
2025 MLB draft: White Sox pick at No. 10, the Cubs at No. 17. Here's what else to know about the 2-day event.
Summerhill is No. 16 in the MLB.com top 250 prospect rankings heading into the first-year player draft. While the Minnesota Twins have the No. 16 pick, anything can happen once the Washington Nationals start the selections.
The White Sox own the No. 10 pick, and the Cubs will pick at No. 17.
The Sox used the No. 10 pick in 1988 to select Robin Ventura, who had a 16-year career before managing the Sox from 2012-16.
Here's what else to know about the two-day draft and how recent Sox and Cubs draft picks have panned out.
The MLB draft once again coincides with All-Star Week. The event will take place at the Coca-Cola Roxy in The Battery Atlanta, which is adjacent to Truist Park. The draft features 20 rounds over two days.
The first three rounds — including the prospect promotion incentive, compensation and two competitive-balance rounds — will be held Sunday beginning at 5 p.m. ESPN and MLB Network will each broadcast the first 43 picks, then MLB Network will switch to a simulcast with MLB.com for the remainder of the selections through Round 3. Rounds 4-20 will be held Monday starting at 10:30 a.m. on MLB.com.
Sunday
Monday
The Cubs and White Sox each have 20 selections, one in each round. Neither team has incentive, compensatory or competitive-balance picks this year.
Given how the draft order shakes out, the White Sox will have the first pick of Round 2 and each subsequent round.
White Sox
Cubs
For the third year, MLB utilized a draft lottery to determine the selection order of the first six picks. The lottery was held during the winter meetings in December. The Nationals landed the No. 1 pick for the third time. They previously selected All-Stars Stephen Strasburg (2009) and Bryce Harper (2010) with the top selection.
The 2024 White Sox, who had the most losses (121) of any major-league club since 1900, were not eligible for the draft lottery because they had one of the top-six picks last year (No. 5) and are a team that pays into the revenue-sharing plan.
The New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees all had their first-round picks dropped 10 slots for exceeding a luxury-tax threshold.
Back for the third year are the prospect promotion incentive picks, which were part of the latest collective bargaining agreement and designed to discourage service-time manipulation. The Kansas City Royals pick at No. 28 after Bobby Witt Jr. finished in the top three of MVP voting last season.
MLB reported the total bonus pool for all 30 teams now tops $350 million and said the assigned pool values are up 4.8% over 2024. Last year's actual bonus spending — teams face penalties for exceeding their pools — broke a record at more than $374 million.
Based on the value of their draft-pick slots, the White Sox are looking at a bonus pool of $12,169,100 — a 16.6% decrease from 2024. The Cubs' pool is $9,636,800, a 1.6% decrease. Those decreases reflect lower draft-order positions from last year.
MLB Pipeline ranks the top 250 draft-eligible prospects, and atop the list is 18-year-old Ethan Holliday, son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday and brother of current Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday. Older brother Jackson was the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, and if Ethan follows, they would be the first brothers to be top selections.
Kade Anderson, a left-handed pitcher who recently helped lead LSU to a College World Series title, is listed as the No. 2 prospect. He is one of 11 college players in the top 20, down from 15 last year.
A storyline to watch: The Witherspoon twins, a pair of right-handers who played for Oklahoma, have seen their draft stock flip in the last few years. Coming out of their Florida high school, Malachi Witherspoon was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks but chose not to sign. Brother Kyson went undrafted in 2022 but is projected as a top-10 pick this year. Malachi is listed at No. 121.
In recent years, the White Sox have alternated between a pitcher and shortstop in the first round. If that pattern holds, it's the year for a shortstop, and they could choose Mississippi high schooler JoJo Parker or Alabama high schooler Steele Hall at No. 10. If he's still on the board, California high schooler Billy Carlson once was projected as a two-way player at pitcher and shortstop.
Only once in the last 13 years have the Cubs selected a high school player in the first round: Mount Carmel's Ed Howard in 2020. Presuming that trend holds, the college talent projected to be on the board at No. 17 includes Arkansas shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, right-hander Tyler Bremner from UC Santa Barbara and outfielder Jace LaViolette from Texas A&M. Gavin Kilen, an outfielder out of Tennessee who hails from Milton, Wis., also could attract the Cubs' attention.
MLB.com's mock draft from July 3 has the White Sox taking Parker and the Cubs looking at Aloy, Kilen or local product Summerhill.
Unlike 2024, when York's Ryan Sloan was projected in the top 20 and went to the Seattle Mariners at No. 55 with a large over-slot bonus of $3 million, there are no 2025 graduates of Chicago-area high schools ranked in MLB Pipeline's top 40.
This year's list does feature six Illinois high school players — up from two last year — and two college players who attended Chicago high schools. All eight players were invited to the MLB draft combine in June, and seven participated; Summerhill was busy with the Wildcats at the College World Series.
16. Summerhill is a 6-foot-3 outfielder who set program records at Young before slashing .323/.424/.535 with a .978 fielding percentage in three seasons with the Wildcats. A perennial powerhouse, Arizona went to the postseason each year Summerhill was there and won the Big 12 title this year. He was also a 2024 all-star in the Cape Cod League.
His brother Colin, a Loyola Academy alumnus, went undrafted out of Northern Illinois in 2024 but signed with the Los Angeles Angels and is playing for the Inland Empire 76ers in the Class A California League.
44. Jack Bauer is a 6-foot-3 left-hander from Lincoln-Way East who wears No. 24, a nod to the television show based on a character with his same name. He had a major uptick in his velocity this season, but control is a challenge. Originally looking at Virginia, he followed coach Brian O'Connor to Mississippi State.
57. Jaden Fauske from Nazareth was the 2025 Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year. A left-handed hitter who can play outfield and catcher, he hit .461 and stole 29 bases as a senior. He also won two Class 5A football titles. Fauske is committed to reigning national champion LSU.
58. Cameron Appenzeller is a 6-foot-6 left-hander from Chatham Glenwood who is committed to Tennessee. He could become the most recent Illinois high school pitcher to sign for first-round bonus money, joining the likes of Sloan and White Sox 2022 pick Noah Schultz.
100. Ethan Moore is a switch-hitting middle infielder from Oak Park-River Forest. He caught the attention of scouts who showed up to watch other players. At last summer's Area Code Games, he hit .357 with no strikeouts in 16 plate appearances. Moore originally committed to Louisville but switched in the fall to Tennessee.
129. Brandon Shannon is a 6-foot-4 right-hander who helped McHenry to the Class 4A title game with a dominant semifinal performance. The Louisville commit has a fastball that sits mid-90s.
215. Sean Episcope pitched for Princeton following his prep career at the Latin School. The right-hander has had two major elbow surgeries and has seen limited playing time as a result. But he struck out 70 in 64 innings of starting work for the Tigers across two seasons.
221. Conor Essenburg of Lincoln-Way West was named the Daily Southtown player of the year after he batted .464 with 10 home runs and 19 stolen bases — and went 5-0 with a 0.94 ERA and a whopping 94 strikeouts in 44 2/3 innings. He's 6-foot-2, bats right, pitches left and is committed to Kentucky.
Two Cubs first-round picks made their major-league debuts this season: Matt Shaw (2023) and Cade Horton (2022). Shaw broke camp with the team and made his debut in Japan during the Tokyo Series. Horton made his debut in May and has started 10 games.
Horton recently faced 2024 Cubs first-round pick Cam Smith — who is with the Houston Astros, a key piece in the offseason trade that brought Kyle Tucker to Chicago. Smith hit a three-run home run off Horton.
Owen Caissie, acquired in the December 2020 Yu Darvish trade, is representing the Cubs at the MLB All-Star Futures Game on Saturday.
Howard, the Cubs' pick at No. 16 in the truncated 2020 draft, spent most of the 2024 season at Class A South Bend but was sent up in September for 10 games at Triple-A Iowa. He started the 2025 season with Double-A Knoxville but went on the injured list in late April.
Last year's White Sox first-round pick, Hagen Smith, has started 10 games for Double-A Birmingham and has a 2.91 ERA. His Barons teammate and 2023 first-rounder Jacob Gonzalez is slashing .247/.316/.696 with five home runs.
Colson Montgomery, a 2021 first-round pick, made his major-league debut July 4, following 2023 second-rounder Grant Taylor's June 10 debut. They could be joined this season by Schultz, an Oswego East alumnus who is rated as the organization's top prospect by MLB Pipeline.
Schultz and Braden Montgomery (acquired via trade) will represent the White Sox in the Futures Game.
Three of the White Sox's later-round picks from 2022 have spent time on the big-league roster this season: Jonathan Cannon (Round 3), Tim Elko (Round 10) and Brooks Baldwin (Round 12).
The Sox have twice had the No. 10 pick, selecting Ventura in 1988 and Zack Collins in 2016. It will be the club's 22nd top-10 pick.
The Cubs have had the No. 17 pick twice, selecting Tony Woods in 1982 and Todd Noel in 1996. Neither player reached the major leagues.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Los Angeles Times
26 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Freddie Freeman's walk-off hit saves the day, lifts Dodgers to win over Twins
Remember when the Dodgers injury-riddled rotation was the problem? That's so last month. The issue now is the bullpen. Over the last four weeks the team's bullpen ERA has ballooned to 4.44. Only six teams in the majors entered Wednesday with a higher mark. Freddie Freeman saved the Dodgers from another painful bullpen implosion Wednesday, lining a two-out, two-run single to left field in the ninth inning, giving the team a 4-3 walk-off win over the Minnesota Twins in a getaway day matinee at Dodger Stadium. An inning earlier Kirby Yates had given up two runs and an eighth-inning lead without recording an out. That wasted a season-best effort from right-hander Tyler Glasnow, who held the Twins a run on three hits, striking out 12 batters, over seven innings. In each of his three starts since coming of the injured list, Glasnow has gone at least five innings and allowed fewer than two runs. His ERA in that span is 1.00. Glasnow left with a 2-1 lead but that was gone four batters later, with Yates walking the bases loaded, missing the plate on 12 of his 18 pitches. Alex Vesia came on to get Willi Castro to hit into a double play, but that allowed the tying run to score. Pinch-hitter Harrison Bader then untied it with a poorly-hit ball that got over the leaping Vesia before landing on the infield grass as Brooks Lee raced home from third. The Dodgers were down to their last out in the ninth when Mookie Betts beat out an infield single. Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked and Esteury Ruiz followed with a walk of his own, bringing up Freeman, who two called strikes before slicing a line drive just in front of diving Bader in left to give the Dodgers their second win in six games since the All-Star Break. Freeman's heroics does nothing to heal the Dodgers were they are hurting most though, and that's pitching. After losing three of his projected five starters in the season's first two months, manager Dave Roberts has had to use everything short of masking tape and bailing wire to keep a rotation together. As a result, the Dodgers have used 16 starters this season and 37 pitchers overall. And that makeshift rotation may be to blame for the bullpen troubles. Dodger starters have thrown a big-league low 467 3/2 innings this season, averaging less than five innings a start, while their exhausted relievers have pitched a major-league leading 452 2/3 innings. The rotation is getting healthier now that Glasnow, who has missed most of the season with an inflamed shoulder, could soon be rejoined in the rotation by two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, The left-hander, out since April 2 with shoulder inflammation, is scheduled to make his final minor-league rehab start Saturday. Ohtani gave Glasnow an early lead Wednesday with a solo home run in the first inning. It was his fifth straight game with a home run, a career high that equaled the franchise record and it gave 37 for the season. The run was his 96th of the year, best in the majors. Royce Lewis got that run back for the Twins in the third, leading off with his fifth home run of the season just inside the left-field foul pole. It stayed way until the seventh, when Tommy Edman looped a single over a drawn-in infield, putting to the Dodgers back in front. Roberts isn't ready to blame the bullpen's recent struggles entirely on the heavy workload. But he's not excusing it either. 'That's how the season goes,' he said. 'It's easy to look at that in totality. I do know that we're what we're dealing with we have to kind of weather it.' In the last two days, the Dodgers have seen left-hander reliever Tanner Scott go on the injured list with elbow inflammation and watched right-hander Ben Casparius limp off the mound with a right calf cramp, joining 11 pitchers already on the sidelines. Casparius underwent an MRI exam, which was negative, and he is expected to be available during the team's nine-game road trip, which begins Friday in Boston. But Casparius admitted Wednesday that the bullpen's recent struggles led him to try to pitch through the soreness, likely making the injury worse. 'Going through the back of my mind [was] kind of gutting it out,' he said. 'I think you can look at it a bunch of different ways, but I'm not necessarily sure I put the team the best spot.' Casparius said the pitchers in Dodger bullpen, who haven't had a scoreless game since July 3, have struggled collectively and will have to work collectively to get back on track. 'Momentum is everything,' he said. 'We're kind of going through our tough patch right now and hopefully it's the worst it's going to be. We've got some guys coming back. Maybe getting on the road and being uncomfortable might help us out a little bit in a weird way too. 'It's a tough part of the year. Everybody around the league is going through this type of stuff. I think we're going to turn a corner.' Notes: Reliever Blake Treinen was scheduled to make back-to-back appearances for Triple A Oklahoma City on Wednesday and Thursday and if things go well, he could rejoin the Dodgers on the road trip. Treinen went on the injured list April 19 with forearm tightness. ... Third baseman Max Muncy is scheduled to face live pitching at the Dodgers' Arizona complex on Thursday and could begin a minor-league rehab assignment next week, far sooner than expected. Muncy was the Dodgers' hottest hitter when he sustained a bone bruise in his left knee three weeks ago. It was anticipated he would miss a month and half.


Fox Sports
26 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
A zero for the Rockies snaps record 220-game streak since last shutout win
Associated Press DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Rockies ended a dubious streak by recording a zero. Rookie right-hander Tanner Gordon pitched six innings and the Rockies beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-0 on Wednesday for their first shutout since May 15, 2024, ending a record streak of 220 games since they last kept an opponent from scoring. 'I did not know that. ... That's a long time without a shutout,' Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. 'But I'm glad we shut them out today. That was good behind Gordon. Gordon did a fantastic job.' Colorado is the only major league team since at least 1901 to go more than 200 games without a shutout victory, according to Stathead and Baseball Reference. The last shutout for the Rockies had been 8-0 at San Diego in their only one last season. Their previous one at home was 2-0 over the Athletics on July 30, 2023. Gordon (2-2) scattered four hits while striking out three and walking three to become the first Rockies rookie since Kyle Freeman in 2017 to pitch at least six scoreless innings in a game at Coors Field. Freeman did it twice that season, with one-hit ball over 8 1/3 innings of a 10-0 win over the Chicago White Sox on July 9, after going seven innings in an 8-0 victory over San Francisco on April 23. The Rockies (26-76) have won consecutive series for the first time this season, taking two of three games from the Cardinals after coming out of the All-Star break by winning two of three against Minnesota last weekend. 'Extremely important,' Colorado catcher Austin Nola said. 'One game at a time. And I think that's the biggest thing, is sticking to the plan, being in the present. And then at the end of the day we're going to come out on top.' Last month, Colorado ended an MLB-record streak of 22 consecutive series losses, dating to last year, with a 3-2 victory at Miami. ___ AP MLB: recommended Item 1 of 3


Fox Sports
26 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Lamar Jackson declines to comment on the arbitration case that stemmed in part from his free agency
Associated Press OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Lamar Jackson wasn't at all interested in discussing the arbitration case that's helped cause so much upheaval within the NFL Players Association. In January, arbitrator Christopher Droney ruled there wasn't sufficient evidence of collusion by owners in contract negotiations with quarterbacks after the Cleveland Browns gave QB Deshaun Watson a record $230 million fully guaranteed contract back in 2022. The union is appealing. Jackson's free agency a couple of years ago was a big part of that case. The Ravens gave him the non-exclusive franchise tag, meaning he had a chance to negotiate with other teams, but he ultimately signed a five-year deal with Baltimore. The 'Pablo Torre Finds Out' podcast first published the arbitrator's decision. When asked about the case Wednesday after practice, Jackson changed the subject. 'I'm focused on football right now. I'm not worried about that right now," Jackson said. "That happened. It is what it is. I'm focused on this right now.' The revelation that the NFLPA and the league had a confidentiality agreement to keep the arbitrator's ruling quiet has led to turmoil within the union. Lloyd Howell resigned as executive director of the NFLPA. Jackson wouldn't comment on what's happening within the NFLPA either, although it's obviously a significant topic around the league. 'Yeah, it's been kind of a mess. We've been meeting about it the past couple days, long meetings. That's also something that's been hanging over my head, too,' said tackle Zach Tom, player rep for the Green Bay Packers. 'I think it's an unfortunate situation. I'm really not sure how much I can say. I'll just leave it at that.' Watson received his deal in 2022, a year before Jackson had a limited chance to test the market. 'While the NFL Management Council encouraged the 32 member clubs of the NFL to reduce guarantees in future contracts with players at the March 2022 annual meeting of the club owners, the clubs did not join in such a collusive agreement and did not act in accordance with one as to the three quarterbacks named (Jackson, Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray) in the initial arbitration demand or to other veteran players,' the arbitrator's decision said. In the two seasons since, Jackson has finished first and second in the MVP vote, and the question now is whether he and the Ravens can agree on an extension beyond the three years left on his deal. Jackson certainly indicated that he's moved on from the 2023 negotiations, but that appears to have been a turning point after Watson's deal, and one that has continued to impact what quarterbacks can expect to be offered. 'I'm all for the players and I'm all for guys getting what they deserve," Las Vegas quarterback Geno Smith said. "Whenever a guy like Lamar — two-time MVP, perennial Pro Bowler — a lot of these other guys who are doing a great job, when there's a chance for them to really just get what they deserve, I think it's warranted. ... When you work hard and you earn something, you kind of just want your just due.' ___ AP Sports Writers Mark Anderson and Steve Megargee contributed to this report. ___ AP NFL: recommended Item 1 of 3