Updated 2026 Rankings - Inside the North Carolina Class

September 5, 2024
Brandon Hall
NC / Mid-ATL Director of Scouting

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The start of the school year can signify the end of the summer season. With the end of the summer, and the start of the fall, our scouting staff went to work to compile information on all the players that were seen over the past 3 months. The Prep Baseball Scouting staff saw close to 1000 athletes this summer, updating and adding player grades in the rankings database.

The process of rankings players can be somewhat simple but it does take a ton of time and effort. For every player the Prep Baseball scouting staff in NC sees, they work to put a player grade on the player and a confidence rating on the grade. The confidence rating can be related to the number of times a player is seen, and the number of different ways that player is evaluated. Once ready, the database is sorted blindly, with all player information hidden outside the player grade, confidence rating, and tool grades. When the data base is sorted by player grade, the tool grades are used to flush out players with similar overall grades. As the sorting process is finished, the rankings are basically set. Our scouting staff will go through the list to see if there are any outliers, where the grade may have been off for one reason or another. As this process is finished, the rankings are ready to post.

The updated 2026 class rankings has expanded to the top 250 players in the state. Now Juniors in high school the recruiting period is wide open. With new rules in place for this class and how D1 teams can build their rosters, it will be interesting to see if the analytics remain the same in terms of number of athletes getting the chance to play baseball and how the breakdown happens across the class to different classifications of college baseball.

Below we begin the process of breaking down the top talent in the 2026 class. While we are still in the beginning phases of getting ot know all the players in the 2026 class, there is an obvious level of talent at the top of the chart, as well as throughout the entire rankings list. Expanded to the top 250 players, the updated North Carolina class of 2026 rankings can be seen HERE.

2026 Class Rankings Update

From the Futures

The Prep Baseball Future Games is the top showcase event for uncommitted players in the country. This year featured over 425 coaches and scouts in attendance at LakePoint as Team North Carolina featured 26 players for the 4 day event. Several players took advantage of this event to "announce their presence with authority". With the top talent from across the country littering rosters at the event, Team NC was well represented with players that caught a ton of eyes. Below are 3 players that vaulted up the rankings based in part on their performance at the 2024 Future Games.

Get Them While They Last

While D1 schools are still working to wrap their recruiting philosophy around new rules, we have a bunch of players still uncommitted that would have been off the board a long time ago in years past. This class is the first to be hit with the August 1st, prior to their JR year, communication silence. Schools will also have to re-work their rosters with the new scholarship and roster limit rules. The positive out of all of this is the fact that schools and coaches have a longer period to evaluate top talent, adding hope that the retention rate will rise on college rosters. Here are 3 of the top uncommitted players in the updated rankings.

Meridian Leffew SS / 3B / Gaston Christian, NC / 2026

Rankings StateRank: 1 / POS: 1 OverallRank: 36 / POS: 10

Chase Kiker RHP / 3B / Metrolina Chrisitan Academy, NC / 2026

Rankings StateRank: 3 / POS: 2 OverallRank: 57 / POS: 18

Charlie Shaver RHP / North Stanly High, NC / 2026

Rankings StateRank: 13 / POS: 6 OverallRank: 256 / POS: 78

2 Full Years & Still Finding Talent

While this class is 2 full years into their high school careers, there are still players that the Prep Baseball Staff is identifying and evaluating for the first time. The state of North Carolina has talent from the beaches to the mountains and covering that space can be a very daunting task. With that said, the Prep Baseball staff saw over 400 high school games in 2024 and followed that with a summer of events, scout days, and tournament coverage. This is the deepest and most in-depth scouting coverage provided in the state of North Carolina. Below are 3 players that are new to this rankings update.