Since Craig Breslow took over as chief baseball officer, the Red Sox have made improving the organization’s pitching depth a priority.
Sunday night, the Red Sox took another step forward in realizing that goal by bringing aboard three accomplished college pitchers, including one of the top arms in this year’s draft class.
The Red Sox selected Oklahoma right-hander Kyson Witherspoon with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. Witherspoon is the first pitcher taken by the Red Sox in the first round since Tanner Houck in 2017, and the highest drafted pitcher by the franchise since Jay Groome went No. 12 in 2016.
The 20-year-old righty immediately slots in as among the top young arms in the Red Sox system, and Witherspoon told reporters afterwards that he’d spoken to club officials during the draft combine and was excited to join the team.
“Our conversation during the combine was really good,” Witherspoon said. “The people that were in the room, the plan that they had set out for me, I think it was a program that will fit me really well.”
“Kyson is a guy we valued highly entering the draft, and we believe he is one of the top college arms in the class,” said Devin Pearson, director of amateur scouting for the Red Sox. “We think he fits in nicely with our development strengths and has the right makeup to pitch at Fenway park. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome him to Red Sox Nation.”
Based on pre-draft rankings, the Red Sox got a coup in landing Witherspoon.
Witherspoon ranked as the No. 7 prospect in Baseball America’s rankings and was No. 10 on MLB Pipeline’s list. He was the consensus top college right-hander available and enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past two seasons after transferring from Northwest Florida State Junior College to Oklahoma.
Coming off a strong sophomore year in which he posted a 3.71 ERA, Witherspoon broke out as a junior, striking out 124 batters in 95 innings while posting a 2.65 EA. He earned First Team All-American honors along with a litany of other awards, helping Oklahoma to a 38-22 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Standing at 6-foot-2, 206 pounds, Witherspoon boasts wipeout stuff, including an electric fastball that peaks at 99 mph.
“It’s one of the harder fastballs in the class, and he’s shown an impressive ability to maintain his velocity deep into starts and deep into the season,” Baseball America writes.
Witherspoon also has a mid-80s slider that occasionally gets into the low-90s along with a cutter, curveball and changeup, and MLB Pipeline noted that he’s made impressive strides commanding his arsenal as well.
“His athleticism and mechanics have translated into improved control and command this spring, and better location has made it easier for him to get hitters to chase outside of the strike zone,” reads his MLB Pipeline scouting report. “He has all of the ingredients to become a frontline starter.”
The draft kicked off in surprising fashion when the Washington Nationals selected 17-year-old infielder Eli Willits with the No. 1 overall pick out of Fort Cobb-Broxton High in Oklahoma. The Los Angeles Angels followed by taking UC Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner at No. 2, a huge reach compared to his No. 18 pre-draft ranking.
LSU left-hander Kade Anderson went No. 3 to the Seattle Mariners, Stillwater High (Oklahoma) star Ethan Holliday No. 4 to the Colorado Rockies and Tennessee left-hander Liam Doyle No. 5 to the St. Louis Cardinals. Holliday is the son of former Rockies great Matt Holliday and the younger brother of Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft.
Sox take Tennessee RHP at No. 33
The Red Sox continued to load up on pitching later in the evening, starting with University of Tennessee right-hander Marcus Phillips at No. 33 overall.
That pick, a Competitive Balance Round A selection, was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers in the Quinn Priester trade earlier this spring.
Like Witherspoon, Phillips is a hard-throwing right-hander who pitched a year of junior college before breaking out in the SEC. The South Dakota native stands at 6-foot-4, 246 pounds and after serving as a reliever on Tennessee’s national championship team in 2024 earned the team’s No. 2 starter job as a junior and helped lead the Volunteers to an NCAA Super Regional.
“Few college pitchers in this class can match his velocity and physicality,” writes MLB Pipeline. “Phillips can blow hitters away with a fastball that sits at 96-98 mph and touches 100, compensating for lackluster shape with deceptively low release height and plenty of carry and extension.”
This past season Phillips posted a 3.90 ERA with 98 strikeouts in 83 innings. He ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 61 draft prospect and was No. 67 on Baseball America’s list.
“Elite athlete up to 101 mph with some really interesting east-west characteristics from a unique slot,” Pearson said of Phillips.
The Red Sox took their first position player next, selecting Virginia infielder Henry Godbout at No. 75 overall with the compensatory selection acquired after losing Nick Pivetta in free agency.
The 6-foot-2 second baseman was a Second Team All-American as a sophomore after batting .372 with a 1.117 OPS, and this past spring followed that up with another strong showing as a junior, batting .309 with an .895 OPS. A terrific contact hitter, Godbout has walked (55) significantly more times than he’s struck out (39) over his last two college seasons.
“A guy that makes a ton of contact, super athletic and fits our development strengths in terms of being able to tap into more power,” Pearson said, noting that they’d been scouting Godbout since high school and saw a lot of him in college while looking at 2023 first-rounder and fellow Virginia alumnus Kyle Teel.
Boston’s final selection came in the third round at No. 87, with the Red Sox taking LSU right-hander Anthony Eyanson. The 20-year-old was listed higher on MLB Pipeline’s rankings than either Phillips or Godbout at No. 40 and is coming off a terrific junior season in which he struck out 152 batters in 108 innings while helping lead the Tigers to a national championship.
“To do it at a school like LSU where it’s a packed house every night you have to be tough and enjoy that craziness in the moment, I think you have to have players like that if you want to pitch at Fenway Park,” Pearson said, adding that having top flight experience in a power conference was something they liked out of all four of their Day 1 picks. “Being able to do that in the SEC just gives us additional comfort that those guys can handle Fenway and all that comes with it.”
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