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.

Chicago Tribune

11-07-2025

Young High School in Chicago never has produced a first-round pick in the MLB draft. That could change Sunday if outfielder Brendan Summerhill is picked, as projected, after three seasons at Arizona.
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.