Red Sox 2025 MLB Draft Preview - Boston Sports Today

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The Red Sox have the 15th pick, as well as the “compensatory” 33rd pick in Sunday’s draft. Who are some possible targets?

Where can I watch the Draft?

The MLB First-Year Player Draft begins this Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET, with coverage on ESPN and MLB Network for the first three rounds. It continues on Monday at 11:30 a.m. for rounds 4-20, with each of these days streaming on mlb.com. The draft has been shortened from three days to two days this season.

Which picks do the Red Sox have?

The Red Sox have an interesting setup in the draft this season. They have the 15th overall pick, followed by the 33rd pick, which slots at the back of the first round. This is the Competitive Balance Pick that Boston received as part of the return for Quinn Priester from Milwaukee. While the Red Sox forfeited their initial second-round pick for signing Alex Bregman with a qualifying offer attached, they recouped the 75th pick at the end of the second round from Nick Pivetta’s declining of the team’s qualifying offer and signing elsewhere.

What’s with this extra pick? I thought you couldn’t trade draft picks.

For whatever reason, Competitive Balance Picks are the only ones that can be traded, and this 33rd pick carries a lot of value for the Red Sox. With so many teams forfeiting second-round picks this year for signing free agents with a Round 2 tag attached, the Red Sox could potentially have their pick of a high-upside high school “prep” bat with this pick and sign the player to an over-slot deal, dissuading them from going to college. In order to do so, they may draft a college player with pick 15, allowing them to spread their bonus pool money out more evenly. Since the bonus pool and “slotting” system of the MLB Draft needs a 400-level college class to truly understand, I recommend reading Jim Callis’s breakdown from Thursday of how all 30 MLB teams are allowed to spend their money in this year’s draft. As Callis explains,

Each selection in the first 10 rounds comes with an assigned value, with the total for a club’s picks equaling what it can spend in those rounds without incurring a penalty. If a player taken in the top 10 rounds doesn’t sign, his choice’s value gets subtracted from his team’s pool. Clubs near the top of the Draft often spend less than the assigned value for those choices and use the savings to offer more money to later selections.

For as many times as we’ve been able to accuse the Red Sox of being “cheap” in recent years, doing so at pick 15 isn’t one of those, as they will disperse that money throughout the draft (i.e., pick 33). Based on where their picks are slotted, Boston has a $12.4M bonus pool to spend in the draft (12th most) and cannot go more than 5% over that amount.

Who might the Red Sox select? You didn’t mention Braden Montgomery once in your preview last year, you hack.

No, no I didn’t. The whole bonus pool aspect of the MLB draft makes it unique and unpredictable. Two years ago, Kyle Teel was not on the Red Sox mock draft radars at pick 14, and neither was Montgomery a year ago at pick 12. In some conversations with scouts who are more plugged in than me, it seems like there’s a strong chance that the Red Sox would go with a college player at pick 15 and spend up on a prep pick at 33, unless a projected top-10 player falls, once again.

I highly suggest a Baseball America subscription for times like this, as their Mock Draft 6.0 is posted and goes very in-depth with their scouting reports. They are behind a paywall, however, so I’ll go in order of MLB Pipeline’s prospect rankings, which is also an excellent resource. Along with Pipeline’s scouting grades, here are ten potential targets for the Red Sox at pick #15:

Pipeline Ranking #10) Kyson Witherspoon RHP, Oklahoma

COLLEGE BASEBALL: MAY 23 Big 12 Baseball Championship - Oklahoma vs Kansas

Witherspoon transferred to Oklahoma from a JuCo prior to his sophomore season and has taken major steps forward since. Pitching in the SEC this year, Witherspoon was 10-4 with a 2.65 in 16 starts, striking out 124 in 95 innings. His walk rate dropped from 4.5 BB/9 as a sophomore to 2.2 BB/9 as a junior. While it is less likely that the Red Sox go with an arm, Witherspoon and Tyler Bremner are the two that they seem most linked to.

11) Ike Irish OF/C, Auburn | Bats: L, Throws: R

COLLEGE BASEBALL: APR 18 Auburn at Texas

Irish played three years at Auburn, smashing 39 home runs with 167 RBI over a combined 160 games. He hit .364 with 19 bombs in 2025 in the SEC and some mock drafts have had him as high as pick #5. Considering the Red Sox recently went with a first-round catcher and then traded him, it would seem like this would be a player that would be of interest if he fell a few spots. However, Baseball America notes tgat “Irish has an easy plus arm that would be a weapon at the position, but he needs to make real strides as a receiver and blocker and to tighten up his footwork to catch.” What I do know is that if a Boston player had “Irish” on their back, it would sell a few jerseys.

12) Steele Hall SS, Hewitt-Trussville HS (AL) | Bats: R, Throws: R

A high school shortstop, the 17-year-old Hall seems less likely to land with Boston. However, in Jim Callis’s mock draft last week, he had the Sox taking Hall at 15, and wrote that he gives off “Trea Turner vibes,” so we can’t dismiss it entirely. Hall’s speed and defense as a true shortstop are assets and he has an improving hit tool despite some swing-and-miss concerns with secondaries.

14) Kayson Cunningham SS/2B, Johnson (TX) | Bats: L, Throws: R

A similar story to Hall, Cunningham is a hit-over-power prep infielder. It doesn’t seem like a likely scenario, but Geoff Pontes mentioned Boston as a feasible landing spot for Cunningham on the Sox Prospects podcast last week. He is listed at 5’10’’, 180, which might be generous, so there is the chance he falls in the draft a bit. Cunningham has gap-to-gap power and very little swing-and-miss in his game, profiling more likely as a second baseman with a chance to stick at short.

15) Marek Houston SS, Wake Forest | Bats: R, Throws: R

Houston has been linked in a couple of spots as a college bat that the Red Sox are looking at. He played three years at Wake Forest and slashed .302/.409/.478 with 27 HR and 27 SB over a combined 180 games. His best tool is his glove, considered by many as the best defensive shortstop in the draft, and he has good speed and baserunning skills. Houston is the safe pick because of his defense, but there is risk as a utility man if he doesn’t hit enough.

16) Brendan Summerhill OF, Arizona | Bats: L, Throws: R

Summerhill is an excellent contact hitter who has very little swing-and-miss and makes good swing decisions. He dealt with a fractured hand for part of this season but finished the year with a .343/.459/.556 slash line over 44 games. Summerhill still has some projection and has not hit for a ton of power in college (12 HRs in the past two seasons combined). He played right field for Arizona but has experience in center and Pipeline believes he can land in center field long-term to up his value. Summerhill grades out above average across the board and was mentioned by Callis as a “college position player who could interest (Boston).”

18) Tyler Bremner RHP, UC Santa Barbara

Scouting grades: Fastball: 65 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 65 | Control: 55 | Overall: 55

Bremner is one of the two players that I have read and discussed with scouts as most often linked to the Red Sox. He has a strong repertoire as a starting pitcher who could move quickly up the ladder towards the big leagues. His fastball sits at 95 and touches 98, with a change-up that is his best pitch (BA has it as a 70-grade). At UC Santa Barbara this spring, Bremner was 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA and a 19:111 BB:K in 77 innings, and was very strong in his late-season starts. There have been whispers that Bremner could be taken as high as #2 to the Angels, so obviously, there is a very wide range of where he could land in round one.

21) Gavin Kilen 2B, Tennessee

COLLEGE BASEBALL: MAY 24 SEC Baseball Championship Semifinals - Tennessee vs Vanderbilt

Kilen, along with Bremner, is the other name that has been linked most frequently to Boston. You don’t have to dig too far to figure out that the Sox like Kilen as they drafted him in round 13 in 2022, before he chose to go to college. After two years at Louisville, Kilen transferred to Tennessee and took off in 2025, slashing .357/.441/.671 with 15 HR and 46 RBI in 53 games. Kilen is a pure left-handed hitter who barrels up a lot of balls, profiling best as a second baseman, while he can make the plays at shortstop. Baseball America and The Athletic’s Keith Law both mocked Kilen to Boston at #15, and Pontes also spoke about him in depth on the Sox Prospects podcast.

22) Gavin Fien 3B, Great Oak (CA) | Bats: R, Throws: R

Fien is committed to Texas, but it’s possible that a team could be interested enough in the upside to sign him to a first-round deal. As MLB Pipeline explains, Fien had a “summer showcase circuit where many evaluators thought he was the best prep hitter in the class. Fien hit everywhere he went, winning MLB Develops MVP honors at Major League Baseball’s High School All-American Game with a pair of hits and RBIs and batting .400 for Team USA in the 18U World Cup qualifier in Panama, though a less productive spring has made some evaluators pause.” Fien has a hit/power combination that teams dream on and the Red Sox analytics department seems to be enamored with him. While it’s possible that he’s a target at 15, it could be the 33rd pick that the Red Sox are hoping to use to throw a hefty bonus at Fien.

23) Gage Wood RHP, Arkansas

NCAA BASEBALL: JUN 01 Division I Regional - Creighton vs Arkansas

Finally, there is Gage Wood, who was a reliever for two years before moving to the rotation and doing so with authority. Wood threw a no-hitter in the College World Series for Arkansas, striking out 19. He made 10 starts on the year, going 4-1 with a 3.86 ERA and a 7:69 BB:K ratio in just 37 ²⁄₃ innings. Wood missed two months with a shoulder injury, and combined with the move from relief, has some risk, but a dominant fastball that touches 98 and a power curveball could be a deadly combination in the big leagues.