Red Sox Select Kyson Witherspoon 15th Overall in the 2025 MLB Draft

[Billy Mock]

The Red Sox selected Kyson Witherspoon with the 15th overall pick in the MLB Draft. Witherspoon was ranked 10th overall on the TalkSox draft board.

Witherspoon is in his second season at Oklahoma after transferring from JC prior to the 2024 season and looks to be in the midst of a major breakout. The stuff has always been loud. It's a plus fastball that sits 95-97 mph but he can run it up close to triple digits at times. It's complemented by a tight slider and an emerging changeup that produced plenty of miss in 2024.

Prior to the 2025 season, there was speculation about reliever risk with Witherspoon. Early in the season through the opening weekend of conference play, he's doubled his strikeout rate and halved his walk rate. Tougher tests are ahead, but a continuation of this sort of performance will have him creeping up boards and in the mix for college SP3.

When it was all said and done, Witherspoon ripped off 95 IP and maintained a sparkling 2.86 FIP, a 31.8 K%, and a 5.9 BB%. Almost every aspect of his performance took a significant step forwards in 2025 and he'll be just 20 on draft day.

As the Red Sox did in 2024 with Braden Montgomery, a high-upside college prospect fell in their laps. Witherspoon was a projected top ten pick on a number of draft boards. With the understanding that all of the tier-one pitchers would be off the board by the time the Sox pick came around, there were rumors that they had their focus on a number of college bats. With that being said, the Red Sox get some great value here with Witherspoon and can likely sign him under the pick's $5.1 million slot value to target a high-upside prep with their next first round pick at 33rd overall in the competitive balance round.

 

You have to go back in time all the way to 2017 when the Sox took Tanner Houck to find the last time they selected a pitcher with their first round pick. With former pitcher Craig Breslow at the helm of the front office now, perhaps this doesn't come as much of a surprise. The farm system has become a pitching factory over the past couple of years, so the Red Sox might offer Witherspoon one of the better shots among every other organization at reaching his ceiling.

Witherspoon worked hard at developing both a curveball and a cutter this spring which I would imagine stands out to the front office in Boston. The Sox pitching development has moved away from fastball usage, so the diverse arsenal should fit in well in the organization. Although they have placed less of a priority on fastball usage, they still value really good fastballs. They typically can average fastballs, and it's safe to say Witherspoon's is well above-average. I could see him turning him into a right-handed version of Garrett Crochet with a split-mix between his cutter and four-seam while turning his slider into more of a sweeper and keeping the curveball in the back pocket. 

Witherspoon's combination of athleticism, command of the strike zone, and deep pitch-mix make him a potential prospect to move fairly quickly through the system. While the Red Sox haven't typically taken that approach with prospects (unless they have a guy like Kristian Campbell absolutely tearing up the minors), this is a pitcher I can see them pushing a bit as the rest of the league is starting to shift towards that approach as well. Regardless of the presence of the other high-end college pitchers in this draft class, I still think Witherspoon can come out on the other side in ten years as the best arm to come from the class.

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