The Texas A&M outfielder had one of the lowest batting averages that any college first round pick has ever had.
The 2025 edition of the MLB Draft is now within a month. The Orioles will get to make their first selection on Day 1 of the Draft on July 13, the same day that the All-Star break is set to begin.
After making the postseason last year and getting eliminated in the wild card round, the Orioles are set to make the 19th pick in the 2025 Draft. The Orioles also have bonus compensation picks set for 30th and 31st overall, which they received due to losing Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander in free agency after those players declined a qualifying offer from the O’s.
Who might the Orioles pick at that spot? Unless something really weird happens, we can certainly rule out that they will have the opportunity to draft Jackson Holliday’s brother Ethan, seen as a possible #1 overall pick and almost certain to be picked within the first five selections.
The past two years of mid-late first round picks have seen the Orioles take two different college outfielders, Enrique Bradfield Jr. of Vanderbilt and Vance Honeycutt of North Carolina. Multiple mock drafts think the O’s will dip into that talent pool for a third straight year, though with so much time to go, there’s no consensus about who will even fall to the Orioles, let alone who the team might take.
Here are some of the names to keep in mind for when the draft rolls around in about a month’s time.
Jace LaViolette – OF – Texas A&M
There are now two different mock drafts in this recent round that have put the Orioles on LaViolette. He’s the pick at Baseball America as well as ESPN. By some rankings, including ESPN’s, this would be a massive value for the Orioles at pick #19, as LaViolette is the 9th-ranked player in the draft class for that publication.
However, there is also a big issue with LaViolette, as flagged by BA. He has finished his college junior season with a batting line of .258/.427/.576. Going back to 1981, there have only been two college players selected in the first round who had a lower batting average than that. BA notes that the average college first rounder in the last 20 years is batting .358. Batting average is not the best measure of a player’s hitting ability, but when something is so extreme like that, the team had better be pretty sure they can fix whatever the problem is in pro ball.
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel writes that LaViolette does fit in the “power-and-patience types” who the Orioles have valued. Indeed, that’s who they took one year ago when they grabbed North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt. With how Honeycutt looks one year later, getting another player in that bucket doesn’t seem appealing to me, but Mike Elias might think taking a second whack at that piñata is the way to play it. There’s going to be risk involved no matter who the Orioles take at #19.
In the other mocks I’m looking at today, there’s one with LaViolette gone already at 15 and another where he lasts until 20.
Xavier Neyens – 3B – Mount Vernon (Wash.) HS
Keith Law at The Athletic connects the Orioles to this 6’4” lefty batter, writing that the Orioles are looking at “hitters … with an emphasis on guys with great batted-ball data.” This is pretty much what is said about the O’s every year. It’s what they do. Law says that Neyens “has some of the best power in the high school class and the data backs it up.” Big high school third baseman with power has some surface similarity to current Oriole Coby Mayo. How exciting a lefty Mayo-ish player is to Orioles fans may depend on how Mayo does in his extended big league audition over the next month.
It’s seen as possible (flagged specifically by BA) that Neyens could be a tough sign away from an Oregon State college commitment. The Orioles, if they like him, certainly could get some money thrown his way due to having picks #30 and #31 in this draft. They’ve got the fifth-highest draft pool of any team, which isn’t bad for a team that doesn’t get its first pick until 19th.
Outside of Law’s mock, Neyens stays available into the 20s, with the others seeing him drafted at 21, 24, and 25. This does not seem to be a player who could be floated down to those second and third O’s picks.
Kayson Cunningham – SS/2B – Johnson (Tex.) HS
This is the choice for MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis’s latest mock. That’s a good value proposition based on this publication’s ranking, as Cunningham is their #11 prospect in the class. Callis speculates the slide could be “due to the glut of shortstops.” Pipeline’s scouting report on Cunningham:
Cunningham has exceptional barrel control and rarely swings and misses. He has a mature approach, covers the entire strike zone and utilizes the whole field. Though he’s not physical, his bat speed and ability to repeatedly barrel balls should enable him to get to 15-20 homers per season. He has plus speed and plays with a lot of energy on the bases and in the field … Many scouts believe he’ll wind up moving to second base.
One note about Cunningham is that he is on the older side for a high school player as he will turn 19 years old next week. I wonder how much he’d be a fit for the Orioles as model-heavy teams (like the Orioles are assumed to be) generally don’t end up with players who are on the older side of a high school draft class.
In Law’s mock, Cunningham goes at 12 to the Rangers, but in these others, he lasts until 20 and 29.
Three of these four mocks, all except for Law, have extended their list of names far enough to at least cover the next two Orioles picks at 30 and 31. Names coming up there:
- OF Cam Cannarella – Clemson (mentioned twice)
- SS Alex Lodise – Florida State
- C Luke Stevenson – North Carolina
- OF Mason Neville – Oregon
- SS Dax Kilby – Newnan (Ga.) HS
The first three players the Orioles chose last year came from ACC schools. Not a one of them is doing well in 2025. Clemson, Florida State, and North Carolina all are in that conference, so I’d be nervous about seeing the O’s go heavy there again. Having said that, this would be a stupid reason for Elias to not draft players who the O’s front office believes have talent.
Since Cannarella’s name did come up twice, a little blurb on him from the BA mock:
Cannarella looked great in the ACC Tournament and finished the season strong. He’s a no-doubt center fielder and great athlete who should begin to get more active on the bases … This pick would be reminiscent of the 2023 Enrique Bradfield selection.
Last year, there were multiple mocks believing that the Orioles might actually take a pitcher with their first pick up to two days before the draft. It didn’t happen then, and none of these folks are currently thinking this year will be the year either. The player those mocks thought might break the streak was then-Iowa pitcher Brody Brecht, who’s currently on the IL with Colorado’s Low-A affiliate, where he’s walked 15 batters in 19.1 innings. Honeycutt may not turn out to be anything, but nobody would be feeling better about Brecht either.
Do you have a favorite player in this draft class who you’re hoping ends up as an Oriole? Or one who, from what you’ve read, you really hope they avoid? Let us know in the comments below.