Nationals surprise at top of MLB draft with SS Eli Willits

ATLANTA — Major League Baseball’s 2025 draft began Sunday with two stunners: the Washington Nationals taking high school shortstop Ethan Willits with the No. 1 pick, and the Los Angeles Angels selecting UC Santa Barbara starting pitcher Tyler Bremner at No. 2.

The Nationals had been widely expected to take either Ethan Holliday, another high school infielder, or LSU left-hander Kade Anderson but went with Willits because they considered him “the best hitter in the draft and the best fielder in the draft,” interim general manager Mike DeBartolo told reporters on a video conference.

“It made this very easy for us.”

After the Angels chose Bremner, a 6-foot-2 right-hander with a plus changeup, it cleared the way for the Seattle Mariners to jump on Anderson, widely considered the best pitcher in this draft, with the No. 3 pick. The Mariners subsequently agreed to an $8.8 million signing bonus with Anderson, about $700,000 less than the slot value for the No. 3 pick, a source told ESPN, confirming a report by MLB.com.

The Colorado Rockies followed by taking Holliday, the son of one of the best players in their franchise’s history, at No. 4.

The first round of the draft was held at a small concert venue adjacent to Truist Park, site of Monday’s Home Run Derby and Tuesday’s All-Star Game. Fans filled the place, but no draftees were present — a function, largely, of some of the major agencies advising their clients not to attend, at the risk of surrendering leverage.

Tennessee left-hander Liam Doyle went to the St. Louis Cardinals at No. 5; right-hander Seth Hernandez, the Gatorade National Player of the Year while starring for Corona High School in California, went to the Pittsburgh Pirates at No. 6; and Oregon State shortstop Aiva Arquette went to the Miami Marlins at No. 7. The next three picks were high school shortstops, highlighting a major strength of this draft: JoJo Parker (eighth to the Toronto Blue Jays), Steele Hall (ninth to the Cincinnati Reds) and Billy Carlson (10th to the Chicago White Sox).

Willits, who doesn’t turn 18 until Dec. 9, led Fort Cobb-Broxton High School in Oklahoma to its third straight state title this past season and had previously committed to Oklahoma. A 6-foot-1 switch-hitter, Willits is hailed for his bat-to-ball skills and plate discipline and is considered a strong defensive shortstop. At 17 years and 216 days old, he is the youngest player taken No. 1 since the Mariners took Ken Griffey Jr. in 1987.

“He makes the routine plays about as easy as anybody you can see, much less a 17-year-old,” Nationals vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas said.

Willits is the son of ex-big leaguer Reggie Willits, who played six seasons with the Angels and also coached with the New York Yankees.

It was only a week ago that the Nationals fired general manager Mike Rizzo, who was in his 17th year atop baseball operations and had a big hand in selecting Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper the other times the team drafted No. 1 overall — in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Nationals manager Davey Martinez was also fired last week.

Willits has drawn comparisons to current Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe. He won’t hit for a lot of power, but he has the potential to routinely hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases at a premium position. Slot value for the No. 1 pick is a record $11,075,900 this year.

“I feel like I have good hittability and I’m going to take that to the next level,” Willits said when asked about his strengths. “And I feel like my power is up-and-coming, but I needed to get into an organization like the Nationals that can help develop that and take that to the next level.”

Bremner sits at 93 to 96 mph with his fastball, while also boasting a changeup and slider. He posted a 3.49 ERA with a Big West-leading 111 strikeouts in 77⅓ innings this season. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked him as the 18th-best prospect heading into the draft, behind six other pitchers, but other teams considered taking him much earlier in the draft. His selection came a month after his mother died of breast cancer.

“I know she’s out there watching, and in a weird way, I went to the Angels,” Bremner said. “It’s weird how life works, so, it’s a special moment.”

Anderson was named Most Outstanding Player at this year’s College World Series, winning both of his starts and posting a 0.56 ERA while leading the LSU Tigers to their second championship in three years. Prior to that, he led Division I with 180 strikeouts and 119 innings and was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, following in the success of former LSU star and 2023 No. 1 pick Paul scenes.

Holliday, the Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year, batted .611 with 19 homers, a 1.295 slugging percentage and a 2.038 OPS in his senior year at Stillwater High School in Oklahoma.

Holliday projects to play either shortstop or third base, and he’ll be doing it for the same organization that drafted his father, Matt, in the seventh round in 1998. Matt Holliday made three All-Star teams with the Rockies in the 2000s. His son is now the first top-five pick to be drafted by the same team his father played on. Ethan and Jackson Holliday (No. 1 to the Orioles in 2022) are the third set of brothers to go within the top 10, joining B.J. and Justin Upton and Dmitri and Delmon Young.

“I’m super thankful for this opportunity,” Ethan Holliday told ESPN. “The Rockies are an incredible organization with which my family is very familiar, so I’m super juiced.”

After the selection, Colorado posted a photo of Holliday as a child with the caption, “Meant to be.”

Meant to be 💜 pic.twitter.com/Ua1T5h3xT6

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) July 13, 2025

The top of this year’s draft was unusual for several reasons, outside of the top two picks. It marked the first time in 13 years that only one college hitter (Arquette) was selected within the top 10, one year after seven college hitters went in that range. Six of the first 10 in 2025 were high school players, the first time that had occurred since 2002. And when the Tampa Bay Rays chose Daniel Pierce 14th, it marked the ninth shortstop selected.

No outfielders were taken within the first 15 picks, marking only the third time that has happened. Hernandez and Carlson, meanwhile, became the first high school teammates ever to be selected in the top 10 in the same draft. In a few years, Hernandez, who had a .300/.371/.590 slash line in 33 games as a hitter and a 0.39 ERA in 53⅓ innings as a pitcher, could join a Pirates rotation alongside Skenes and Jared Jones.

“That was probably my first thought,” Hernandez told MLB Network shortly after being drafted. “Paul Skenes is unbelievable. I obviously know Jared Jones, so to be able to go through the process with them, be able to learn from those guys, is unbelievable.”

Florida State lefty Jamie Arnold was ranked fifth by McDaniel heading into the draft and fell to the Athletics at No. 11. Kyson Witherspoon, a right-hander from Oklahoma, was ranked 10th by ESPN and went to the Boston Red Sox with the No. 15 pick. The Chicago Cubsmeanwhile, took a flier on Ethan Conrad, the Wake Forest right fielder who was projected for the end of the first round, at best, after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery in March. He instead went 17th.

Left-handed shortstop Brady Ebel, son of Los Angeles Dodgers third-base coach Dino Ebel, was drafted 32nd by the Milwaukee Brewersmaking Corona the first high school with three players selected in the first round of a single draft. All told, 18 shortstops were selected in the first round — the most in draft history.

The first three rounds, representing the first 105 picks, took place Sunday. Rounds 4 to 20 will follow Monday.