Arizona once again avoided major losses via the NCAA transfer portal, retaining all its underclassmen starters from the team that returned to the College World Series. The Wildcats have since added several potential key transfers in hopes of carrying that momentum over to 2026.
Now comes the biggest—and most unavoidable—hurdle of the offseason, the 2025 MLB Draft.
Major League Baseball will hold its annual draft Sunday and Monday, with the first three rounds (105 picks, including compensatory ones) announced the first day and the remaining 17 rounds on Monday. All told, 615 high school, junior college and 4-year college players will be selected, and they’ll have until Aug. 1 to sign pro contracts.
Arizona is expected to see quite a few players, both current and future, get picked. The final Baseball America Top 500 rankings included six from the 2025 squad along with four members of last fall’s signing class. MLB.com’s Top 250 list has three current UA players and two prep signees.
The surefire draftees are outfielders Brendan Summerhill and Aaron Walton and shortstop Mason White. Summerhill is a consensus 1st round pick, with MLB projecting the Chicago-area native to go 17th overall to the Cubs and BA projecting 16th to the Minnesota Twins. Those picks both have a signing bonus “slot value” of more than $4.7 million.
Summerhill would be the 21st player in school history to go in the first round and fourth in the last six years. Chase Davis went 21st to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2023, Daniel Susac 19th to the Oakland Athletics in 2022 and Austin Wells 28th to the New York Yankees in 2020.
Walton and White could both go on Sunday, but more likely early on Monday, as could signees Jack Lafflam and Cameron Millar. Lafflam, a right-handed pitcher from Phoenix, is 104th in MLB’s draft rankings and Millar, an RHP from California, is No. 138.
Catcher Adonys Guzman and righties Collin McKinney and Casey Hintz are also in BA’s Top 500, while other Wildcats who could get picked include closer Tony Pluta and fellow relievers Hunter Alberini, Raul Garayzar, Garrett Hicks and Julian Tonghini. Tonghini is out of eligibility while the rest can return to the UA in 2026.
Prep signees Dylan Wood, a righty from California, and Phoenix-area outfielder Caleb Danzeisen also may get drafted. In those cases, like with Lafflam and Millar, it will come down to when they’re picked and what the clubs who choose them are willing to pay for a high school player.
Last year the UA avoided losing any signees to the pros, as lefty Mason Russell didn’t go until the 20th round (after informing teams of his lofty price to sign) while righty Smith Bailey went undrafted and ended up starting 18 games and earned Freshman All-American honors.
Day 1 of the 2025 MLB Draft begins Sunday at 3 p.m. PT, with coverage on ESPN and MLB Network, while Day 2 is Monday at 8:30 a.m. PT on MLB.com.