ATLANTA — The first three rounds of the 2025 MLB Draft were held Sunday night at the Coca Cola Roxy next to Truist Park, and attendees and viewers can be forgiven if many of the names of an especially high-school-heavy Draft prospect pool were foreign to them.
But keep in mind: Nine players on Saturday’s Futures Game rosters were drafted just last year. And two starters in Tuesday’s All-Star Game – National League starting pitcher Paul Skenes and American League shortstop Jacob Wilson – were drafted just two years ago.
So the Draft demands your attention, now more than ever. This is no longer a “Meet me now and maybe see me in five years” proposition. This event is an entryway to a potentially rapid rise to professional prominence.
With that in mind, here were six interesting storylines that emerged on the Draft’s first day.
MLB Draft projection is always an inexact science, even more so in a class that did not present much consensus at the top. Toss in the Nationals’ organizational shakeup just a week before they made the first overall pick, and it was especially hard to know what would happen.
Still, the top two picks were astounding even by those standards.
Rather than follow the predicted formula of choosing Oklahoma prep shortstop Ethan Holliday (son of former All-Star Matt Holliday and brother of 2022 No. 1 overall pick Jackson Holliday of the Orioles), the Nats went with a different type of prep pedigree in shortstop Eli Willits, son of former Major Leaguer Reggie Willits. Eli was ranked as the No. 5 prospect in this Draft by MLB Pipeline and was the youngest player in said prospect pool. New Nats GM Mike DeBartolo called Willits “the guy we wanted all along.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, at 17 years, 216 days old, Willits was the third-youngest 1-1 ever taken, behind Tim Foli in 1968 (17 years, 180 days) and some guy named Ken Griffey Jr. in 1987 (17 years, 193 days).
Then, the Angels, with their first top-five pick since 1997, went even further down the Pipeline list with their stunning selection of UC Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner, who was ranked No. 18, behind five other pitchers.
You don’t need us to tell you rankings aren’t gospel. And of course, there are financial advantages to taking players with lower signing bonus demands early so that you can spread your total pool money around and perhaps get other prominent prep athletes to sign with lower selections.
Still, this was as unexpected a 1-2 punch at the top of the Draft as we’ve ever seen.
2) A Draft long on shortstops
Through the first round, 15 of the first 32 picks were announced as shortstops. If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. That number well surpassed the previous record for a first round, which was 11 in 2023.
Note that we’re saying “announced as shortstops,” because odds are many of these kids won’t stick at this position and many of them have played multiple positions.
Still, the shortstop stash really stood out. In fact, each of the first 10 position players taken was announced as a shortstop. Right after the Cubs broke the streak with their selection of Wake Forest outfielder Ethan Conrad at No. 17, the Diamondbacks got us right back on track with Texas prep shortstop Kayson Cunningham. There had previously never been more than six shortstops taken in the first 18 picks. This year’s Draft had 11 of them.
Based on the prospect pool, we knew this would be a prep-oriented first round. And sure enough, eight of the first 14 picks were high schoolers.
The Brewers made it three Corona kids on Day 1 when they nabbed shortstop Brady Ebel (son of Dodgers third-base coach Dino Ebel) with a compensation pick at No. 32 overall.
They became the first trio of high school teammates to ever be selected within the top 50 picks of the Draft. There are only two other instances of a high school to even have three teammates selected in the top 100 picks:
• 2019 IMG Academy: Brennan Malone (No. 33 to Arizona), Rece Hinds (No. 49 to Cincinnati) and Kendall Williams (No. 52 to Toronto)
• 1999 Moses Lake HS (WA): B.J. Garbe (No. 5 to Minnesota), Ryan Doumit (No. 59 to Pittsburgh) and Jason Cooper (No. 63 to Philadelphia)
As was the case in 2024, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello was on the MLB Network desk for MLB Draft coverage and provided fantastic insight. But he had reason to possess the best insight of anybody in the room for many of the Day 1 picks, because Vitello’s Vols produced eight Draft picks in the first three rounds:
Liam Doyle, LHP, Cardinals (No. 5 overall)Gavin Kilen, SS, Giants (No. 13)Andrew Fischer, 3B, Brewers (No. 20)Marcus Phillips, RHP, Red Sox (No. 33)AJ Russell, RHP, Rangers (No. 52)Dean Curley, SS, Guardians (No. 64)Tanner Franklin, RHP, Cardinals (No. 72)
Nate Snead, RHP, Angels (No. 105)
5) Twins! (No, not of the Minnesota variety)
The Witherspoon family of Jacksonville, Fla., sure had a day to remember.
Oklahoma righties – and twin brothers – Kyson and Malachi Witherspoon both went on Day 1. Kyson was taken at No. 15 overall by the Red Sox, a little lower than where MLB Pipeline had him ranked at No. 10. Malachi went to the Tigers at No. 62 overall, in the second round, quite a bit higher than where Pipeline had him ranked at No. 121.
Coincidentally, the last set of Twins to make it to the Majors after being selected in the same year of the Draft was also a set of Sooners – Ryan and Damon Minor, who were drafted out of Oklahoma in 1996.
In this unusually twin-stocked Draft, Mississippi prep shortstop JoJo Parker, who went No. 8 overall to the Blue Jays, is waiting to see where his twin brother, outfielder Jacob (ranked No. 109 by Pipeline), lands on Day 2. Fairfield outfielder Matthew Bucciero and Fordham outfielder Daniel Bucciero are also twins with the possibility of being drafted.
Arquette and Aloy were both born in Hawaii (Arquette in Honolulu, Aloy in Wailuku), and this marked just the second time two Hawaiian players were selected within the first 31 picks the Draft. In 1980, Jesse Reid and Brian Fisher, both of whom were born in Hawaii, were taken seventh and 29th.
