list twice, claiming the top spot prior to the 1996 and 1997 seasons. In between, he went 8-for-20 with two home runs in the 1996 World Series as a teenager, further fanning the hype flames. Injuries derailed his career in his 30s, but not before he won 10 Gold Glove Awards and launched 434 home runs in a 62.7-WAR career.

Miami Marlins: RHP Josh Beckett

A flame-throwing Texas high schooler who was mentioned alongside Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood during his prep career, Beckett went No. 2 overall in the 1999 draft and by 2002 he was the No. 1 prospect in baseball. He was the ace of the staff for the Marlins during their run to the 2003 World Series, tossing a five-hit shutout in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium to clinch the title. He never quite became a superstar, but had a strong 14-year career with a stellar playoff track record.

New York Mets: 3B Gregg Jefferies

Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry both began their big league careers with plenty of hype, but Jefferies was on another level. Elite contact skills gave him the look of a future batting champion throughout his time in the minors, but things never clicked during his time in the Mets organization and the immense hype in a major market was no doubt a factor. He eventually made a pair of All-Star appearances with the Cardinals and had a solid second half of his career, but he stands as one of the biggest prospect busts of the 1980s.

Philadelphia Phillies: OF Pat Burrell

Burrell hit .442/.577/.886 with 61 home runs and 187 RBI in 162 games over three seasons at the University of Miami as one of the most productive college hitters of all-time before going No. 1 overall in the 1998 draft. He made his MLB debut in 2000 and quickly developed into a middle-of-the-order run producer, posting a 120 OPS+ with 251 home runs in nine seasons in Philadelphia.

Washington Nationals: OF Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper vs. Stephen Strasburg was one of the more compelling debates in this exercise, and I can still remember all the hype surrounding Strasburg's MLB debut which aired on ESPN in prime time. However, only one of those guys appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated dubbed as "Baseball's Chosen One" when he was 16 years old. No baseball player has faced more hype before ever starting his pro career than Harper, and against all odds, he has lived up to those lofty expectations and is on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

National League Central

Chicago Cubs: 3B Kris Bryant

Bryant's arrival in Chicago signaled the unofficial transition from rebuilding to pushing toward contention, and I was there at Wrigley Field on April 17, 2015, when Cubs fans gave him four straight standing ovations and watched him go 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. The No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft had a 1.314 OPS with 31 home runs during his junior season at the University of San Diego, quickly became baseball's No. 1 prospect, and went on to win 2015 NL Rookie of the Year and 2016 NL MVP.

Cincinnati Reds: OF Jay Bruce

Bruce hit .319/.375/.587 with 46 doubles, 26 home runs and 89 RBI in 133 games during his age-20 season while reaching Triple-A, and the following year he opened the year as the No. 1 prospect in baseball. He joined Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips to form the offensive core of the Reds in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and went on to post a 108 OPS+ with 319 home runs in 14 seasons.

Milwaukee Brewers: RHP Ben Sheets

Sheets was the No. 10 overall pick in the 1999 draft, but it was his performance in the 2000 Olympics that really sent his stock soaring. The ace of the staff for Team USA, he threw a complete game shutout against a stacked Team Cuba roster in the gold medal game to secure his place in National Team history. He made his MLB debut in 2001 and put together a stellar eight-year run in Milwaukee where he was a four-time All-Star before injuries derailed his career.

Pittsburgh Pirates: RHP Paul Skenes

Skenes was virtually untouchable during his junior season at LSU, going 13-2 with a 1.69 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and 209 strikeouts in 122.2 innings while sharing the spotlight with teammate and Golden Spikes winner Dylan Crews. The Pirates took him No. 1 overall and less than a year later he was mowing down big league hitters en route to starting the All-Star Game and taking home NL Rookie of the Year honors. The 22-year-old looks like a potential all-time great in the early stages of his career.

St. Louis Cardinals: OF J.D. Drew

Drew had a unique start to his pro career, going No. 2 overall in the 1997 draft to the Phillies but refusing to sign when they were unwilling to meet the $10 million asking price of agent Scott Boras. He spent the 1997 season with the St. Paul Saints in the independent league, then went No. 5 overall in the 1998 draft, reeling in a $7 million bonus a year after he failed to sign. He reached the majors in his first professional season, hitting .417/.463/.972 with five home runs in 41 plate appearances as a September call-up to earn the No. 1 spot on the Baseball America Top 100 prospect list heading into 1999.

National League West

Arizona Diamondbacks: 1B Travis Lee

Lee went No. 2 overall in the 1996 draft to the Twins, but he was declared a free agent when they failed to tender him a contract and ended up signing a four-year, $10 million deal with the expansion Diamondbacks. He hit .331/.432/.631 with 34 doubles, 32 home runs and 109 RBI in 120 games in the minors in 1997, and was the team's starting first baseman for its inaugural season in 1998. His biggest contribution to the franchise ended up being as a trade piece in the deal to acquire Curt Schilling from the Phillies.

Colorado Rockies: 1B Todd Helton

A two-sport athlete at the University of Tennessee where he shared a quarterback room with a young Peyton Manning, Helton had a huge junior season on the baseball diamond. He hit .407/.522/.775 with 20 home runs and 92 RBI while also logging a 1.66 ERA and 12 saves in 30 appearances as the team's closer. The future Hall of Famer raked throughout his time in the minors and effectively filled some big shoes when he replaced Andres Galarraga at first base in Colorado.

Los Angeles Dodgers: SS Corey Seager

For all the Rookie of the Year awards the Dodgers have won over the last 40 years, it was surprisingly tricky nailing down a most hyped prospect. Seager was repeatedly deemed untouchable throughout his time in the minors, and he was the No. 1 prospect in baseball prior to the 2016 season. He won NL Rookie of the Year and finished third in NL MVP voting later that year, and he is now one of baseball's most productive players.

San Diego Padres: SS Fernando Tatis Jr.

MLB bloodlines and intriguing raw tools were not enough for the White Sox to hold onto a young Fernando Tatis Jr., as he was traded to the Padres in 2016 in exchange for overpriced veteran James Shields. He broke through in 2017 when he posted an .877 OPS with 22 home runs and 32 steals in 131 games while reaching Double-A as an 18-year-old, and was a top-10 prospect in baseball in 2018 and 2019 before emerging as an immediate star in the majors.

San Francisco Giants: C Buster Posey

Posey had one of the best collegiate seasons ever by a catcher in 2008 when he hit .463/.566/.879 with 26 home runs and 93 RBI in 68 games as a junior at Florida State. He debuted at No. 14 on the Top 100 prospect list prior to the 2009 season and jumped up to No. 7 the following year before debuting with a bang and helping lead the Giants to a World Series title.