Jim Callis at MLB Pipeline this week unveiled another mock draft, a little more than a week ahead of the 2025 MLB Draft, with the Dodgers picking both 40th and 41st overall on Sunday, July 13, the draft’s first night.
Local high school third baseman and outfielder Quentin Young was tabbed by Callis to go to the Dodgers at No. 40, which has been a common refrain in several mock drafts in the last few months. We wrote about Young back in March.
At 41st overall, Callis projected the Dodgers to take JB Middleton, a right-handed pitcher at Southern Mississippi.
The 6-foot right-hander went 10-1 with a 2.31 ERA in 16 starts this year, his junior season with the Eagles, with 122 strikeouts against 25 walks in 105⅓ innings in his first year in the rotation. Twenty nine of Middleton’s 32 appearances as a freshman and sophomore with Southern Mississippi came in relief.
That earned Middleton first-team All-American honors by Perfect Game and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, and a third-team All-American nod by Baseball America. Middleton also won the Ferriss Trophy, given annually to the top college player in the state of Mississippi.
Baseball America ranks Middleton as the 58th-best prospect in the draft, while MLB Pipeline rates Middleton as the 41st-best prospect.
From the MLB Pipeline write-up of the right-hander:
Middleton works with a versatile 93-95 mph fastball that tops out at 97, showing the ability to run and sink it toward the knees or carry it up at the letters. He gets plenty of swings and misses in the zone, elicits lots of chases and makes it nearly impossible to lift his heater in the air. His slider is even harder to hit, combining upper-80s velocity with two-plane depth, and he’ll morph it into a cutter at times.
The 2025 MLB Draft is a two-day affair in Atlanta, beginning on Sunday, July 13. The Dodgers’ bonus pool of $9.03 million is their second-largest in the 14 years of the current recommended-slotting system.
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