{"id":63629,"date":"2025-07-14T01:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T01:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/63629\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T01:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T01:17:09","slug":"2025-mlb-draft-grades-nationals-get-a-for-eli-willits-shocker-at-no-1-analysis-for-every-first-round-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/63629\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 MLB Draft grades: Nationals get ‘A’ for Eli Willits shocker at No. 1, analysis for every first-round pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major League Baseball’s 2025 Draft<\/a> has arrived. The 20-round draft process is underway, and the first round wrapped Sunday night as the Atlanta Braves host All-Star Game festivities this year. The Washington Nationals made a fairly surprising pick at the top of the draft, choosing high school shortstop Eli Willits at No. 1 overall. LSU left-hander Kade Anderson, the pre-draft favorite to go first overall (Caesars Sportsbook gave him -600 odds to go first just minutes before the draft), went No. 3 to the Mariners. The top five is rounded out by UCLA right-hander Tyler Bremner to the Angels at No. 2, prep shortstop Ethan Holliday (son of Matt, brother of Jackson) to the Rockies at No. 4 and LHP Liam Doyle out of the University of Tennessee to the Cardinals at No. 5.<\/p>\n

The first 105 picks in the 2025 draft process will take place on Sunday night. The first round only features 27 picks this year as the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees were all stripped<\/a> of their first-round selections as penalties for spending above luxury-tax thresholds.<\/p>\n

Below, you’ll find our grades for all 27 first-round selections.<\/p>\n

2025 MLB Draft First-round grades<\/p>\n

1. Nationals: Eli Willits, SS, Fort Cobb-Broxton HS (OK) — Grade: A<\/a>
2. Angels: Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC Santa Barbara — Grade: C<\/a>
3. Mariners: Kade Anderson, LHP, LSU — Grade: A<\/a>
4. Rockies: Ethan Holliday, SS, Stillwater HS (OK) — Grade: A<\/a>
5. Cardinals: Liam Doyle, LHP, Tennessee — Grade: A<\/a>
6. Pirates: Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS (CA) — Grade: B-<\/a>
7. Marlins: Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon State — Grade: B<\/a>
8. Blue Jays: JoJo Parker, SS, Purvis HS (MS) — Grade: B<\/a>
9. Reds: Steele Hall, SS, Hewitt-Trussville HS (AL) — Grade: C<\/a>
10. White Sox: Billy Carlson, SS, Corona HS (CA) — Grade: A<\/a>
11. Athletics: Jamie Arnold, LHP, Florida State — Grade: A<\/a>
12. Rangers: Gavin Fien, SS, Great Oak HS (CA) — Grade: B<\/a>
13. Giants: Gavin Kilen, SS, Tennessee — Grade: C-<\/a>
14. Rays: Daniel Pierce, SS, Mill Creek HS (GA) — Grade: B-<\/a>
15. Red Sox: Kyson Witherspoon, RHP, Oklahoma — Grade: A<\/a>
16. Twins: Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest — Grade: B-<\/a>
17. Cubs: Ethan Conrad, OF, Wake Forest — Grade: B<\/a>
18. Diamondbacks: Kayson Cunningham, SS, Johnson HS (TX) — Grade: B<\/a>
19. Orioles: Ike Irish, C, Auburn — Grade: B+<\/a>
20. Brewers: Andrew Fischer, 3B, Tennessee — Grade: B-<\/a>
21. Astros: Xavier Neyens, SS, Mount Vernon HS (WA) — Grade: B<\/a>
22. Braves: Tate Southisene, SS, Basic HS (NV) — Grade: B-<\/a>
23. Royals: Sean Gamble, OF, IMG Academy (FL) — Grade: B-<\/a>
24. Tigers: Jordan Yost, SS, Sickles HS (FL) — Grade: B-<\/a>
25. Padres: Kruz Schoolcraft, LHP, Sunset HS (OR) — Grade: B<\/a>
26. Phillies: Gage Wood, RHP, Arkansas — Grade: B+<\/a>
27. Guardians: Jace LaViolette, OF, Texas A&M — Grade: B+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball’s 2025 Draft has arrived. The 20-round draft process is underway, and the first round wrapped…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":63630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[45362,45361,45366,1318,45365,1266,41182,45363,45364,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-63629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-2025-mlb-draft","9":"tag-baseball-draft","10":"tag-ethan-holliday","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kade-anderson","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-mlb-draft","15":"tag-mlb-draft-grades","16":"tag-mlb-draft-live","17":"tag-ncaa","18":"tag-ncaa-football","19":"tag-ncaafootball","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114848952800377196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}