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(Photo courtesy of Kaiden McCarthy)
High-ranking scouts across the industry will be scheduling trips this spring to a state they normally don’t visit much.
That’s because Vermont righthander Kaiden McCarthy—the No. 15 high school player in the 2027 class—is reclassifying to the 2026 class, Baseball America has learned. McCarthy, who attends Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vt., turns 18 in August, so he will be 17 on draft day and one of the youngest high school prospects for the 2026 draft.
A Tennessee commit, McCarthy is a 6-foot, 185-pound righthander whose athleticism helps him repeat a sound delivery and fill the strike zone. He pitches heavily off a fastball with good armside run that trended up throughout 2025, sitting in the low 90s for much of the summer before spiking to reach 97 mph in the fall. He complements his fastball with a changeup that has good sink and fade along with a slider that has good depth and solid tilt.
The 2026 high school class is already loaded—the best at this stage since 2023—and it’s especially deep with pitching. McCarthy joins a group of other former top 2027 players who have reclassified to become 2026 eligible within the past year. That cohort includes lefthander Logan Schmidt, catcher Will Brick and shortstop Rocco Maniscalco.
If McCarthy makes it to college, he will shift to a Tennessee recruiting class that ranks No. 3 in the country, a group that includes outfielder Trevor Condon, shortstop/righthander Cole Koeninger, righthanders Gary Morse, Gannon Grant, Tyler Putnam, Michael Teasley, Cade Allen and Shawn Sullivan, lefthander Drew Christine, first baseman Sean Dunlap and catcher Sean Dunlap, among others.
Even with McCarthy moving to the 2026 class, Tennessee’s 2027 recruiting class still remains one of the two best in the country with nine commits in the top 100 players.