Major League Baseball teams continue to favor prospects from college over those from the high school ranks on draft day, particularly with their most precious picks early in the proceedings.
In the 2024 first-year player draft, MLB teams used the first eight picks (and all but one of the top 10) on college players; two-thirds of the first-round selections were college players.
A new season opens Friday for NCAA Division I baseball teams, and some of their superstars could be pros in the minor leagues by late summer. Here are 10 players to watch in college baseball in 2025, listed in alphabetical order.
Jamie Arnold, Florida State: The left-hander made himself a high first-round draft prospect after finishing third in the country with 159 strikeouts in 105 2/3 innings pitched as a sophomore last season. Arnold’s first 24 1/3 innings of 2024 were of the scoreless variety, and he finished 11-3 with a 2.98 ERA. His 17 strikeouts against Pittsburgh were the most by a Seminoles pitcher since 1987.
Aiva Arquette, Oregon State: Scouts are high on the 6-foot-5 Arquette, who excelled under the radar in two seasons at Washington before transferring last August. He played second base for the Huskies but will start at shortstop for the Beavers. He’s trending toward being a high first-round pick after showing excellent range in the field and batting .325 with 12 homers last year.
Tyler Bremner, UC Santa Barbara: The junior right-hander was 11-1 in 19 appearances (nine starts) in 2024, when he struck out 104 batters in 88 2/3 innings, opponents batted .182 against him, and he had a 2.54 ERA. Bremner became a starter the second half of the season, and he could be a top-five draft pick with his mix of a mid-90s fastball and a wicked changeup.
Cam Cannarella, Clemson: The outfielder goes into his junior season as one of the top all-around players in not just the Atlantic Coast Conference but the country. He’s a career .363 hitter with 18 homers, 107 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. He has a .988 career fielding percentage with just three errors in 117 games for the Tigers.
Henry Ford, Virginia: The Baylor School graduate was one of college baseball’s top rookies in 2024, setting Virginia freshman records with 17 home runs, a team-best 69 RBIs and 151 total bases. He batted .336 and had a triple and 13 doubles. Known as “Model T” around the program, the draft-eligible sophomore is moving from first base to the outfield.
Jace LaViolette, Texas A&M: The junior outfielder could be the No. 1 overall draft pick this year after becoming the first player in program history with back-to-back 20-homer seasons. He hit 29 last season, drove in 78 runs and drew a program-record 64 walks while helping the Aggies to a runner-up national finish as they lost to fellow Southeastern Conference program Tennessee in the College World Series finals.
AP photo by Stew Milne / Georgia’s Tre Phelps (36) runs to first base during an NCAA regional game against Army on May 31 in Athens, Ga.Tre Phelps, Georgia: The sophomore is primarily an infielder for the Bulldogs but made a combined 34 starts at five different positions in 2024, when he batted .353 with 12 home runs and 40 RBIs. The first hit of his collegiate career was a home run against Northern Kentucky, and he went deep four times in a three-game sweep at South Carolina.
Nolan Schubart, Oklahoma State: The Big 12 preseason player of the year led the conference in homers (23), RBIs (68), on-base percentage (.513) and slugging (.838) in 2024 despite missing 12 games because of injury. The junior outfielder made headlines last season when he homered a school-record four times against Wichita State.
Devin Taylor, Indiana: The Big Ten preseason player of the year hit a conference-best 20 homers in 2024, the most by an Indiana player since 2010, and batted .357 with 54 RBIs. The outfielder goes into his junior season needing 12 homers to break the program career record of 47.
Tanner Thach, UNC Wilmington: Thach’s only Division I offer out of high school was from the Colonial Athletic Association’s Seahawks, and now the junior first baseman is a projected first-round draft pick after he hit a program-record 27 homers last season (his 42 total homers are the career record at UNCW), when he also stood out in the field, committing just one error in 553 chances. On top of that, his stock was boosted by his summer success in the wooden-bat Cape Cod Baseball League for college players.
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