Main League Baseball’s Draft Lottery will happen on the Winter Conferences in Dallas on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. ET. It’s time to get to know who the 16 groups eligible for the lottery are hoping to get an opportunity to pick out.
MLB Pipeline’s new 2025 High 100 Draft Prospects listing offers our first look into what the following class has to supply. Whereas final yr’s class was extraordinarily school heavy, the pendulum is shifting within the different course this yr, with plenty of thrilling highschool gamers, hitters specifically, dotting the brand new listing.
The highest 10 of the brand new rankings is cut up evenly, with 5 collegians and prepsters every, beginning with a really acquainted final identify:
1. Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, Okla.2. Jace LaViolette, OF, Texas A&M3. Jamie Arnold, LHP, Florida State4. Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC Santa Barbara5. Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.6. Kayson Cunningham, SS, Johnson HS, Tex.7. Aiva Arquette, 2B, Oregon State8. Xavier Neyens, 3B, Mount Vernon HS, Wash.9. Kruz Schoolcraft, LHP/1B, Sundown HS, Ore.10. Brendan Summerhill, OF, ArizonaComplete listing »
Sure, that’s Matt’s son and Jackson’s youthful brother on the high of the listing, giving the Holliday boys the possibility to do one thing that’s by no means been accomplished: Siblings each going No. 1 general, surpassing B.J. and Justin Upton, who went No. 2 and No. 1 of their respective Drafts.
Together with Holliday, there are 44 excessive schoolers on this new rating, and he represents a demographic that stands out a bit of greater than different teams. There are some very intriguing prep infielders on the listing value maintaining a tally of, even past Holliday and Cunningham within the high 10. There are three — Eli Willits, Billy Carlson and Sean Gamble — within the 11-20 vary who are usually not solely highschool infielders, however have the possibility to play premium positions.
“Highschool hitters are most likely the headline,” one scouting director mentioned. “There are a handful of men within the infield who’ve an opportunity to remain in the midst of the diamond, in order that’s at all times engaging while you see that going right into a Draft. I believe there’s a subset of the group on the high that has the possibility to vault themselves into the primary spherical as nicely.”
“The highschool place group is unquestionably the energy,” a second director agreed. “Even after you get previous the Holliday, Cunningham, Neyens group, it’s actually attention-grabbing. If they arrive on within the spring, it is perhaps a extremely good class.”
Whereas Holliday represents the very best profile Main League household ties story, he’s removed from the one one on this listing. Willits is the son of former large league speedster, Reggie Willits. No. 25 Brady Ebel’s father, Dino, is the Dodgers’ third-base coach. Quentin Younger, at No. 37, is Delmon and Dmitri’s nephew. No. 59 Carson Brumbaugh’s dad, Cliff, touched the massive leagues in 2001 and performed for years in Korea and Japan. Cam Leiter (No. 90) is Al and Mark’s nephew.
“I believe as an trade we do worth [family ties] to some extent,” the primary scouting director mentioned. “They’ve been across the sport, their instincts are superior, the baseball IQ is mostly there. It takes a participant longer to determine it out in the event that they don’t have these.”
The College of Tennessee received the School World Collection in 2024, and if illustration on a Draft High 100 factors to extra success, the Volunteers are in fine condition. They’ve six gamers on the listing, beginning with No. 24 Dean Curley. Oregon State is subsequent with 5 representatives, topped by Arquette within the high 10, whereas Louisiana State has 4. Arkansas and Wake Forest every have three and so does Corona Excessive College in California, considerably surprisingly. The 2024 Nationwide Excessive College Invitational champions have three potential first-round picks in Hernandez, Carlson and Ebel.
It’s a reasonably deep group out west, and whereas it’s by no means stunning to see California have a number of illustration, it’s noteworthy that they high the listing with 17 gamers, whereas the closest state is Tennessee, due to all these Volunteers, with 9. Oregon and North Carolina every have eight whereas Texas and Florida, in a relative down yr within the Sunshine State, have seven apiece.
“It’s a extremely attention-grabbing assortment of men with large upside out west, and a number of them play up the center,” the second scouting director mentioned. “Groups like athletic, up-the-middle gamers who carry out on the showcase circuit and you may put collectively a reasonably lengthy listing of men who did that out west.”
