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Chandler Champlain, RHP, Royals: Champlain has piqued scouts’ interest in each of the last two seasons, and now he’s one step away from the big leagues. The Southern California alum who was dealt by the Yankees in the 2022 Andrew Benintendi trade has become known for having one of the best curveballs in the minor leagues, and used it as part of a four-pitch mix that helped him spin five two-run innings with six strikeouts against Indianapolis. He also got 14 swings and misses, the second-most in Triple-A on the evening.

Tink Hence, RHP, Cardinals: Hence has been excellent this season, and piled up strikeouts all season long. Thursday’s outing against Wichita wasn’t his best of the year, but it did add nine more punchouts to his ledger. He finished the evening with four runs (all earned) allowed on six hits and a walk. He now has 68 strikeouts, good for second in the Texas League behind D-backs righty Yilber Diaz.

Dalton Rushing, C, Dodgers: Rushing has been excellent all season, re-establishing himself as one of the game’s premier backstops. On Thursday, he slammed his eighth home run of the year as part of 3-for-4 with two walks and two RBIs in Tulsa’s 15-3 win over Northwest Arkansas. He is now in a three-way tie for sixth among Texas League home run leaders.

Luichi Casilla, LHP, Rockies: Casilla was one of Colorado’s brightest prospects in the Dominican Summer League and now is reinforcing that reputation again in the Arizona Complex League. Over five innings of one-hit shutout ball, Casilla struck out seven and walked two. The 19-year-old Dominican’s fastball sat around 95 mph and touched 97 mph according to BA correspondent Bill Mitchell, who was at the game. The outing represented a bounceback from his last turn, which lasted just 0.2 innings and saw Casilla allow four runs. For the season he has 26 strikeouts in 13 innings.

Blake Mitchell, C, Royals: Lefthanded power is one of the sport’s most coveted traits, and Mitchell has it to spare. The 2023 first-rounder reached a career milestone on Thursday by clocking two home runs against Kannapolis. The longballs were part of a 3-for-4 night that also included a walk. The effort was Mitchell’s first career multi-homer game and brought him into a four-way tie for second place in the Carolina League in the category.

Jack Leiter, RHP, Rangers: A reworked delivery helped Leiter get off to a solid start in Triple-A this year. But that success did not carry over to the major leagues. Leiter’s MLB debut and two subsequent starts have seen him get hit hard. He was sent back to Triple-A sporting a 16.29 ERA. Now Leiter has had his first rough Triple-A start as well. Leiter allowed five hits and four walks in just 1.2 innings on Thursday, giving up six runs to El Paso. Leiter’s fastball command was the issue on Thursday. He threw just 40% of his fastballs (12 of 30) for strikes.

Want to get ahead? Each day we’ll surface one prospect from recent Baseball America coverage who could be on the rise.

Baseball America Helium Pick Of The Day

Chase Burns, RHP, Wake Forest: We typically reserve this space for prospects who are under the radar. Burns doesn’t fit that description, considering he has ranked among the top college prospects in the 2024 draft class all season. But if you’re just getting up to speed on the college class — or simply a fan of deep data dives — we think you’ll like this week’s feature on Burns. Eli Ben-Porat dives into a recent start to explain why Burns’ stuff is so electric.

Our new BA 500 dropped yesterday. You can check it out here.