Red Sox 2025 Draft Overview: Focus on College Pitching Highlights A Valuable Strategy

[Billy Mock]

It felt like it took forever for the 2025 MLB Draft to finally come around, but in the blink of an eye, it is already behind us. Following four selections on Sunday for the Red Sox, they packed in 17 more on Monday and now have 21 new prospects to introduce to the system (if they all sign). 

It was Craig Breslow's second year at the helm of the ship for the draft, and if the last two drafts have told us anything, it's that he has a specific strategy. In each of the last two drafts, the Red Sox have selected more pitchers than position players, and on an even more extreme level here in 2025. Last year, 13 of their 20 selections were pitchers, while 15 of their 21 selections this year were pitchers as well. On a more specific level, the Red Sox have shown they love college pitchers. Of the 28 pitchers selected in the last two drafts, only one of them was a prep—that being Conrad Cason, who is a two-way player, so his situation is different. 

Prior to Breslow taking over, there was more of a lean towards position players, and a lot more were taken from the prep class than there was here in 2025. In fact, the Red Sox only selected one prep prospect this year and it wasn't until the 19th round when they took Fabian Bonilla, an outfielder from Puerto Rico. The strategy seems to be establishing a high-floor for the class by taking more established college guys, and then elevating something in their game that stands out.

For example, Maximus Martin was the Red Sox's 10th-round pick out of Kansas State. Nothing about Martin's game really jumps off the page, except for his power. His hit tool and glove are fringy, but at least good enough to help him stick around in the lower levels of the minors. However, if the power really clicks at the next level and the Red Sox can get the most out of it, that can certainly be a carrying tool for him. 

Christian Foutch is another name that stands out in this regard. He was selected in the fifth round out of Arkansas where he was primarily a reliever. Relievers obviously don't come with the same kind of long-term value that a starter does, but he has the makings of a really good reliever. If the Red Sox can really tap into his pitch mix and develop him further, you could be looking back at him as the team's best selection from this draft. There are plenty of profiles with a similar story in this class.

While there was an emphasis on pitching in this draft, as was the case last year, there was an even more specific type of pitcher the Red Sox were looking for. First of all, the first six pitchers selected came from the SEC. Four more in the back half came from the conference as well. That goes back to the idea of setting a high floor for the class. They got a number of players that have played in the highest level of amateur baseball for at least the last two seasons. On top of that, they also targeted pitchers with big frames built for higher workloads.

They only had two pitchers come in at less than 200 pounds, and all of them were at least 6'2". Marcus Phillips, their comp round-A pick out of Tennessee, came in as the biggest pitcher, standing in at 6'4" and 246 pounds. That certainly set the standard for what they were looking for moving forward as a handful of guys came in at around the same size. Once again, they're checking off important boxes before they even enter the system so they can focus on really refining their games and adding polish. It's a great strategy for the draft if you're using the international signing market to land more of your high-upside position players, which the Red Sox have done as well. 

While there are a number of players down the board that could be potential steals, I still think the biggest steal comes from their selection of Kyson Witherspoon in the first round. While the consensus had Witherspoon right outside of the top tier of pitchers which consisted of Kade Anderson, Jamie Arnold, Liam Doyle, and Seth Hernandez, I felt like Witherspoon belonged in the same conversation. I personally believed he was the fourth best pitcher in this draft, but he was the sixth one selected. Kade Anderson was the only pitcher selected that I felt came with less risk than Witherspoon. Given the Red Sox's ability to get the most out of their pitchers at the minor league level, we could be looking at this pick as one of the franchise's best first round picks in recent memory. 

With the draft now being said and done, I'm not sure you can point to any of these selections as "bad picks". When you take a deeper look at each player, there's something in every profile that suggests there's some big league upside somewhere in it. Of course, not all of these players will make the big leagues with the Red Sox, but I do feel confident that we can look back on this class as one with a higher success rate than most organizations.

View full article