With the 2025 MLB Draft now in the books, here’s my look at each National League East team’s draft class. I focus on the top 10 rounds, since those are the picks that count toward each team’s bonus pool. Players taken after the 10th round may be paid up to $150,000 without counting against the bonus pool, so the best prospects taken in Rounds 11 through 20 rarely end up signing.
The number in parentheses after each player’s name indicates the round in which he was taken; a letter (A, B, or C) after a number indicates that it was a supplemental pick between rounds, either for losing a free agent or from the competitive balance lottery. I do assume that all players taken in the top 10 rounds will sign, although each year there are roughly two to five players who don’t for various reasons. I also skipped over college seniors who were probably selected as money-saver picks, agreeing to bonuses under their slot figures so their teams can go over slot for other players, or other players who appear to be more about under-slot bonuses than major-league potential.
Finally, I don’t give letter grades for drafts. I think that whole idea is absurd. The best I can offer is to tell you that I think teams did well or not well based on what I know about the players available at those picks, and in general I prefer to talk about specific picks than try to sum up months of work for each scouting department in a pithy line or two.
(Note: Scouting grades are on a 20-80 scale. Click here for my top-100 draft prospect list.)
Atlanta: Tate Southisene a reach at pick 21; Landon Beidelschies a draft class highlight
The hometown team reached for infielder Tate Southisene (1) with its first pick, at 21. I had him ranked 74th going into the draft, and even that was predicated as much on scouts’ confidence in his makeup and work ethic as his hit or power tools. He’s a plus runner with good instincts but doesn’t have the actions for short, probably ending up in center field. He can hit a fastball, but he had real trouble against offspeed stuff last summer and fall (or even this spring at times, including the game when I saw him), and it’s probably fringe-average power at his peak.
Florida State shortstop Alex Lodise (2) nearly doubled his home run total from 2024, going from nine to 17, in a year when power was down almost everywhere. He swings hard and makes plenty of contact on strikes, with a bad habit of chasing stuff out of the zone, especially sliders down and away. He has an average arm and solid hands for short, perhaps lacking enough range to stay there long term. I think to be a regular at second he’ll have to cut down on that propensity to swing at stuff out of the zone.
East Tennessee State shortstop Cody Miller (3) hit .331/.430/.623 and is currently hitting well in the Cape Cod League, where he’s one of 11 players with at least three homers so far. He got quite a bit stronger from 2024, going from two homers as a sophomore to 18 this spring. He stays open even after his stride, producing a lot of groundballs to the shortstop, with real power the other way when he gets the ball in the air. He doesn’t whiff much, especially on pitches in the zone, although better sliders are going to be a weakness for him in pro ball. He’s a 70 runner who could stick at shortstop and be above-average there if his average arm doesn’t move him to second base, where he should be a plus defender.
Lefty Briggs McKenzie (4) is a projection high schooler who sits 90-92 with an above-average breaking ball and too-firm changeup. He has a ton of room to fill out and perhaps end up with mid-90s velocity, especially since he’ll show 94-95 every once in a while but can’t hold it. The arm swing is really long and hard to repeat, which might be the determining factor in whether he can start. He’s an LSU commit, so I doubt this one is coming cheap.
East Carolina second baseman Dixon Williams (4C) was the best hitter in the wood-bat New England Collegiate Baseball League last year, with a .500 OBP that led the circuit, although that league’s level of competition isn’t up there with the Cape. He hit .299/.451/.561 this year for ECU, showing a little pull power with too much swing-and-miss, especially on breaking stuff. The batted-ball data isn’t great, and it’s probably more like 10-12 homer power if he plays every day. I expected to see a platoon split from the swing and that vulnerability to sliders/curves, but he hit lefties just as well as righties this spring.
Outfielder Conor Essenburg (5) is a two-way Illinois high school player who homered off a fastball from lefty Jack Bauer this spring. He does have some power and bat speed, but his swing decisions aren’t great and he might need some extra time in the Florida Complex League since there isn’t short-season any more for players like him. Atlanta announced him strictly as a hitter. Off the mound, he’s 90-92 with a fringy slider and comes way across his body.
Lefty Landon Beidelschies (6) lost his rotation spot with Arkansas when Gage Wood came back, as Beidelschies was very homer-prone and had a huge platoon split. He’s up to 97 and the slider should be a plus pitch against lefties. He throws it to right-handers way too often, giving up five homers just on that pitch to them. He has a 45 changeup, enough to try him as a starter, and the fastball/slider combination is going to get lefties out. This might be the best pick of Atlanta’s draft.
Right-hander Zach Royse (7) posted a 5.17 ERA as a starter for UTSA this spring, sitting 95 with a 55 slider. It’s max effort and he doesn’t have a third pitch for lefties, so he should be a reliever, where he might still be homer-prone (he gave up 15 in 94 innings this spring) but miss enough bats to get around it.
Aiva Arquette started a run on college players for the Marlins. (Brandon Wade / Associated Press)
Miami Marlins: High school prospects need not apply as Fish net an all-college draft
The Marlins went heavy on high school bats last year, but this year they shifted to college position players and didn’t take a single high schooler in the entire draft.
They landed the best college position player in the class with Oregon State shortstop Aiva Arquette (1). Born in Hawaii, Arquette transferred from Washington to OSU this year, and hit .354/.461/.654 with 19 homers as the Beavers played an independent schedule. He has outstanding hand-eye coordination, rarely whiffing on pitches in the zone, and tends to make strong swing decisions. He’s at least a solid defender at short now with a plus arm, although he’s absolutely huge for a shortstop at 6-feet-5, 230-ish, and I think it’s a safer bet he ends up at third base. He hasn’t seen as much elite pitching as SEC and ACC prospects, so we don’t have quite the same feel for how advanced the bat is as we do with some other top hitters this year. I see a Troy Glaus-ish upside here.
Clemson center fielder Cam Cannarella (1A) seemed like a probable top 15 pick coming into the year, maybe someone who could end up in the mix at 1 if his power took a step forward, but he wasn’t fully recovered from 2024 shoulder surgery, so he never threw well and his swing was cut short as well. It’s to his credit that he still hit .353/.479/.530, walking more than he struck out, and I think the falloff from 11 homers in 2024 to five this year is entirely a function of the shoulder and whatever the NCAA did to the baseball to cause everyone’s homer totals to drop. Cannarella is a plus defender in center, he gets on base and it’s at least 12-15 homer power when he’s healthy. That’s a steal at this spot.
Arizona State outfielder Brandon Compton (2) was another buy-low opportunity pick, as he had a tremendous 2024 and collapsed at the plate this spring, then showed off some big raw power at the MLB Draft Combine. His in-game swings don’t have the same leverage, and he would be a great fit for some swing optimization work to get him to drive the ball in the air more. He is limited to left field by his speed and arm, having undergone Tommy John surgery two years ago.
Florida State outfielder Max Williams (3) seems like a straight data play. He had some of the best exit-velocity data in Division 1 this spring but he swings at everything, including 27 percent of pitches well out of the zone (beyond the ‘shadow’). He’s a center fielder now with a better than even chance of needing to move to a corner. You can dream on him and see a 25-homer center fielder if you think you can teach him to stop swinging at anything in his sight.
The Marlins took Williams’ teammate, second baseman Drew Faurot (4), to start Day 2. Faurot’s big and strong, with plus raw power, although the approach isn’t great and he may not make enough contact for the power to play.
Virginia first baseman Chris Arroyo (5) is a reliever-turned-first baseman who had great batted ball data, with a hard-hit rate over 50 percent and peak exit velocity of 112, but his swing gets too flat in games and his overall approach is poor. Arroyo started out at Florida in 2023 as a reliever, then went to JUCO for a year, landing at Virginia this spring and becoming their everyday first baseman while throwing 12 innings out of the bullpen. He hit .291/.361/.519, but there’s probably more power in there than the line indicates. It’s first base-only, other than the mound, so he’ll have to make better swing decisions and try to get the ball in the air more to be a regular. The bigger concern is the overall feel to hit, as he’ll expand the zone too much and try to pull the ball too often, the latter of which might work better if he got the ball in the air more.
They took another Florida State player, left-hander Joey Volini (6), who transferred to Tallahassee from South Florida this year. He’s a finesse lefty with solid-average command, sitting 89-92 with an average changeup and fringy curveball. He walked just 7 percent of batters he faced this spring.
Florida swingman Jake Clemente (7) missed his freshman year with a shoulder injury, pitching all of 2025 but only finding success when the Gators gave up on starting him. He’s a four-seam/slider guy who’s been up to 99 with 40 command, and he may need something to get lefties out as he moves up the ladder.
Grand Canyon shortstop/second baseman Emilio Barreras (8) had the lowest whiff rate on pitches in the zone among Division 1 qualifiers this year, and struck out just seven times in 196 PA. It’s low power, as you might imagine, but he’s probably even money to stick at short and would make a great utility player if he doesn’t hit the ball hard enough for everyday duty.
Texas A&M lefty Kaiden Wilson (9) was age-eligible for the draft as a sophomore, coming off a year when he threw 22 innings as a reliever and gave up 16 runs (11 earned). He sits 93-95 with an extreme cross-body delivery that helps his slider play up a little but doesn’t help his command or control at all. Missouri State’s Jake McCutcheon (10) played five positions this spring, none of them the one at which the Marlins announced him — second base. He has played it before, but spent most of 2025 in left for the Bears, hitting .358/.444/.647 with superb batted-ball data, including a hard-hit rate in the top 2 percent of the class. He may not have a position, but I’d take this guy in the 10th round all day.
Mitch Voit was announced as a two-way player but is likely to stick as a position player. (Al Goldis / Associated Press)
New York Mets: Mitch Voit a potential first-round value at 38; Camden Lohman a possible steal
The Mets didn’t pick until 38 due to luxury tax nonsense. They took Michigan second baseman Mitch Voit (1A) at that spot and announced him as a two-way player, because that’s just how they roll — they took two-way players high in 2023 (Nolan McLean, now a full-time pitcher) and 2024 (Carson Benge, now a full-time masher). Voit can really hit, with very high contact rates and more walks than strikeouts. He has solid-average power that would play at second or if he returns to center. He’s a plus runner and, of course, has a plus arm. I know a few scouts who thought he was a sleeper and even heard rumors he might go higher than this.
Central Florida shortstop Antonio Jimenez (3) struggled badly in the Cape Cod League last summer, but after transferring from Miami to UCF, he had a huge breakout year (against weaker competition), hitting .329/.407/.575 with a ton of very hard contact, almost all to the pull side. He hardly ever misses in zone but does chase way too often. He’s an average runner with a hose of an arm, probably moving to third base in time.
Wisconsin high school right-hander Peter Kussow (4) is 6-feet-5 and very projectable, sitting low 90s now with a slider that has a high spin rate but isn’t very sharp. He comes from a three-quarters slot with a long arm action, yet he’s very north-south and hasn’t learned how to work east-west yet, without a pitch that naturally moves that way. He’s a Louisville commit.
Florida State right-hander Peyton Prescott (5) is up to 100 with a 55 changeup but gets crushed by right-handed batters, as his slider is fringy and he leaves it up too often. He has an incredibly short arm action with a ton of effort, so he’ll stay in relief, where he pitched for the Seminoles this spring and posted a 5.15 ERA with a 27 percent strikeout rate.
Central Missouri right-hander Nathan Hall (6) is at least the fourth guy I’ve come across in this draft who made exactly four starts this spring and then had to have elbow surgery. In his case, it was the internal brace rather than Tommy John, so there’s at least a shorter rehab process involved. He’s been up to 98 but has barely pitched, as he was a catcher before 2024 and threw just 29 total innings for the Mules in two seasons.
Auburn righty Cam Tilly (7) sits 93-94 with a 55 changeup and a slider that has high spin rates but isn’t as effective as it should be, resulting in righties posting a .420 OBP off him this spring. He has a good enough delivery to start and did so six times for Auburn this year, so I expect him at least to go out in a rotation.
Missouri prep righty Camden Lohman (8) is going to be an over-slot deal, but he could be the steal of the Mets’ draft. The Mizzou commit has a super-fast arm and a potentially plus curveball, getting on top of the ball really well from a high three-quarters slot. He wasn’t that heavily scouted coming into the year because he didn’t do many showcase events.
Gage Wood made history at the College World Series. Could he be fast-tracked as a reliever? (Wesley Hitt / Getty Images)
Philadelphia Phillies: College pitcher-heavy class deviates from norm, but 7th-rounder Matthew Fisher a more typical Phillies pick
The Phillies completely changed course this year, going heavy on college players, including in the first round for the first time since 2019.
Arkansas right-hander Gage Wood (1) returned from a shoulder impingement this spring to throw a no-hitter in the College World Series, shattering the great Eddie Bane’s record for strikeouts in a CWS game with 19. Wood has explosive life up on his fastball that reaches 98 and pairs it with a hammer curveball with 12/6 break. He also has a potential plus pitch in the slider that would give him something to pitch more east-west. Lefties slugged over .500 against him this spring as he doesn’t have a pitch for them. I imagine the Phillies will try to get him to the majors quickly as a reliever, perhaps seeing another Orion Kerkering here, and given Wood’s injury history that may be the prudent course of action — even though I don’t love the lower upside of a reliever from a first-round pick.
Lefty Cade Obermueller (2) was draft-eligible last year but didn’t go until the 19th round, so he returned to Iowa and had a much better season in 2025. He’s been up to 98, sitting more 92-94, with an above-average slider, coming from a low three-quarters slot that makes him very east-west. His changeup was an afterthought, and between that and the arm slot I think he’s probably a reliever. To his credit, he cut his walk rate from 15 percent in 2024 to 9 percent this year, and maybe there are more adjustments to come. Does the existence of a Cade Obermueller imply that of a Cade Untermueller? (I’ll be here all ze veek.)
Vanderbilt righty Cody Bowker (3) comes at hitters from a low slot that adds deception to his 92-95 riding fastball, and he gets a good angle to his above-average slider. He uses his cutter too much and needs to junk or change it, and he might need another pitch for lefties at the higher levels. At worst, he looks like a good reliever who should be death to right-handed things, but I’d try him as a starter.
Right-hander Sean Youngerman (4) transferred from Division II Westmont to Oklahoma State this year and posted a 2.06 ERA as a swingman, making six starts and 14 relief appearances, with a 28.8 percent strikeout rate and 3.9 percent walk rate. It’s a shortish arm action and a very rushed delivery, with a fastball around 92-94 that he threw more than 70 percent of the time this year, along with a 50/55 slider and maybe 50 changeup. It’s not a starter look, but I’d give him a chance to do it first.
Right-hander Gabe Craig (5) is a 24-year-old grad student at Baylor who was drafted for the first time even though he was eligible in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. That said, he’s more than a money-saver: He’s up to 97, he walked three in 32 innings this year (2.7 percent), and his slider is blasphemous, with big tilt and huge horizontal movement. I would drop him in Double-A Reading the moment he signs.
The Phillies are probably going to go well over slot for right-hander Matthew Fisher (7), who ranked 46th on my board. He’s an excellent athlete and former quarterback with a high-spin four-seamer and excellent extension along with a curveball that might be plus when he throws it at the upper end of its velocity range. He’s much more of a typical Brian Barber pick than their earlier ones.
Eli Willits went No. 1 in part because of his age and ability to make consistent contact. (Sarah Phipps / The Oklahoman / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Washington Nationals: After front office shakeup, a solid haul blends high school and college
The Nationals made the best of a tough situation after longtime exec and former scouting director Mike Rizzo was dismissed just a week ago. They landed three promising high school players in their first five picks.
They started off by taking the draft’s youngest player in shortstop Eli Willits (1), son of former Angels and Yankees outfielder Reggie Willits. Eli reclassified into this year’s draft and won’t turn 18 until December. He’s going to be a plus defender at short, possibly a 70 in the future, and he has a compact, high-contact swing that puts the ball in play a ton without much present power. He does have some room to get stronger, which probably means more hard contact and doubles rather than much over-the-fence power. I think he has a high floor, rather than a huge ceiling. Many teams’ draft models had him ranked very highly because of his youth and ability to put the ball in play.
South Carolina outfielder/first baseman Ethan Petry (2) is a power-over-hit player who saw his numbers fall off this year from a better sophomore season. His hard-hit rate was 58 percent, near the very top of the class, and he hit over a dozen balls at 110 mph or harder this spring, so there’s reason to think he might have 30-homer upside. He’s probably a first baseman in the long run and has the power to profile as a regular there, maybe even a 55 overall.
Mississippi high school right-hander Landon Harmon (3) is a very good athlete who’s hit 100 mph, pitching more often in the 93-95 range, showing an above-average slider with good characteristics on both pitches. He has a curveball as well that can run into the slider, without a consistent changeup yet. He’ll need some delivery help to get him more online to the plate and see if his arm can catch up to his huge stride.
Brooklyn high school righty Miguel Sime, Jr. (4) has been up to 100 mph and can show an average slider, but it’s a rough delivery and he’s a below-average athlete who doesn’t field his position well. He has some of the best pure arm strength in the class and has that big workhorse build teams like for starters; this just isn’t my preferred sort of prospect.
North Carolina prep shortstop Coy James (5) was probably going to go in the top two rounds based on what he showed as an underclassman, but the last 12 months weren’t as strong for him at the plate, which is why the Nats could nab him in the fifth round. He has a no-load swing with excellent hand acceleration and some loft in his finish, with big power upside, but had trouble with breaking pitches last year at showcases. He’s a 45ish runner who’ll probably end up at second or third. I thought he was going to go to Mississippi to try to rebuild some value after a down spring, but this might be a steal for the Nationals if he reaches his potential.
They went with seniors and fifth-year guys in rounds six through 10, of whom Mississippi righty Riley Maddox (8) is the most interesting, as he can show a plus slider and might be a quick mover in the bullpen.
(Top photos: Gage Wood: Steven Branscombe / Imagn Images; Eli Willits: Bryan Terry / The Oklahoman / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
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