The 2025 MLB Draft is finally upon us, almost. The two-day event kicks off with the first three rounds on Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. ET, where baseball fans get to see who their team targets for the future. The Philadelphia Phillies hold the 26th pick, thanks to making it to the playoffs again last season — too bad they have nothing to show for it.
Drafting late in the first round is a tough assignment, and the Phillies have recently gone heavy after high school players with their first selection. In fact, it has been five drafts in a row, dating back to 2020 when they selected right-hander Mick Abel with the 15th overall pick. Abel just made his long-awaited MLB debut earlier this season, while the most recent four first-rounders are still waiting their turn to play at Citizens Bank Park.
Mock drafters see Phillies taking their first-round pick in 2025 MLB Draft in wildly different directions
This year, heading into the draft, the Phillies are keeping their options open, as MLB.com's Todd Zolecki reported recently.
“You just don’t know what’s going to happen in front of you,” Phillies assistant general manager Brian Barber said, per Zolecki. “It just whittles its way down as you find more information.”
Leading up to the big day, there seemed to be moderate consensus among some mock drafters around the industry that the Phillies might target a college player, specifically a catcher out of the University of North Carolina, Luke Stevenson.
However, the final mock drafts from major outlets have introduced some curveballs into the Phillies' possible first-round pick. Let's take a tour around some of the selections the experts believe could be in the Phillies' future.
MLB Pipeline
Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline differ in their opinion of who the Phillies will take tonight. Mayo is sticking with Stevenson, who lands at No. 33 in Pipeline's draft rankings. Stevenson impacts the ball hard in the air with decent plate discipline and is a solid defender behind the plate.
Callis, meanwhile, pegs the Phillies to continue their trend of high school picks, taking second baseman/outfielder Sean Gamble at pick No. 26 out of IMG Academy in Florida. Ranked No. 27, he has a "smooth and repeatable swing with a knack for finding the barrel, controlling the zone and doing damage to all fields," according to his Pipeline scouting report. Gamble looks like he could be a plus defender in center field or at second base in the future.
ESPN
ESPN's Kiley McDaniel throws a real curveball into the Phillies' first-round pick. His final mock sees the Phils select another high school pitcher: Matthew Fisher from Evansville High School in Indiana. McDaniel doesn't think the Phillies will be able to get Fisher in the second round. The Gatorade Indiana high school player of the year has a 92-93 mph fastball that touches 95, with a low-80s slider, upper-70s curveball, and a mid-80s changeup.
The Athletic
Keith Law of the The Athletic also has the Phillies taking a pitcher with their first pick (subscription required), but bucking their recent trend and taking a college arm: right-hander Gage Wood out of Arkansas. He's ranked No. 31 in The Athletic's draft rankings and will fall down the draft board on Sunday thanks to a month-plus shoulder impingement. Otherwise Wood would be an easy first-rounder, according to Law. Wood has one of the best fastballs in the draft and tossed a 19-strikeout no-hitter in the College World Series.
The Phillies took infielder Aidan Miller with their late first-round pick in 2023 after he fell down draft boards thanks to a wrist injury. So, as Law posits, if any team would be willing to "say 'screw it' and take Wood despite the medicals, it’s probably the Phillies." If it happens, it would be a big pick for an arm closer to the big leagues than this Phillies front office is used to taking.