Though not officially the case, college baseball is in effect a farm system for Major League Baseball. While players can get drafted directly out of high school, and hundreds do each year, most of those drafted annually spent time at the collegiate level.
The 2024 MLB Draft saw the top eight picks come from college, with 26 of 39 first-round selections spending two or more years in college. Three of those have already made their big league debuts as pro franchises are more and more frequently looking to fast track top prospects who have developed prior to getting into the minors.
There will be no shortage of future pro talent at the College World Series, which begins Friday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. Last year’s series featured six future 1st round picks and countless more who got drafted and/or signed pro deals.
Watching the CWS for the great matchups and passion of the college game is plenty, but if you’re a diehard fan of an MLB team and curious to see who they might draft next month, these are the ones to watch for:
- LSU LHP Kade Anderson: Ranked as the 3rd-best prospect in the 2025 draft by MLB.com and 6th by Baseball America, Anderson is a draft-eligible sophomore—he turns 21 within a month of the July draft—who has blossomed into the best college pitcher in the country. He’s struck out 163 batters in 103 innings including 18 in two postseason starts.
- Oregon State SS Aiva Arquette: A consensus Top 10 pick, Arquette transferred from Washington last summer and has been a key to the Beavers’ return to the World Series. He’s hitting .354 with 18 home runs and 65 RBI.
- Arizona OF Brendan Summerhill: A broken hand sidelined him for a month midway through the season and then a hamstring led to more time away, impacting Summerhill’s stats. But those injuries haven’t sapped his plate discipline, with 36 walks and only 21 strikeouts in 197 times up.
- Arkansas SS Wehiwa Aloy: Aloy is the only one of three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award, given to college baseball’s top player, who is still playing. He’s hitting .348 with 20 homers and 64 RBI while committing just five errors in the field.
- Louisville RHP Patrick Forbes: At 14.6 strikeouts per nine innings, Forbes loves to mow down hitters. But he tends to take too many pitches to get the K, averaging less than five innings per start.
- Coastal Carolina C Caden Bodine: One of the top catching prospects in college, Bodine is a master at stealing strikes and also uses that knowledge of the zone to get on base at a .466 clip.
- Arkansas LHP Zach Root: The Razorbacks’ Friday night starter all season, Root carried over what he started at East Carolina and kicked it up a notch in Fayetteville with 119 strikeouts and one or fewer earned runs allowed in eight of 17 starts.
- Arkansas OF Charles Davalan: The model of a perfect leadoff man, Davalan has power (14 home runs) and speed (9 of 12 on stolen base attempts) but also more walks (34) than strikeouts (24).
- Arkansas RHP Gage Wood: A shoulder impingement kept him out almost eight weeks earlier in the season, but this one-time closer has shown he has starter stuff since coming back. He had 13 strikeouts in six innings in the regional final against Creighton.
- LSU RHP Anthony Eyanson: Two years at UC-San Diego laid the foundation for Eyanson to take a step up in competition in the SEC and he’s responded by going 11-2 with a 2.74 ERA and 142 strikeouts in 98.2 innings.
- LSU 2B Daniel Dickinson: Tolling in relatively anonymity at Utah Valley, Dickinson has become a star in Baton Rouge both with his bat (.312, 12 homers, 48 RBI) and glove (four errors in 63 starts).
- Oregon State OF Gavin Turley: The Beavers have produced a lot of great pro talent in recent years but none has more homers (52) and RBI (186) in three seasons.
