By the end of the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft, a couple of Polk County baseball players will see their dreams of professional baseball come to fruition.
The San Diego Padres selected former Bartow High School and Vanderbilt shortstop Jonathan Vastine in the 19th round (580th overall), while the Toronto Blue Jays nabbed former Webber International right-handed pitcher Noah Palmese in the 14th round (412th overall).
Vastine at Bartow in his senior season hit .418 with 33 hits, 5 home runs and 15 RBIs. As a pitcher who could throw 90 MPH in high school, he went 5-1 with 99 strikeouts, and for that, he was The Ledger’s Player of the Year in 2021.
He would go on to play at Vanderbilt where he would play exclusively at shortstop, and in his senior season he hit .270 with 9 stolen bases, 35 RBIs, 9 home runs, 53 hits and 44 runs scored.
Webber’s Palmese in his senior season went 3-0 with a 2.78 ERA and 65 strikeouts.
Other players who had an opportunity to be selected were Mulberry’s Nick Partridge (The Ledger’s 2024 Player of the Year), Santa Fe’s Marvin Montenegro (The Ledger’s 2025 Player of the Year) and Mulberry’s Dan Colon. But since they were not selected, Partridge will focus his talents at the University of Florida, while Montenegro and Colon will take their talents to Polk State College.
“I think Polk State does a great job at developing players and helping them get to the next level,” Colon said. “They have a long history of success and Coach (Al) Corbeil knows a lot of people in the baseball world, which is super helpful when being in the process of getting to the next level.
Partridge last season (2025) put up a .314 average with 37 hits, 16 RBIs and a home run. Montenegro racked up a .480 average with 27 RBIs, 40 hits and 5 home runs and Colon had a .418 average with 28 hits, 22 RBIs and two home runs in 2025.