Analyzing Experts' 2025 MLB Mock Drafts Ahead of College Baseball World Series
Scouting reports have largely been written ahead of the upcoming 2025 MLB draft.
They just haven't penned in permanent marker just yet.
A fortunate group of draft prospects still have a chance to make one final push up the board during the College Baseball World Series, which gets rolling this weekend.
For now, though, we'll use the latest information at hand to analyze the latest mock drafts from experts across the baseball world.
Bleacher Report
1 of 3
We're starting our mock draft scan in-house by examining the latest mock from B/R's Joel Reuter.
As with most mocks, this got started with prep shortstop Ethan Holliday, son of former Major League Matt Holliday and brother of Baltimore Orioles second baseman (and No. 1 pick of the 2022 draft) Jackson Holliday. While Reuter cautioned this pick "is far from a foregone conclusion," he still labeled Holiday "the front-runner to go No. 1 overall" while touting the fact he "has one of the highest offensive ceilings in the class."
College southpaws went with three of the next four picks with Tennessee's Liam Doyle going second, LSU's Kade Anderson going third and Florida State's Jamie Arnold landing fifth. A prep pitcher sandwiched between that group at No. 4, Seth Hernandez out of Corona HS (Calif.). Reuter also noted the No. 4 pick "is probably the floor" for Holliday should he slide past the top three selections.
Reuter's projections were largely comparable to the other experts we evaluated, but the lone top-10 pick for him who didn't rank that high for the others was Arizona outfielder Brendan Summerhill, Reuter's No. 9 pick. Reuter felt "his hit tool and athleticism give him a very high floor" while noting "his long-term ceiling depends on the development of his in-game power."
MLB Pipeline
2 of 3
Remember how we just noted that most mocks open with Ethan Holliday at the top? Well, the latest from MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo is one of the exceptions.
In Mayo's latest mock, LSU lefty Kade Anderson kicked things off, with Mayo opining that if the Washington Nationals pass on Holliday "it feels more likely they'd go with a college arm who could impact the big league team relatively quickly." Anderson is that college arm for Mayo, who wrote that Anderson "is athletic, throws strikes and has a legit four-pitch mix."
Mayo then sent Tennessee southpaw Liam Doyle to the Los Angeles Angels at No. 2, noting that "most feel a college arm is still the right fit here." Then, it was Oregon State shortstop Aiva Arquette joining the Seattle Mariners at the No. 3 pick. And perhaps to prove Reuter prescient, the Colorado Rockies did, in fact, end Holliday's mini-skid at the No. 4 pick.
Mayo's mock was otherwise light on surprises at the top, as nine of his top 10 picks were top-10 selections for the other experts, too. The lone exception was his 10th overall pick, Mississippi high school shortstop JoJo Parker, whom Mayo labeled "the best high school shortstop available."
USA Today
3 of 3
To close this analysis, we'll wrap things up with the most recent mock from USA Today's Gabe Lacques. Despite having Ethan Holliday penciled in at No. 1, there are a few early surprises here.
For starters, Jamie Arnold was the first college pitcher taken (second overall) and the only one to crack the top four. Kade Anderson, Mayo's top pick and Reuter's third, went fifth overall. Liam Doyle, the No. 2 pick for the other experts, wasn't taken until the No. 8 pick.
So, who filled those early selections instead? Well, Oregon State's Aiva Arquette was the third pick and Oklahoma prep shortstop Eli Willits went No. 4. That's the highest Willits went in any of these mocks, with Lacques writing that "taking a potential cornerstone who doesn't turn 18 until December will be too tough for the need-everything Rockies to bypass."
The only other minor surprise inside of Lacques' top 10 was Texas A&M outfielder Jace LaViolette closing it out. He was the 13th pick for Mayo and the 16th for Reuter, who noted that LaViolette, an early contender for the No. 1 pick, saw his stock slide "as he hit .258 with a 25.2 percent strikeout rate, albeit with 18 home runs and a healthy .427 on-base percentage." Mayo's synopsis may have perfectly encapsulated LaViolette's boom-or-bust potential: "He has size, power, athleticism and a lot of swing-and-miss."
.png?w=256)
.png?w=480)
