Who could be next? Who are some names to know for the 2026 draft?
We start our annual college baseball coaches forum by asking our panel about the top talents in the game in 2025 and getting their thoughts on the best college baseball players they have ever seen. In Part 2, publishing Tuesday, the coaches share some recruiting memories. Who was the biggest recruiting find of their career? What about the one who got away? In Part 3, on Wednesday, we dive into some hot topics in college baseball — roster sizes and revenue sharing. And in Part 4, on Thursday, the coaches discuss NIL and the transfer portal.
Here are the coaches:
- Elliott Avent, NC State
- Willie Bloomquist, Arizona State
- Paul Mainieri, South Carolina
- Nick Mingione, Kentucky
- Billy O’Conner, Xavier
- Brian O’Connor, Virginia
- Kevin O’Sullivan, Florida
- Steve Sabins, West Virginia
- Brock Ungricht, San Diego
- Mark Wasikowski, Oregon
Who is your pick for the best position player in the country, not on your team, in 2025?
Bloomquist: (Nolan) Schubart at Oklahoma State. He has a chance to be pretty good. Good power hitter. He torched us a couple years ago. He’s got some juice in his bat.
Mainieri: I have to go with a player that I recruited to LSU, Jared Jones.
Mingione: It would be (Jace) LaViolette at Texas A&M for me. The power is just undeniable. He runs. He has arm strength. He has all the tools you’re looking for, and he’s done it in our league. That is hard to find.
Billy O’Conner: I’ll go with Cam Cannarella. We played him last year. He’s the kind of kid that’s fun to watch because he’s not the biggest kid, he’s not the most toolsy kid, but everything he does, he’s just a ball player, he’s a grinder. Is he going to be a No. 1 overall pick? Probably not. I know he’s going to be a draft guy for sure, (but) is he the guy that you look across from the dugout and say, like, “Oh my God, that looks like a big leaguer?” Not until he starts playing, and he just does everything right from a defensive standpoint, from a baserunning standpoint, from an offensive standpoint. He’s a fun one to watch for sure.
Brian O’Connor: I would say two. I would say Drew Burress at Georgia Tech. Last year as a freshman, he hit high .300s, had 25 home runs and (with all of those) extra-base hits, he had less than 40 strikeouts, and he’s an elite center fielder. He made a huge impression on me.
The other one would be, just watching him on TV, is Jace LaViolette from Texas A&M. Also, again, a center fielder, hits over .300, a ton of extra-base hits. A lot of people make a lot to do with the power, and we all know the value of power and the extra-base hits at every level of baseball, but then when you do it by playing center field and having low strikeout numbers, that is really impressive to me.
O’Sullivan: You’d have to go with Jace LaViolette. He’s big and physical and can play the middle of the field, center field, he’s got left-handed power. I can only compare it to the guys that we’ve had in the past, but he’s certainly as good as anybody we’ve had. And there’s still a bit more projection to him as well. And he’s gonna be surrounded by some really good players as well.
Sabins: I’ll go with (Nolan) Schubart from Oklahoma State.
Ungricht: I would probably have to go with the guy from A&M, Jace LaViolette.
Wasikowski: We saw the A&M crew (in the Super Regionals last season), and I know Jace (LaViolette) is a good hitter. He’s obviously really skilled and gifted. I really thought last year, the (Travis) Bazzana guy really had separated himself even before the season, in a freakish-type way. I think (the guys this year), all these guys are really good players, but I don’t know who’s really separated themselves as far as being like the guy, you know? I saw LaViolette, and I think he is really, really good. I think (Jared) Jones at LSU has got some really tremendous power.
I think on the West Coast, I think there’s a couple of kids at Arizona State. I think Kien Vu is an advanced, a really elite hitter that I wouldn’t sleep on. I know the West Coast doesn’t get a ton of play for awesome, awesome players, but that Vu kid is really, really good. And so I’d consider him and (Arizona State’s Brandon) Compton on the West Coast. I think ASU actually has two of the better hitters, and they’re both left-handed bats that are really kind of special.