MLB Draft Combine 2025: 10 draft prospects who stood out this week in Phoenix

Sports

add

PHOENIX — The fifth annual MLB Draft Combine took place this week at Chase Field in Phoenix, with more than 300 prospects eligible for next month’s draft participating in a series of workouts, strength and conditioning tests, and interviews with major-league clubs. This was the final opportunity for these players to make a strong impression before the draft begins on Sunday, July 13, as part of the All-Star festivities in Atlanta, and several players seized the opportunity to boost their stock at the combine.

Here are the 10 draft prospects who stood out most, on and off the field, this week in Arizona:

1. RHP Seth Hernandez, Corona High School (CA)

It’s not Hernandez’s fault that history tells major-league teams that selecting a high school right-handed pitcher at or near the top of the draft is a dangerous decision that often yields a poor return on investment. All he can do is continue to develop his craft on the mound and show why he could be the rare exception, the one who blossoms into the kind of full-blown ace that every team covets. Of course, Hernandez had nothing to prove on the field at the combine, coming off one of the greatest high school seasons ever, but his poise and thoughtfulness in interviews was on full display, and he’s eager to get his professional career started to unlock his potential further.

Advertisement

“I’m so excited to play baseball at the next level,” Hernandez said. “I’m already itching, like, the [high school] season just ended, and I just want to play again.”

Hernandez is widely considered to be among the top five prospects in this year’s class, but the risk associated with his demographic might push him beyond the first five picks — perhaps to a lucky team that didn’t think it would have access to a player of his caliber. No one is questioning his talent, but it will be on Hernandez’s work ethic and his developmental environment — as well as some crucial health luck — to ensure a path to success in the big leagues.

“I’m just trying to be the best baseball player I can be — win Cy Youngs, win World Series, win MVPs, all that stuff — it’s really appealing to me,” Hernandez said. “I think that I could really do it, and I’m excited to work my ass off to get there.”

2. OF Brandon Compton, Arizona State University

An Arizona native who has starred for the Sun Devils the past two seasons and grew up going to games at Chase Field, Compton made the most of having the combine in his backyard. Of the 96 hitters to participate in batting practice this week, no one hit the ball harder than Compton — and it wasn’t particularly close. He accounted for the three hardest hit balls of the entire event (116.9, 116.6 and 116.4 mph) and 13 of the top 26. Compton also hit the farthest home run of the combine, at a projected 460 feet.

Advertisement

Compton’s epic power display was a refreshingly positive showing coming off what was a relatively underwhelming sophomore season in which he hit just nine home runs and posted an .865 OPS, both notable drop-offs from his freshman year (14 HR, 1.089 OPS). As a likely left fielder, his value is all in his bat, so teams would prefer to see more consistently elite production at the collegiate level. But what Compton does have going for him is multiple summers of standout production in wood-bat leagues, first in the Northwoods League in 2023 and then in the Cape Cod League in 2024. These are significant feathers in Compton’s cap as a prospect, and they should ensure a selection somewhere in Rounds 2-4 next month.

After Compton, the most eye-popping performance from any hitter at this year’s combine belonged to Gray. A switch-hitting catcher from Des Moines committed to the University of Oregon, Gray has seen his profile slowly rise over the past year, and he has now gone fully mainstream, thanks to an ultra-loud showing at the combine. Batting lefty in the early BP session Tuesday, Gray was torching balls down the right-field line, maxing out with 114.5 mph exit velocity and sending multiple balls soaring over the fence. About an hour later, he stepped into the box batting righty and continued to put on a show, this time displaying outstanding opposite-field power to the right-center-field gap as well as pulling a titanic, 428-foot moon shot to left field.

Crucial questions remain about the viability of Gray as a catcher; he lacks polish, and his size (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) could be prohibitive for a future as a backstop. But switch-hitters with this kind of juice from both sides of the plate do not grow on trees, and if the bat comes along as many hope it could, Gray could transition to the outfield and still project as an extremely valuable prospect. He also doesn’t turn 18 until a month after the draft, making him all the more enticing for teams that put a premium on age in evaluations. There’s a lot of risk baked into this profile, but it seems increasingly unlikely that Gray will make it to campus in Eugene. A sizable signing bonus should be in play instead. Sorry, Ducks.

4. SS JoJo Parker, Purvis High School (MS)

Of all the highly touted high school shortstops at the combine, Parker has arguably the best chance to hear his name called in the first 10 picks next month. His twin brother, Jacob, was also in attendance, and the two happily obliged a barrage of media obligations over the course of the week. Around this time a year ago, Jacob’s prospect stock was a notch higher, thanks to his big physical frame and tremendous raw power, but JoJo’s terrific hit tool shined on the showcase circuit and again this spring, fueling a surge past his brother and into first-round consideration.

Advertisement

What has also occurred for JoJo over the past year has been a considerable development in physicality, to the point that he is no longer cast aside as the smaller Parker with the profile to match. “There’s a picture of us at our house when we’re in seventh grade, and he looks like a senior in high school, and I look like a seventh grader,” JoJo said. “He’s still a little bit taller, a little bit stronger, but I’m catching up there.”

JoJo might not have the hulking, 6-foot-4 frame that Jacob does, but he has grown to 6-foot-2 and put on some good muscle over the past year, helping enforce his profile as a potential impact bat, rather than the smaller Parker brother who knows how to put the bat on the ball.

5. 3B Andrew Fischer, University of Tennessee

Raised in the ultra-competitive cauldron that is New Jersey high school baseball, it’s no surprise that Manasquan’s Andrew Fischer has arrived at the precipice of his professional career with the utmost confidence in his abilities on the diamond. A prime example of transient star power in the transfer portal era, Fischer’s advanced bat was on display for three schools in three years: Duke as a freshman, Ole Miss as a sophomore and, finally, this year with the Volunteers, when he was one of the best hitters in the SEC.

Advertisement

“I look to do damage, like, at all times,” Fischer told Yahoo Sports. “It doesn’t matter — two strikes, 2-0, whatever — just want to make my presence known in the box. I want to be intimidating for the pitcher. I want them to feel my presence and almost be afraid to miss in the zone.”

Fischer’s mantra at the plate is reflected in his statistics, which have improved each season as he has become more disciplined with his approach. A 25.5% strikeout rate as a freshman was slashed to just 14.4% as a junior, and his slugging (.595 to .760) and walks (13.9% to 21.6%) ticked up in turn. Fischer did not participate in the on-field-workout portion of the combine, but that was hardly a surprise; his body of work dominating Division I pitching for three years speaks for itself and should result in Fischer hearing his name called at some point in the back half of the first round.

6. INF/OF Quentin Young, Oaks Christian School (CA)

The nephew of Delmon and Dmitri (who were both first-round picks and played a combined 2,482 major-league games), Young is one of the more polarizing prospects in this year’s class, and his performance at the combine did little to clarify his enigmatic profile. Young has a massive physical presence, with a well-built, 6-foot-5 frame that offers plenty to dream on while also eliciting questions about his future defensive home. His BP session Tuesday was predictably spectacular, with Young registering the highest non-Compton exit velocity, at 115.4 mph, and launching five other balls in excess of 111. During infield drills, Young took grounders at shortstop, where he played primarily during his high school senior season. He was more inconsistent than most of his infielder peers but also showed flashes of uncommon athletic grace for a player his size.

Advertisement

Young swung and missed far more often this spring than scouts would prefer for a top-level high school hitter, but he also hit 14 home runs in 29 games. For all the questions regarding his hit tool and whether he’ll stick at shortstop or even in the infield, Young’s rare physical traits and big-league bloodlines are likely well worth the gamble for a team at some point on the first day of the draft (Rounds 1-3), just probably not in the first 20-30 picks.

7. RHP Mason Estrada, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Yes, you read that correctly: A pitcher from MIT took the mound at the combine and showed off why he could be one of the unlikelier draft picks we’ve seen in quite some time. A native of Covington, Louisiana, Estrada primarily played shortstop in high school but made big strides on the mound during his senior season. Without many Division I offers, a connection to the MIT athletic department through a family friend led to a commitment to play baseball at the world-renowned academic institution, which has a strong Division III program. Estrada’s velocity immediately stood out in Cambridge, but he suffered an elbow injury just before his freshman season in 2024 and needed Tommy John surgery.

Fortunately, the velo was intact when Estrada returned to the mound this spring, touching as high as 98 mph during the season and 96.3 mph during his bullpen session Tuesday. While Estrada’s ultimate goal is to pitch at the professional level, it’s unclear whether that journey will begin this year: he’s planning to transfer to the University of Tennessee for the 2026 season if the draft doesn’t work out, and that could provide him a much larger platform to prove his talents against SEC competition. Either way, the fact that Estrada has progressed to the point that an invite to the combine was even possible is remarkable, and it’ll be fun to see where his journey takes him next.

Advertisement

8. C Michael Oliveto, Hauppauge High School (NY)

Speaking of unlikely paths to the combine, consider Oliveto. Unlike so many of the other prep stars featured, who spent last summer jumping from showcase to showcase, Oliveto spent those months just trying to earn a chance to play at the Division I level. A few offers from some smaller schools in the Northeast arrived at the end of the summer, and Oliveto ultimately committed to Yale, a strong Ivy League program, albeit not one known for churning out big-league All-Stars.

At that point, Oliveto had put himself in a good position for his future, but any notion that he was preparing for a pro career still seemed completely far-fetched. Then everything changed in October, when Oliveto went to the annual World Wood Bat Association World Championship in Jupiter and looked like one of the best players on the field in an event loaded with top prospects. He was immediately inundated with inquiries about his future from advisors and big-league teams. That momentum carried into the spring, as scouts flocked to Long Island to get a glimpse of this ascendent backstop, and Oliveto performed well in front of his newfound, high-profile audience.

Advertisement

What has been an absolute whirlwind for Oliveto over the past eight months continued this week at the combine, where he showed off his excellent left-handed swing in batting practice and spent most of Wednesday afternoon behind the plate catching pitching prospects’ bullpen sessions. Without years of expectations of a pro career looming over him, Oliveto embraced the combine experience in a way that some of his prospect peers simply could not, and his expedited trajectory to potentially being an early-round selection just a year after having zero D-I offers makes him one of the most interesting prep prospects in this year’s draft.

9. RHP Zane Taylor, UNC-Wilmington

Over the past four years, no pitcher in the country started more games at the Division I level than Taylor, who made 57 starts for the Seahawks during his four-year collegiate tenure. For the first three years of his career, Taylor’s pure stuff on the mound was fairly generic; he was the consummate college workhorse, a reliable strike-thrower who helped his team win a lot of games but didn’t necessarily project as a pro prospect. That changed his senior season, when Taylor’s velocity ticked up from 91-93 mph to 94-96 mph, and he authored one of the best statistical seasons of any D-I starter: 1.98 ERA and 0.76 WHIP with 105 strikeouts in 95 ⅔ innings across 15 starts.

Taylor’s increased heat was on display at the combine, with his fastball averaging 96.5 mph and maxing out at 97.7 during his bullpen session Wednesday. With his college eligibility fully exhausted, Taylor, who turned 23 earlier this month, will have minimal leverage when it comes to negotiating an MLB signing bonus. This makes him an ideal target for teams looking to save bonus pool money in the early-to-middle rounds while still landing a talent legitimately capable of reaching the big leagues.

10. RHP/SS Mason Pike, Puyallup High School (WA)

Pike represents the most intriguing two-way talent in this year’s class, and his rare athletic abilities were fully on display at the combine. As if being a legitimate prospect as both a position player and a pitcher isn’t enough, Pike is also a switch-hitter, and he swung the bat well from both sides of the plate during his BP session Tuesday. He has more raw power swinging lefty, registering eight of his nine hardest hit balls while batting left-handed, including a max exit velocity of 109.9 mph, but he also hit 12 balls with 100-plus mph exit velocity batting righty.

During his bullpen session Wednesday, Pike’s four-seam fastball averaged 95.2 mph and climbed as high as 96.6 mph, and a high-80s cutter and low-80s curveball rounded out his pitch mix. Listed at an even 6 feet, Pike has a frame more typically associated with an infield prospect (he also fielded grounders at shortstop as part of Tuesday’s workout), and he wants to keep hitting, but there are a lot of teams enthused about his potential on the mound. Whether a team can sway Pike with a big enough signing bonus for him to eschew his commitment to Oregon State — and whether he continues his two-way exploits in college or pro ball — will be one of the more fascinating storylines to follow in the draft.

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Community leaders call on Dodgers to ‘take a public stand’ against immigration raids

Sports

Next

trending_flat

2025 NBA Mock Draft 3.0: Ace Bailey Falls to No. 4

nba