College baseball’s best players, teams to watch in 2025: The Athletic’s coaches forum

There’s more talent in college baseball than at any point in the history of the sport. In the 2024 MLB Draft, the top eight picks — and 13 of the top 15 — came from the college ranks. Just five years ago, three of the top six picks were high schoolers, and it was four of six in the 2014 draft.

Who could be next? Who are some names to know for the 2026 draft?

We start our annual college baseball coaches forum by asking our panel about the top talents in the game in 2025 and getting their thoughts on the best college baseball players they have ever seen. In Part 2, publishing Tuesday, the coaches share some recruiting memories. Who was the biggest recruiting find of their career? What about the one who got away? In Part 3, on Wednesday, we dive into some hot topics in college baseball — roster sizes and revenue sharing. And in Part 4, on Thursday, the coaches discuss NIL and the transfer portal.

Here are the coaches:

• Elliott Avent, NC State
• Willie Bloomquist, Arizona State
• Paul Mainieri, South Carolina
• Nick Mingione, Kentucky
• Billy O’Conner, Xavier
• Brian O’Connor, Virginia
• Kevin O’Sullivan, Florida
• Steve Sabins, West Virginia
• Brock Ungricht, San Diego
• Mark Wasikowski, Oregon

Who is your pick for the best position player in the country, not on your team, in 2025?

Bloomquist: (Nolan) Schubert at Oklahoma State. He has a chance to be pretty good. Good power hitter. He torched us a couple years ago. He’s got some juice in his bat.

Mainieri: I have to go with a player that I recruited to LSU, Jared Jones.

Mingione: It would be (Jace) LaViolette at Texas A&M for me. The power is just undeniable. He runs. He has arm strength. He has all the tools you’re looking for, and he’s done it in our league. That is hard to find.

Billy O’Conner: I’ll go with Cam Cannarella. We played him last year. He’s the kind of kid that’s fun to watch because he’s not the biggest kid, he’s not the most toolsy kid, but everything he does, he’s just a ball player, he’s a grinder. Is he going to be a No. 1 overall pick? Probably not. I know he’s going to be a draft guy for sure, (but) is he the guy that you look across from the dugout and say, like, “Oh my God, that looks like a big leaguer?” Not until he starts playing, and he just does everything right from a defensive standpoint, from a baserunning standpoint, from an offensive standpoint. He’s a fun one to watch for sure.

Brian O’Connor: I would say two. I would say Drew Burress at Georgia Tech. Last year as a freshman, he hit high .300s, had 25 home runs and (with all of those) extra-base hits, he had less than 40 strikeouts, and he’s an elite center fielder. He made a huge impression on me.

The other one would be, just watching him on TV, is Jace LaViolette from Texas A&M. Also, again, a center fielder, hits over .300, a ton of extra-base hits. A lot of people make a lot to do with the power, and we all know the value of power and the extra-base hits at every level of baseball, but then when you do it by playing center field and having low strikeout numbers, that is really impressive to me.

O’Sullivan: You’d have to go with Jace LaViolette. He’s big and physical and can play the middle of the field, center field, he’s got left-handed power. I can only compare it to the guys that we’ve had in the past, but he’s certainly as good as anybody we’ve had. And there’s still a bit more projection to him as well. And he’s gonna be surrounded by some really good players as well.

Sabins: I’ll go with (Nolan) Schubert from Oklahoma State.

Ungricht: I would probably have to go with the guy from A&M, Jace LaViolette.

Wasikowski: We saw the A&M crew (in the Super Regionals last season), and I know Jace (LaViolette) is a good hitter. He’s obviously really skilled and gifted. I really thought last year, the (Travis) Bazzana guy really had separated himself even before the season, in a freakish-type way. I think (the guys this year), all these guys are really good players, but I don’t know who’s really separated themselves as far as being like the guy, you know? I saw LaViolette, and I think he is really, really good. I think (Jared) Jones at LSU has got some really tremendous power.

I think on the West Coast, I think there’s a couple of kids at Arizona State. I think Kien Vu is an advanced, a really elite hitter that I wouldn’t sleep on. I know the West Coast doesn’t get a ton of play for awesome, awesome players, but that Vu kid is really, really good. And so I’d consider him and (Arizona State’s Brandon) Compton on the West Coast. I think ASU actually has two of the better hitters, and they’re both left-handed bats that are really kind of special.

Best pitcher in 2025?

Bloomquist: The (Jacob) Bremner kid (at UCSB). He looks pretty real.

Mainieri: Gabe Gaeckle at Arkansas. Saw him a bit last year.

Mingione: I like (Jamie) Arnold at Florida State. He’s left-handed. He’s mid-90s. He’s got a great slider.

Billy O’Conner: Jamie Arnold. Being a left-handed pitcher with the stuff profile that he has, he’s going to be a big leaguer. There are times when you look at guys that are still pitching in the college game, whether it’s a Paul Skenes or a Chase Burns, where it’s like, “You don’t really belong in our game right now, like you’re too good for everybody else right now.” I think his results would kind of bear out that — he’s a lot closer to being a big leaguer than he is to being a college player.

Brian O’Connor: Jamie Arnold from Florida State. We faced him last year in the ACC tournament. Last year as a sophomore, he had 11 wins and sub-three ERA, and anybody that has 100 innings pitched and has over 150 strikeouts is really, really impressive to me. I just think he not only has really, really high-level stuff, but he knows how to win the game and also just an elite competitor. He’s got all the intangibles as well.

O’Sullivan: I’d have to go with Gabe Gaeckle at Arkansas.

Sabins: Zach Root from Arkansas, the transfer from East Carolina.

Ungricht: I’m going to have to hold strong with our West Coast out here because I’ve seen him so much, it’s Bremner. I love him. He’s the real deal. Try to give our West Coast guys some love.

Wasikowski: I hope it’s our guy, (Saint Mary’s transfer) Jason Reitz. I think he’s got a chance to be one of those guys. I think he’s got a chance to be that good, even though there isn’t necessarily the history at Saint Mary’s. He was good at Saint Mary’s. I don’t know that he was great at Saint Mary’s, but yet he went off during the summer, and he ended up being a dude. I’d like to think that it could be him.

I’m going to throw something out there, too, that I think is probably a little off the radar. And I haven’t heard much talk about it, but I thought that the potential was ridiculous. But I think (Stanford’s Joey) Volchko has a chance to be as good as anybody in the country. He’s up to 100 miles an hour with his fastball, and his secondary stuff is ridiculous. He’s not going to be on the first-team All-America list preseason, but I think he’s got a chance to be maybe clearly one of the best guys in the entire country.

Who is the best position player you have ever seen in college baseball?

Avent: Trea Turner (NC State). His intelligence, his instincts, his power, his savvy, his understanding of the game, making everybody else around him better with his intelligence and the way he played the game and the way he understood the game. It was just so many things that he brought to the table. Work ethic. I can go on and on, but he is as good a player as I’ve seen in college baseball.

I’ll tell you another guy, if I don’t name our guy, was Darin Erstad (at Nebraska). I played against him so many times or coached against him so many times when I was at New Mexico State and in the Cape Cod League. I remember when I knew I’d seen him for the last time, I went up and just shook his hand and said, “I admired watching you play.” He just played the game so hard, no matter what the score was, no matter what time of the game or how he felt or how he was doing, he played the game the way I thought it should be played.

Bloomquist: Troy Glaus (UCLA). That was back when we were using minus-5 (weight in ounces vs. length in inches) bats. I feared for my life playing shortstop with that kid when he was at bat. I was a freshman, he was a junior. He was a man among boys. He was 6-5 playing shortstop. He had 30-something homers that year. He was scary, man. One of those guys, when he came up to the plate, it was like, “Holy s—, let’s just run and take cover.” Again, I was playing short. I wasn’t pitching or playing third, thank goodness. When that dude came up to the plate, it was scary.

Mainieri: I guess I might have to go with Alex Bregman (LSU).

Mingione: This is great. I’ve been in the SEC for 19 years and I’ve watched almost all the football games from the sidelines. I’m going to start with the greatest SEC college football player I’ve ever seen. It’s Johnny Manziel. He was unbelievable. But we’re talking baseball. For me, the best college baseball player that I have competed against, I would say would be Alex Bregman.

Billy O’Conner: I would say Buster Posey (Florida State) back in the day. We played against each other. You know, I doubt that Buster remembers playing against me, but I remember playing against him. But it was his first year he had transitioned from infield to catcher. And I can remember (former Florida State coach) Mike Martin coming over and talking to our head coach and saying, “We just played the Phillies and somebody from the Phillies said, ‘Man, this kid you got behind the plate, he’s better than any catcher we have in our entire organization.’” So it was pretty impressive watching him back in the day.

Brian O’Connor: As a coach, it’s been Buster Posey. We all know Buster as a catcher and what he did as a catcher. Buster would have been a first-round pick as a shortstop as well. He started at Florida State as a shortstop. They converted him to a catcher and he was an elite-level shortstop, and kudos to them for converting him behind the plate. But just facing him here at Virginia in those years and the skill set was really elite. But the guy had an incredible respect for the game. And I just have always appreciated him as a college player and as a professional player, the way he played the game and respected the game.

O’Sullivan: I could be biased, but it’s just coming off of last year, but Jac Caglianone. I hate to be biased, but the numbers you put up and the pressure he had surrounding him. And he had to do both sides of the ball too, right? But that would be an easy choice for me.

Sabins: Adley Rutschman (Oregon State).

Ungricht: Kyle Schwarber (Indiana). We were in their Regional in 2014. I was at Stanford then. I’m saying best hitter. Someone asked me this question the other day, and I’ve seen (Oregon State’s Michael) Conforto, I’ve seen Dansby Swanson (Vanderbilt), a lot of great players. It was either him or James Ramsey, at Florida State, but Schwarber, for me, was just … in that Regional, it was different. It was loud. He caught. He was just OK as a catcher. He was fine. But there was no one that I’ve seen that could hit like that guy. The approach, pitch selection, the power, power to all fields. It was very impressive.

Wasikowski: Man, there’s some good ones. Well, (outfielder) Mike Kelly from Arizona State. He was a high school teammate of mine. He’d probably be up there. He was pretty dang good. I’ll go with him.

Who is the best pitcher you have seen?

Avent: Carlos Rodon (NC State). One, his stuff was really good. But then if you put his mentality, competitiveness and toughness — and he was always better in a big game. And if you put all that stuff together, I’d say he is at the top of my list. But I’ve seen so many great pitchers in college baseball. Joba Chamberlain was a guy from Nebraska who may have pitched as good of a game as I’ve ever seen against us, down at a tournament in Myrtle Beach. He later went on to pitch for the Yankees.

Bloomquist: (Cooper) Hjerpe at Oregon State. We saw him a few years ago. We had no shot off of him. He was pretty good.

Mainieri: I would love to go with Aaron Nola (LSU), but I might have to go with Paul Skenes (LSU).

Mingione: David Price (Vanderbilt).

Billy O’Conner: I would say probably the best singular outing that I’ve seen was Tyler Beede against us in a Regional (in 2014) at Vanderbilt. He was a big leaguer but didn’t really take off a whole lot at the pro level, but he was unhittable. It was mid-90s, command, multiple pitches for strikes. He’s the one that probably sticks out where it was like, “Oh, boy, we don’t really have a chance tonight.”

Brian O’Connor: I would say two. Stephen Strasburg for San Diego State. We faced him in 2009. And at that time, everybody considered him the greatest pitcher in the history of college baseball. We were fortunate in 2009 to beat him in the first game of the Regional, and we struck out 15 times, but we won the game. So I would say him and then Paul Skenes, Air Force and LSU. It’s easy to say that now with the year that he had in the big leagues, but what that guy did in that one season at LSU was pretty special.

I would be remiss … last year in our ballpark, Chase Burns — still for me, Strasburg was the best, but the night Chase Burns pitched against us here at UVA last year for Wake Forest was one of the better pitching performances that I’ve seen as a college coach. But if you ask me the best pure pitcher we saw, it would be Strasburg.

O’Sullivan: You’d have to go with Paul Skenes.

Sabins: Alek Manoah from West Virginia.

Ungricht: Trevor Bauer (UCLA). He struck us out (at Stanford) 18 times in one game. It was the most impressive performance I’ve ever seen. So we beat (Gerrit) Cole on Friday night. Knocked him out in the fifth inning. Our guys just saw him really good. He was 95, 96 at that time. And then Saturday night, here comes Bauer. We had (Stephen) Piscotty. We had a bunch of guys in that lineup at that time. And struck out 18 times, I’d never seen anything like it.

Wasikowski: Mike Mussina was pretty good, but he was the No. 2 on (Stanford’s) pitching staff the year that I saw him when I was at Hawaii as a freshman. And to be honest with you, not the most popular pick out there with people for a lot of reasons, but Trevor Bauer. He didn’t even pitch on Friday for John (Savage) at UCLA when he was there, but when you went Cole and Bauer on a weekend, Friday and Saturday, that was disgusting. That was really hard. And they had a kid named (Rob) Rasmussen who was their third guy. I think he was the second-round pick, left-hander. That was the weekend rotation. It was not fair.

Who is a team that might surprise in 2025?

Avent: I don’t ever get surprised by anybody. I remember — I was telling this story the other day — we lost to Stony Brook in a Regional (in 2010), and I didn’t know anything about Stony Brook. Stony Brook went to the College World Series (two years later) with many of the same players. So I don’t ever get surprised because there’s always been teams that could rise up and make a run.

Bloomquist: Let’s go with Kansas. My gut tells me they’re going to be better than people think.

Mainieri: Lamar.

Mingione: Auburn.

Billy O’Conner: I’ll go with UConn. Obviously, we have up close and personal experience with them being in our league and just the consistency that they show as a program. They’re as well-coached as any program in the country. I don’t even know who’s on their roster for the most part this year, but I’ve learned over the course of the past four or five years, with them being in our league, it doesn’t really matter. They find a way to be successful, and obviously they’ve been knocking on the door of Omaha a couple times with a couple Super Regional appearances. I just always assume that they’re going to be really good.

Brian O’Connor: I would say Penn State. That might come out of the blue. And there’s reasons behind it. We played them last year in a midweek game. And their coach is in his second year, Mike Gambino, and he does a great job of developing programs. They’ve got a good returning core from last year and they did very well in the transfer portal. Also, too, new to our league, OK, not new to college baseball, I might say Stanford, too. They return a ton of pitching. We didn’t see them last year. They are coming to Charlottesville this year. So welcome to the ACC.

O’Sullivan: I’m going to go with a sleeper. Auburn. Outside the box there.

Sabins: Penn State. The coaching staff’s done a nice job. It’s a national brand. It’s a little bit similar to like what Vanderbilt was, what Duke was, national name recognition with coaches that care and a fertile recruiting base.

Ungricht: They are getting their due, but I’ll go with Santa Barbara with those two arms (Bremner and Jackson Flora). I know they’re in the top 25, but they might be a lot better than people think.

Wasikowski: I think that I’ll stay out West, just because I’m better out West than anywhere else. I would say Stanford has a chance to be really good, but I think Southern Cal has a chance to be really good. And I don’t think UCLA is getting much love right now, because even though they had the best recruiting class in the country two years ago, I think because they struggled last year, people are a little bit out on them right now. But I think those three teams would have a chance to be really good. We’ll see how the two Arizona schools end up doing, but those two schools have a ton of talent. It’s ridiculous.

(Top photos of Mark Wasikowski, Kevin O’Sullivan: University of Oregon, Steven Branscombe / Imagn Images)