Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2025 i Baseball America

How does Eli Willits stack up against Jordan Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer from the 2021 draft? I’ve thought about the Lawlar profile a decent bit for Willits. I am not sure that Willits has the same present power as Lawlar did, but that all-around game and athletic profile makes at least some sense. More contact and maybe less juice for Willits? Mayer is a different type of athlete. But Willits is similar to both in terms of overall talent/upside for me. —Carlos Collazo Do agents set bonus amounts players will sign for, and do all teams know that amount? Or is it usually discussed with each team ahead of time? Is there much agent-team contact during the draft? Agents typically don’t like to give out hard and fast signability figures…

As of press time, Brady Ebel appeared more likely to be drafted in the supplemental first or second round. Still, if he is selected in the top 100 picks, along with Seth Hernandez and Billy Carlson, then Corona will set a record for highest-drafted high school trio in one year. Two previous high schools have had three players drafted among the top 100 picks. 1999: MOSES LAKE (WASH.) HS 5. B.J. Garbe, OF, Twins (N/A) 59. Ryan Doumit, C, Pirates (8.9 in 980 G) 63. Jason Cooper, OF, Phillies (did not sign; went to Stanford; drafted in 2002 third round) 2019: IMG ACADEMY, BRADENTON, FLA. 33. Brennan Malone, RHP, D-backs (N/A) 49. Rece Hinds, 3B, Reds (0.8 in 31 G and counting) 52. Kendall Williams, RHP, Blue Jays (N/A) Corona…

BEST DEFENSIVE CATCHER High School 1. Trent Grindlinger (98) 2. Omar Serna (77) 3. Brayden Jaksa (76) 4. Michael Oliveto (143) 5. Taitn Gray (126) College 1. Caden Bodine (29) 2. Luke Stevenson (24) 3. Easton Carmichael (88) 4. Jack Arcamone (175) 5. Luke Heyman (127) BEST DEFENSIVE INFIELDER High School 1. Billy Carlson (10) 2. Daniel Pierce (23) 3. Eli Willits (3) 4. Steele Hall (16) 5. Tate Southisene (40) College 1. Marek Houston (15) 2. Lorenzo Meola (130) 3. Alex Lodise (26) 4. Kyle Lodise (56) 5. Aiva Arquette (4) BEST DEFENSIVE OUTFIELDER High School 1. Slater de Brun (30) 2. Brock Sell (54) 3. William Patrick (93) 4. Blaine Bullard (146) 5. Gabe Graulau (106) College 1. Cam Cannarella (27) 2. Kane Kepley (60) 3. Jace LaViolette…

CARSON TINNEY, C NOTRE DAME Tinney is a 6-foot-3 righthanded hitter who enjoyed one of the biggest breakout seasons of any hitter in the country. The ACC sophomore posted a .348/.498/.753 slash line with 13 doubles, 17 home runs and 53 RBIs. Not only does Tinney have plus power, but he also possesses an advanced defensive skill set. DANIEL CUVET, 3B MIAMI Cuvet more than carried over the momentum he built during his standout freshman campaign and hit .372/.450/.708 with 20 doubles, 18 home runs and a whopping 84 RBIs in 61 games as a sophomore. The 6-foot-3 righthanded batter has some of the most impressive raw power for 2026 and has shown no issue getting to it in games. ANDREW FISCHER, 1B TENNESSEE Fischer thrived in his lone season…

White Lives Up To ‘Tommy Tanks’ Moniker They don’t call him “Tommy Tanks” for nothing. Tommy White backed up the nickname at North Carolina State in 2022, when he hit a NCAA freshman-record 27 home runs. After transferring to LSU in 2023, he hit 24 as a sophomore and 24 more as a junior. That gave White 75 home runs as a collegian, which is the eighth-highest total in Division I history—and is fourth-most among players who spent three years on campus rather than four. The Athletics drafted White in the second round last year. The 22-year-old third baseman opened this season at High-A Lansing, where he said he wants to concentrate on consistency. “That’s all this game’s about—just how consistent you can be,” White said. “I have no complaints.…

FORMER TIGERS STAR LEMON LEFT MARK ON FLORIDA YOUTH BASEBALL Few center fielders of the 1970s and ’80s were more accomplished than Chet Lemon. Just a handful of them recorded more starts or more putouts in center in those two decades. Lemon developed into a star with the White Sox and a World Series champion with the Tigers, but his pro journey began with the Athletics. Oakland drafted Lemon out of high school in Los Angeles with the 22nd overall pick in 1972. The A’s traded him to the White Sox in June 1975, and he made his MLB debut that September. Lemon made American League all-star teams for Chicago in 1978 and ’79. While he didn’t record gaudy totals for home runs or stolen bases, he was a frequent…

MLB organizations’ pre-draft meetings were well underway as this Draft Preview issue went to press. As of this writing, teams had about three weeks left to determine their direction on draft day. Scouting departments were getting antsy and ready to roll. The College World Series and draft combine were the last major events on the calendar in late June, and many teams were hosting private workouts for some of their targets. As was the case all spring, uncertainty looms in the 2025 draft. The Nationals were keeping quiet about their preference with the first overall pick, and the 2025 class remains quite muddled overall. Still, there are players who have made their cases down the stretch and are more frequently talked about at the top of the draft. Some player-team…

BEST HITTER High School 1. Kayson Cunningham (12) 2. Jojo Parker (11) 3. Eli Willits (3) 4. Ethan Holliday (1) 5. Coy James (48) College 1. Caden Bodine (29) 2. Brendan Summerhill (21) 3. Ike Irish (13) 4. Gavin Kilen (25) 5. Devin Taylor (34) BEST POWER High School 1. Ethan Holliday (1) 2. Xavier Neyens (18) 3. Quentin Young (55) 4. Gavin Fien (31) 5. Taitn Gray (126) College 1. Nolan Schubart (63) 2. Jace LaViolette (9) 3. Ethan Petry (33) 4. Aiva Arquette (4) 5. Andrew Fischer (28) BEST SPEED High School 1. William Patrick (93) 2. Slater de Brun (30) 3. Steele Hall (16) 4. Gabe Graulau (106) 5. Brock Sell (54) College 1. Cam Cannarella (27) 2. RJ Austin (118) 3. Kane Kepley (60) 4. Ryan…

Baseball America compiles its draft rankings through year-round conversations with scouts, front office officials and coaches. Our rankings are based on our assessments of players’ talent, not their signability or where we believe they will be drafted. All overview capsules written by Carlos Collazo. Scan this code to view the BA 500—which ranks the top 500 draft prospects—at BaseballAmerica.com.…

Ethan Holliday remembers his freshman year fondly. As a first-year third baseman for Stillwater (Okla.) High, he got to play alongside the best high school player in America. He also called that shortstop his brother. He watched as MLB scouts dissected every grounder fielded and analyzed every at-bat taken by Jackson Holliday, who was on his way to a national-record 89 hits in a single season. Jackson was the Baseball America High School Player of the Year in 2022. Now, three years later, Ethan finds himself in a similar situation. Scouts, crosscheckers and MLB decision-makers descended on Stillwater to watch the 18-year-old shortstop as he showcased himself as the top high school prospect for the 2025 draft. Like his brother before him, Ethan Holliday is the Baseball America High School…

Caldwell ‘Likes Getting On Base’ In Pro Debut For Slade Caldwell, hits are nice, but there’s nothing wrong with a walk—and he views a free pass as being just as much of a win against the pitcher. “Definitely,” the 18-year-old center fielder said. “It’s definitely mano a mano in the box. If he grants me first base on a walk, I’ll take it, and he has to worry about me at first base or at second base. “And he has to hope he doesn’t focus too much on me on the basepaths and serve something up to our three-hole or four-hole guy.” In 48 games for Low-A Visalia, Caldwell hit .294/.460/.454 with three home runs and 13 stolen bases. He drew 44 walks, which ranked third in the California League.…

Will Texas A&M outfielder Jace LaViolette be a top 15 overall draft pick? For teams choosing in the top half of the first round, LaViolette’s 2025 production could make that a tough call. LaViolette’s season officially ended on May 26 when Texas A&M was left out of the NCAA Tournament field of 64. That finalized his season batting line at .258/.427/.576 with 18 home runs in 56 games. That .258 batting average would rank among the lowest ever seen for a first-round pick. To put that figure in context, Baseball America researched the batting average in the draft year for every Division I hitter selected in the first round since BA was founded in 1981. Of 316 qualifying hitters, just 16 hit under .300 in their draft years. That includes…

While lefthander Brandon Finnegan’s control wavered in high school and early in his time at Texas Christian, he had one thing that separated him from the pack. “I always threw hard,” Finnegan said. He also brought a precise routine to his craft. The same pregame meal before each start. He wore the same apparel and threw the same number of pitches in each of his pregame bullpens. Finnegan slotted into TCU’s weekend rotation as a freshman in 2012. After his sophomore year he pitched for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team, still relying mostly on his fastball. “I just blew it by everybody that I could, just threw every pitch as hard as I could,” Finnegan said. “I knew that the offspeed pitches weren’t where I wanted them to be.” Fortunately…

Corona High teammates Seth Hernandez, Billy Carlson and Brady Ebel are vying to become the first trio of prep teammates ever selected in the first round of the same draft. The BA mock draft has Hernandez going sixth overall to the Pirates and Carlson 10th to the White Sox. That would give Hernandez and Carlson a composite selection number of 16, which would be the second-lowest in draft history for high school teammates. Only the Chatsworth (Calif.) High duo of Mike Moustakas and Matt Dominguez, taken second and 12th overall in 2007, has a lower composite selection number at 14. Presented chronologically, here are the seven pairs of high school teammates who were taken in the first round of the same draft. Players are listed with Baseball-Reference WAR in parentheses.…

BEST FASTBALL High School 1. Jack Bauer (41) 2. Landon Harmon (66) 3. Miguel Sime Jr. (85) 4. Seth Hernandez (2) 5. Kruz Schoolcraft (20) College 1. Liam Doyle (8) 2. AJ Russell (35) 3. Gage Wood (94) 4. Tanner Franklin (160) 5. James Ellwanger (91) BEST BREAKING BALL High School 1. Reid Worley (139) 2. Briggs McKenzie (45) 3. Will Hynes (158) 4. Aaron Watson (64) 5. Matthew Fisher (100) College 1. Patrick Forbes (46) 2. Kade Anderson (6) 3. Jamie Arnold (5) 4. Kyson Witherspoon (7) 5. Riley Kelly (171) BEST CHANGEUP High School 1. Seth Hernandez (2) 2. Angel Cervantes (50) 3. Kruz Schoolcraft (20) 4. Uli Fernsler (71) 5. Cameron Appenzeller (51) College 1. Tyler Bremner (14) 2. Joseph Dzierwa (49) 3. Zach Root (37) 4.…

John Savage remembers the phone call vividly. It was June 2020. Shortstop Roch Cholowsky had just finished ninth grade at his suburban Phoenix high school. Savage had been tracking him for months—long before other programs had even started looking. It’s a moment the UCLA head coach believes changed the future of the Bruins’ program. “I committed on the spot,” Cholowsky said. “I would have just turned 15.” There wasn’t a parade of suitors. No national buzz. But Savage didn’t need consensus. He saw the makeup, the athleticism and the respect for the game. He remembers the feeling washing over him as he watched Cholowsky play: The Bruins needed the budding middle infielder. “We just knew he had a chance to be special,” Savage said. By the time Cholowsky stepped into…

TAITN GRAY, C DALLAS CENTER-GRIMES COMM. HS DALLAS CENTER, IOWA Gray is an explosive, switch-hitting catcher with plus raw power and a physical, 6-foot-3, 215-pound frame. He generates gaudy top-end exit velocities for a prep and has a chance to stick behind the plate with a strong arm. Gray was a home run machine this spring in Iowa, and he’ll still be 17 years old on draft day. ETHAN HOLLIDAY, MI STILLWATER HS STILLWATER, OKLA. Holliday has led the 2025 prep class for years as a famous slugger from a big league family. He has the tools and ability to back up the hype, with towering lefthanded power and an advanced approach. He has more risk to slide to a corner than his brother Jackson, but with more than enough…